escaping, I thought of our fire-arms, seized a musket, and was about to fire at a fellow in the water, when Aston laid hold of me, and exclaimed: "Don't you hear? I have been roaring to you till I'm hoarse. Why, what are you at? Are you mad?-your example has made all my men so. Put down the musquet. You have no right to touch these people." "How can I inquired, in surprise, if she was not a Malay. I tell," he replied, "what she is? You should have waited for my orders. Perhaps she is a harmless country-vessel." I then began to imagine I had been too precipitate, too rash; and my ardour was cooled in thinking I might have compromised Aston. It was therefore with inexpressible delight that I beheld the savages on the beach open a fire from match-locks on us, and saw them launching their canoes full of armed people. However, while they were delayed in picking up their countrymen, we scuttled the craft, leaped into our boats, and the frigate, having stood in, picked us up. Two of the wounded Malays Aston took with him. After the skirmish I tried to appease Aston's anger by my coolness and activity; so that, having lectured me, he represented my conduct in such favourable terms to the first lieutenant, that the Scotchman's account obtained nothing worse for me than a simple reprimand. He now detested me; but, under the protection of Aston's wing, I was safe. Besides, his pusillanimity was a source of ridicule; and the sailors, who all look on courage as the highest attribute, applauded me. BE CHAPTER XII. Long in misery I wasted, ere in one extremest fit KEATS. EFORE this, I had gained respect in the ship by a reckless daring. My indifference and neglect of all the ordinary duties were in some degree tolerated, owing to my unwearied diligence and anxiety in every case of difficulty, danger, or sudden squalls. In the Indian seas a squall is notto be trifled with; when the masts are bending like fishingrods, the light sails fluttering in ribbons, the sailors swinging to and fro on the bow; bent yards, the ship thrown on her beam-ends, the wild roar of the sea and wind, and no other light than the red and rapid lightning. Then I used to rouse myself from dozing on the carronade-slide, springing aloft ere my eyes were half open, when the only reply to Aston's trumpet was my voice. I felt at home amidst the conflict of the elements. It was a kind of war; and harmonised with my feelings. The more furious the storm, the greater my delight. My contempt of the danger insured my safety; while the solemn and methodical disciplinarians, who prided themselves on the exact performance of their separate duties at their respective stations, beheld with astonishment the youngster, whom they were always abusing for neglect of duty, voluntarily thrusting himself into every arduous and perilous undertaking, ere they could decide on the possibility or prudence of its being attempted. The sailors liked me for this, and prognosticated I should yet turn out a thorough sailor. Even the officers, who had hitherto looked on me as a useless idler, viewed my conduct with gaping wonder, and entertained. better hopes of me. But these hopes died away with the bustling scenes in which they were begotten; and, during the fine and calm weather, I lost the reputation I had acquired in storms and battles. Among my messmates I was decidedly a favourite. What I principally prided myself in was protecting the weak from the strong. I permitted none to tyrannise. I had grown prematurely very tall and strong; and was of so unyielding a disposition, that in my struggles with those, who were not much more than my equals in strength, though above me in years, I wore them out with pertinacity. My rashness and impetuosity bore down all before them. None liked to contend with me; for I never acknowledged myself beaten, but renewed the quarrel, without respect to time or place. Yet what my messmates chiefly lauded and respected, was the fearless independence with which I treated those above me. The utmost of their power had been wreaked against me; yet, had the rack been added, they could not have intimidated me. Indeed, from very wantonness, I went beyond their inflictions. For instance, the common punishment was sending us to the mast-head for four or five hours. Immediately I was ordered thither, I used to lie along the cross-trees, as if perfectly at my ease, and either feign to sleep, or, if it was hot, really go to sleep. They were alarmed at the chance of my falling from so hazardous a perch; and to prevent, as it was thought, the possibility of my sleeping, the Scotchman one day, during a heavy sea with little wind, ordered me, in his anger, go to the extreme end of the top-sail yard-arm, and remain there for four hours. I murmured, but, obliged to comply, up I went; and walking along the yard on the dizzy height, got hold of the top-sail lift, laid myself down between the yard and studding-sail-boom, and pretended to sleep as usual. The lieutenant frequently hailed me, bidding me to keep awake, or I should fall overboard. This repeated caution suggested to me the means of putting an end to this sort of annoyance, by antedating his fears, and falling