went out in search of
employment, which we soon found, and we continued chiefly taking vessels
up to Portsmouth and down to Plymouth, or clear of soundings, for some
time. During this time my practice at the lead was incessant, and I
became very perfect. When I was not at the lead Bramble would make me
stand at the binnacle and watch the compass, so that, by the time we
arrived at Deal again, I was pretty competent in those two branches of
my art, except that, having practiced the lead mostly in deep water, I
had not acquired accuracy and expedition in giving the soundings. But I
learned a great deal more of my profession; Bramble explaining to me the
sails, rigging, and names and uses of the ropes, and the various
maneuvers practiced, all of which he would catechise me in afterward, to
ascertain if I was perfect, and had remembered what he told me. I was,
therefore, under excellent tuition. Whatever port we entered Bramble
would point out the landmarks to me, state the distances from point to
point, and the dangers to be avoided. These I could not so well retain
perfectly, and required occasional reminding, but altogether I gave him
satisfaction. It was on New Year's Day, 1800, that we boarded a large
homeward-bound Indiaman, which had just struck soundings. She was a
thousand-ton ship, with a rich cargo of tea on board, and full of
passengers, besides more than one hundred invalids from the regiments
out there, who had been sent home under the charge of two officers.

What a difference there appeared to me to be between the Indiaman going
out and this one coming home! the first so neat and clean in her decks,
and this so crowded and so weatherworn by her long voyage. What with
troops in old jackets, which had once been scarlet, Lascars with their
curly black hair, and dark handsome features, yellow men, sickly women,
and half-caste children, with their Hindoo ayahs, tigers, lions,
turtles, cows, sheep, goats, and pigs, on the booms and main deck, the
vessel was in a strange motley of confusion.

As soon as we were put on board, the captain, officers, and passengers
crowded round to inquire the news. Bramble, according to pilot custom,
had brought off one or two late Plymouth papers (one of which, I
recollect, gave the account of the cutting out of the "Hermione" by
Captain Hamilton); but the people on board were eight months behindhand
at least as regarded what had passed. They had not even heard of Sir
Sydney Smith