r applied to the banker's for assistance. Newton, as soon as his father
was settled, and his own affairs arranged, called upon his uncle previous
to his embarkation. Old Forster gave a satisfactory "Humph!" to his
communication; and Newton, who had tact enough to make his visit short,
received a cordial shake of the hand when he quitted the room.

Chapter XXXI

"Poor, short-lived things! what plans we lay!
Ah! why forsake our native home,
To distant climates speed away,
For self sticks close, where'er we roam.

"Care follows hard, and soon o'ertakes
The well-rigg'd ship; the warlike steed
Her destin'd quarry ne'er forsakes:
Nor the wind flees with half the speed."

COWPER.

Newton, who had made every preparation, as soon as he had taken leave of
his uncle, hastened to join his ship, which still remained at Gravesend,
waiting for the despatches to be closed by the twenty-four leaden heads
presiding at Leadenhall Street. The passengers, with the exception of two,
a Scotch Presbyterian divine and his wife, were still on shore, divided
amongst the inns of the town, unwilling until the last moment to quit
_terra firma_ for so many months of sky and water, daily receiving a visit
from the captain of the ship, who paid his respects to them all round,
imparting any little intelligence he might have received as to the probable
time of his departure.

When Newton arrived on board, he was received by the first mate, a rough,
good-humoured, and intelligent man, about forty years of age, to whom he
had already been introduced by the captain on his previous appearance with
the letter from the director.

"Well, Mr Forster, you're in very good time. As in all probability we shall
be shipmates for a voyage or two, I trust that we shall be good friends.
Now for your _traps_:" then, turning round, he addressed, in the
Hindostanee language, two or three Lascars (fine, olive-coloured men, with
black curling bushy hair), who immediately proceeded to hoist in the
luggage.

The first mate, with an "excuse me a moment," went forward to give some
directions to the English seamen, leaving Forster to look about him. What
he observed, we shall describe for the benefit of our readers.

The Indiaman was a twelve-hundred-ton ship, as large as one of the small
class seventy-four in the king's service, strongly built, with lofty
bulwarks, and pierced on the upper deck for eighteen guns, which were
mounte