t jumped into the boat and came on board. The captain
appeared to feel he had done wrong in placing confidence in people who
were strangers to him. After cruising on the north side of St. Domingo
without capturing anything, we returned to the mole. Our worthy,
hasty-tempered skipper was taken unwell about a month after our arrival,
and took apartments on shore, where he in a fortnight afterwards died.

The captain who stepped into his shoes was a dark, tolerably well-built,
good-looking man, who had a very good opinion of himself, and by his
frequently looking at his legs, imagined there was not such another pair
in the West Indies. This gallant officer proved the quintessence of
gallantry. He loved the ladies, loved a good table, loved the games of
crabs and _rouge-et-noir_, was a judge of hock and champagne. He had seen
much of high and low life, had experienced reverses, he said, through the
imprudence of others, and had been detained in a large house in London
much longer than he wished. He had run through two handsome fortunes, and
was willing to run through two more. He had the misfortune, he told us, of
being a slave to the pleasures of the world, although he knew it was
filled with rogues. Whilst I was with him his memory was rather impaired,
for he forgot to repay several sums of money he borrowed, although he was
frequently written to on the subject. In short, he was a libertine, liked
but by no means respected. He brought with him six mids and his clerk. The
first were complete scamps, picked up from the scrapings of London; the
last was a fine young man. Our martinet mastheading first lieutenant, who
had outlived all the others save one, was promoted as commander into a
sloop of war, in which he died a few months after of apoplexy in
consequence of repletion. The only one remaining of those who sailed from
England with me was a few months afterwards also promoted as commander
into a brig sloop, and he, poor fellow! was drowned on his second cruise.
The six lieutenants who came from England were now no longer living, and
out of eighteen midshipmen only another and myself were in existence. The
lieutenants who had superseded those who died were rather commonplace
characters. The discipline of the ship was totally changed. The first
lieutenant was a disappointed officer and a complete old woman, and the
ship was something of a privateer.

CHAPTER VI.