a ship, called the Schuylkill, on board which I shipped as
second-mate, while Marble and Neb took the berths of foremast Jacks. No
one questioned us as to the past, and we had decided among ourselves, to
do our duty and keep mum. We used our own names, and that was the extent
of our communication on the subject of our true characters.

I found it a little hard to descend so much on the ladder of life, but an
early and capital training enabled me to act Dicky over again, with some
credit; and, before the ship went to sea, our chief mate was discharged
for drunkenness, and I got a lift. Marble was put in my place, and from
that time, for the next five months, things went on smoothly enough; I say
five months, for, instead of sailing for home direct, the ship went to
Spain, within the Straits, for a cargo of barilla, which she took up to
London, where she got a freight for Philadelphia. We were all a little
uneasy, at finding that our story, with sundry perversions and
exaggerations, were in the English papers; but, by the time we reached
England, it was forgotten; having been crowded out by the occurrence of
new events of interest, at a moment when every week was teeming with
incidents that passed into history.

Nevertheless, I was glad when we left England, and I once more found
myself on the high seas, homeward bound. My wages had enabled me, as well
as Marble and Neb, to get new outfits, suited to our present stations, and
we sailed for Philadelphia with as good a stock of necessaries as usually
fall to the lot of men in our respective positions. These were all that
remained to me of a ship and cargo that were worth between eighty and
ninety thousand dollars!

The passage proved to be very long, but we reached the capes of the
Delaware at last. On the 7th September, 1804, or when I wanted a few weeks
of being three-and-twenty, I landed on the wharves of what was then the
largest town in America, a ruined and disappointed man. Still I kept up my
spirits, leaving my companions in ignorance of the extent of my
misfortunes. We remained a few days to discharge the cargo, when we were
all three paid off. Neb, who had passed on board the Schuylkill for a free
black, brought me his wages, and when we had thrown our joint stock into a
common bag, it was found to amount to the sum of one hundred and
thirty-two dollars. With this money, then, we prepared to turn our faces
north, Marble anxious to meet his mother and little Kitty