during which he was so fortunate as to make the
acquaintance of Miss Mar, who five years after, when his wanderings had
ceased, became his wife. On the completion of the job on which he had
been employed, our engineer prepared to make another change. Work was
difficult to be had in the North, and, joined by a comrade, he resolved
to try his fortune in London. Adopting the cheapest route, he took
passage by a Shields collier, in which he sailed for the Thames on the
11th of December, 1811. It was then war-time, and the vessel was very
short-handed, the crew consisting only of three old men and three boys,
with the skipper and mate; so that the vessel was no sooner fairly at
sea than both the passenger youths had to lend a hand in working her,
and this continued for the greater part of the voyage. The weather was
very rough, and in consequence of the captain's anxiety to avoid
privateers he hugged the shore too close, and when navigating the
inside passage of the Swin, between Yarmouth and the Nore, the vessel
very narrowly escaped shipwreck. After beating about along shore, the
captain half drunk the greater part of the time, the vessel at last
reached the Thames with loss of spars and an anchor, after a tedious
voyage of fourteen days.

On arriving off Blackwall the captain went ashore ostensibly in search
of the Coal Exchange, taking our young engineer with him. The former
was still under the influence of drink; and though he failed to reach
the Exchange that night, he succeeded in reaching a public house in
Wapping, beyond which he could not be got. At ten o'clock the two
started on their return to the ship; but the captain took the
opportunity of the darkness to separate from his companion, and did not
reach the ship until next morning. It afterwards came out that he had
been taken up and lodged in the watch-house. The youth, left alone in
the streets of the strange city, felt himself in an awkward dilemma.
He asked the next watchman he met to recommend him to a lodging, on
which the man took him to a house in New Gravel Lane, where he
succeeded in finding accommodation. What was his horror next morning
to learn that a whole family--the Williamsons--had been murdered in the
very next house during the night! Making the best of his way back to
the ship, he found that his comrade, who had suffered dreadfully from
sea-sickness during the voyage, had nearly recovered, and was able to
accompany him into the Cit