. I am getting sharpened,
that I may be used to advantage," was his remark.

On my return home from my third voyage, he had gone to the Pacific.
Where he was to be stationed was not known. He had not gone alone, for
he had taken a wife to support and solace him. I had never seen her;
but I was told that her heart was bound up with his in the work in which
he was engaged.

Having now become a fair seaman, I determined to seek a berth as a mate.
An old shipmate and friend had just got command of a fine ship bound
round Cape Horn; and though I had had no previous intention of going to
the Pacific, I was glad to ship with him as third officer. My sisters
had copied out our uncle's journal for John; they now kindly performed
the same task for me. My ship was the _Golden Crown_ a South-sea
whaler, and Mr Richard Buxton was master, belonging to Liverpool.
Things had changed greatly since the days of my uncle John. We had a
definite object: no supercargo was required, and every spot we were
likely to visit was well known, and mapped down in the charts. We had
several passengers--two missionaries and their wives, newly married. I
thought them inferior to John; but they were good men, humble too, with
their hearts in the work. We had also another gentleman, a merchant or
speculator of some sort. What he was going to do I could never make
out. His heart was in his business, and he seemed to consider it of
greater importance than anything else. This made him look down with
undisguised contempt on the missionaries and their work, nor could he
comprehend their objects. "If people want to go to church, let them,"
he more than once remarked: "but I don't see why you two should be
gadding about the world to teach savages, who would know nothing about
chapels, nor wish to build them, if you would let them alone, and stay
quietly at home and mind a shop, or some other useful business."

The missionaries seldom answered his remarks. They continued
perseveringly studying the language of the natives among whom they were
to labour, and prayed with and expounded the Scriptures to all on board
who would join them. I am writing an account of certain events, and not
a journal, so I must suppose the Horn rounded, Chili visited, and
Raratonga, where we were to land the missionaries, reached. This was
the island whose very position was unknown when my uncle visited those
seas, and for long afterwards lay sunk in heathen darkness.