take them higher. If I had
my life over again--and it is my advice to all young men of ability and
ambition--I would leave the old country and settle in America or in one
of the great colonies. There, where the conditions are more elastic and
the competition is not so cruel, a hard-working man of talent does not
need to be endowed with fortune to enable him to rise to the top of the
tree.

Well, my desire was to be accomplished, for as it chanced a younger
brother of my father, who during his lifetime had never taken any notice
of me, died and left me 750 pounds. Seven hundred and fifty pounds! To
me at that time it was colossal wealth, for it enabled us to rent
some rooms in London, where I entered myself as a medical student at
University College.

There is no need for me to dwell upon my college career, but if any one
were to take the trouble to consult the old records he would find that
it was sufficiently brilliant. I worked hard, and I had a natural,
perhaps an hereditary liking, for the work. Medicine always fascinated
me. I think it the greatest of the sciences, and from the beginning I
was determined that I would be among the greatest of its masters.

At four and twenty, having finished my curriculum with high honours--I
was gold medallist of my year in both medicine and surgery--I became
house-surgeon to one of the London hospitals. After my term of office
was over I remained at the hospital for another year, for I wished
to make a practical study of my profession in all its branches before
starting a private practice. At the end of this time my mother died
while still comparatively young. She had never really recovered from the
loss of my father, and, though it was long about it, sorrow sapped her
strength at last. Her loss was a shock to me, although in fact we had
few tastes in common. To divert my mind, and also because I was somewhat
run down and really needed a change, I asked a friend of mine who was a
director of a great steamship line running to the West Indies and Mexico
to give me a trip out, offering my medicine services in return for the
passage. This he agreed to do with pleasure; moreover, matters were so
arranged that I could stop in Mexico for three months and rejoin the
vessel on her next homeward trip.

After a very pleasant voyage I reached Vera Cruz. It is a quaint and in
some ways a pretty place, with its tall cool-looking houses and narrow
streets, not unlike Funchal, only more tropi