ntion of
depreciating the mercantile class, so far I must be allowed to say, that
the merchants are not very strict in their morality. Trade may improve
the wealth of a nation, but it most certainly does not improve their
morals.

The Captain with whom I sailed was a true character. Captain Eliab
Jones, as he related his history to me, was the son of a very
respectable clergyman in the West of England. His mother died when he
was a boy about twelve years of age, leaving his father with a very
large family. The father married again. Young Eliab either actually was,
or fancifully believed himself to be, ill-treated by his step-mother.
Under this real or imaginary suffering he eloped from his father's
house; and making the best of his way for a sea-port, bound himself
apprentice to the master of a coasting vessel. In this manner he
continued to work, to use his own expressions, like a galley-slave for
five years, when he obtained the situation of mate of an Indiaman. He
progressively rose, till he happened unfortunately to quarrel with his
Captain, which induced him to quit the service of the Company. In the
course of his voyages to India, and in the Indian seas, he made what he
thought an important discovery relative to the southern whale fishery:
he communicated it to a mercantile house upon his return, and was
employed by them in the speculation. He now, however, became unfortunate
for the first time: his ship was wrecked off the island of Olaheite, and
the crew and himself compelled to remain for two or three years on that
barbarous but beautiful island.

Such is the outline of Captain Eliab's adventures, with the detail of
which he amused me during our voyage. His character, however, deserves
some mention. If there is an honest man under the canopy of Heaven, it
was Captain Eliab; but his honesty was so plain and downright, so simple
and unqualified, that I know not how to describe it than by the plain
terms, that he was a strictly just and upright man. He had a sense of
honour--a natural feeling of what was right--which seemed extraordinary,
when compared with the irregular course of his life. Had he passed
through every stage of education, had he been formed from his childhood
to manhood under the anxious supervision of the most exemplary parents,
he could not have been more strict. I most sincerely hope, that it will
be hereafter my fortune to meet with this estimable man, and to
enumerate him amongst my friends.