overboard;not, however, with the idea of drowning, as few in the ship could swim so well as myself. I had seen a man jump from the lower yard in sport, and had determined to try the experiment. Besides, the roll of the ship was in my favour; so, watching my opportunity, when the officers and crew were at their quarters at sunset, I took advantage of a heavy roll of the ship, and dropped on the crest of a monstrous wave. I sunk deep into its bosom, and the agony of suppressed respiration, after the fall, was horrible. Had I not taken the precaution to maintain my poise, by keeping my hands over my head, preserving an erect posture in my descent, and moving my limbs in the air, I should inevitably have lost my life. it was I was insensible to every thing but a swelling sensation in my chest, to bursting; and the frightful conviction of going downwards, with the rapidity of a thunder-bolt, notwithstanding my convulsive struggles to rise, was torture such as it is vain to describe. A death-like torpidness came over me; then I heard a din of voices, and a noise on the sea, and within it, like a hurricane; my head and breast seemed to be As splitting. After which I thought I saw a confused crowd of faces bent over me; and I felt a loathsome sickness. A cold shivering shook my limbs, and I gnashed my teeth, imagining myself still struggling as in the last efforts at escape from drowning. This impression must have continued for a long time. The first circumstance I can distinctly remember was Aston's voice, saying, "How are you now?" I tried to speak, but in vain; my lips moved without a word. He told me, I was now safe on board. I looked round; but a sensation of water rushing in my mouth, ears, and nostrils, still made me think I was amidst the waves. For eight and forty hours I suffered inexpressible pain; a thousand times greater, in my restoration to life, than before I lost my recollection. But what signifies what I endured ?-I gained my point. The Scotch lieutenant was severely reprimanded for his unjustifiable conduct in sending me to so dangerous a place for punishment. The captain's heart was moved to order a fowl to be killed for soup; and he sent me a bottle of wine. I had the one grilled, and the other mulled, holding an antipathy to everything insipid. I was never sent to the mast-head again; nor could any one suspect even me of such a mad freak as to run a hazard of drowning, to rid myself of a trifling annoyance, which others bore unrepiningly. In taxing the Scotch lieutenant with pusillanimity, in the adventure of the Malay craft off the pirate coast, it is necessary to explain, that an officer, ordered on such an adventure, must be vested with discretionary power, implied by the nature of the service, though not expressly set down. The recal-signal was made under the impression that the Malay vessel would get on shore; and that, by the support of the natives, for such is their character, she might make a desperate resistance. Commanding officers are very properly instructed to be economical in expending the material of the ship,—that is, the men,-in quixotic adventures; not from womanish feelings. of humanity, but on more solid grounds,-the sterling value, in pounds, shillings, and pence, of every able seaman, taken to a foreign country and inured to its climate, besides the difficulty of replacing him. Thus the captain, seeing a probability of losing some of his crew, for the trifling object of destroying a few savages, and no prospect of prize-money, hoisted the recal-signal; by doing which, he washed his hands of the consequences, if they were unsuccessful, leaving the officer commanding the boats to act on his own responsibility. This, of course, is an understood thing. If the ship, making such a signal, happens to be rather distant, and the boats are in the vicinity of their object, they can better calculate on the attempt; then if the probability of success, backed by the sailor's ardent love of fighting, and hopes of promotion, outweighs the risk, they keep their backs to the signal, and push on to the fight. But, on the other hand, if no recal-signal is made, however hazardous the service, they must attempt its accomplishment. Therefore the general impression throughout the ship was against our Scotch lieutenant. B CHAPTER XIII. I, alas! Have lived but on this earth a few sad years, SHELLEY. ESIDES Aston, there were several of my messmates I particularly liked. One of them, about my own age, whose name was Walter, was my ordinary associate; not that there was much resemblance in our tastes and characters, but his father had treated him with even a worse brutality than I had endured from mine. Perhaps indeed he had, in conscientious minds, merited his father's hatred, from having made his appearance on the stage of life in an unlawful and unorthodox manner. Relations and guardians had not been duly consulted; the church had been invaded in its rights, insulted in its discipline, its ministers defrauded of their fees; no merry peal of village-bells, or circle of feasting friends, had united their harmonious voices in giving the unbidden stranger a welcome into the world. Instead of these joyful omens, he |