a good-natured, kind fellow, and is very merry, though he can be very
serious; and do you know, when he's in the berth, none of the others,
big or little, swear and talk about things they oughtn't to. I like
Sommers, and so even does Snookes and My Lord; and he never lets anybody
bully Polly when he's near. I think that I should have been bullied a
good deal, but I took everything that was said or done in good part, or
pretended to be unconscious of it, and lost no opportunity of
retorting--good-naturedly of course--it would not have done otherwise.
And now, the rest only play the same tricks with me that they do with
each other. No one makes any difference with me because I am the
captain's nephew, any more than Uncle Tom does himself. Uncle Tom is
very kind, but he makes no difference that I can see between the rest of
the midshipmen and me. He does the best that he can for all of us, that
is the truth: he punishes all alike if we do wrong, and has us all into
the cabin and gives us good advice, and talks to us frequently. Still
we do, somehow or other, manage to get into scrapes. I have been
mastheaded twice, and Dickey Snookes five times, since we came to sea;
once for dressing up the sheep in some of the men's clothes just before
the crew were mustered, and then letting them out on the deck; and
another time for cutting poor Polly's hammock down by the head, and very
nearly cracking his skull--luckily it's rather thick. After leaving
Free Town we touched at Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Have you ever
read about that settlement? It was established by the people of the
United States, and colonised by men of colour, or blacks, who had been
once slaves and had obtained their freedom. It is a republic, and the
chief magistrate as well as all the officers are brown or black men. It
is not nearly so large nor so flourishing a place as Sierra Leone. In
the latter, you see, there are a great many intelligent white men who
set the blacks an example of industry and perseverance, in which
qualities they are somewhat wanting generally. Still it is wonderful to
see what black men can do when left free with a good example before
them. Monrovia is really a very respectable-looking city. There are a
number of stone warehouses full of goods near the water, and a good many
dwelling-houses of brick, nicely furnished, and of two storeys high, but
the greater number of the habitations are of wood, on brick foundations