gether fled. He received me kindly and frankly, and
seemed much pleased at my coming so far to see him. He desired to hear
all about me, and was greatly moved at the account I gave him of the
_Rainbow's_ loss. He was sorry to find that all the time I had been at
sea I had not improved my condition in the world. I confessed that it
was owing to my idleness and unwillingness to learn.

"Ah, I have learned many a lesson I did not know in my youth, from this
book here, Jack," said he, pointing to the book by his side, which was
the Bible. "I now know in whom to trust; and had I known Him in the
days of my youth, how much grief and shame I might have avoided!
Mercifully, God has by His grace taught me to see my own errors; and I
have endeavoured to remedy them as far as I have been able, in the way I
have brought up my son. I have taught him what I learned from this
book: `Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth.'"

I was very much struck by the way my old captain, I may say the once
pirate, spoke; and I afterwards learned that he had not failed to instil
into his son the better principles he had imbibed. Still I am bound to
say that he was an exception to the general rule; for, as far as my
experience goes, men who grow careless of their duty to God and
indifferent to religion, continue through life increasing in hardness of
heart and conscience, without a thought of the past or a fear for the
future--truly, living as if they had no souls to care for, as if there
were no God who rules the world. Dreadful is their end! Therefore I
say to all my readers: Never put off for a single hour--for a single
minute--repentance and a diligent searching for newness of life. You
know not what an hour, what a minute may bring forth. You may be
suddenly summoned to die, and there may be no time for repentance.

Among other questions, Captain Helfrich kindly inquired for my old
friend Peter Poplar. How ashamed I felt of my own ingratitude, my
heartlessness, when I could not tell him! No one I had met could tell
me whether he still survived, or whether he had fallen among the
thousands of brave men who had died that England might be free. I
promised to make further inquiries before I sailed, and, should I fail
to hear of him, to set out on my return from my proposed voyage with the
express purpose of discovering him.

That visit to my old captain is one of the few things performed of my
own accord on which I can look b