the right and left before they
attempt crossing a street. Every year numbers of people are drowned in
consequence of bathing in dangerous places, or entering the water alone
when they do not know how to swim. When we read of the accidents that
annually occur in England we can see that a very large number are due to
want of caution or insufficient observation. Living as I had done in a
country where one's life may depend on the caution with which even your
foot is placed on the ground (for a snake may be there, and treading on
this would be death) makes one old in caution and thoughtfulness though
young in years.

The four months that I lived with Mr Rossmar taught me much. I was
quite at home in society, both with the ladies and gentlemen. I had
learned to speak Dutch fairly--for nearly all the servants were Dutch--
but was ignorant of accounts, and of Latin and Greek, and consequently
would have been considered a dunce in most English schools. Yet I knew
more than most youngsters in matters of practical utility.

Cape Town in those days was the high road to India. Nearly all the
large East Indian merchant ships used to stop at Cape Town, and the
English letters used to be brought by these. It was a few days beyond
four months after my arrival at the Cape, that a ship arrived and
brought letters from my uncle in England, both to me, and to Mr
Rossmar. The letter to me was very kind. My uncle said that I had been
given up for lost, as nothing had been heard of our ship for so many
years; but that if I decided, and my father wished, that I should go to
England to him, he would be very glad to see me, and he thought it would
be the best thing I could do. He said I should be quite a hero in
England, as the English papers had copied from the Cape papers the
account of my escape from shipwreck, and life in the wilderness; but
that he thought I should have to work hard for a year or two at various
studies, in order to be equal with other young men in my position in
life. I found that my uncle had written to Mr Rossmar, thanking him
for his kindness to me, and sending bills for five hundred pounds, for
my use in providing an outfit, paying for my passage home, and any other
things that I might require. It was thought advisable that I should not
leave the Cape until letters reached me from my father in India; and I
must acknowledge that I did not like the idea of leaving my present
comfortable quarters. I had bec