child; for, in good truth, I could as soon believe you had seen flying cows; for cows, you know, John, can live out of water. Therefore, tell me honestly what you have seen in reality, but no more falsehoods, Johny." Jack felt himself affronted; and, turning his quid about, when pressed for more curious information, he said, prefacing it with an oath, "Mayhap, mother, you won't believe me, when I tell you, that, casting our anchor once in the Red Sea, it was with difficulty we hove it up again; which was occasioned, do you see, mother, by a large wheel hanging on one of the flukes of the anchor. It appeared a strange.old Grecian to look at; so we hoisted it in, and our captain, do ye mind me, being a scholar, overhauled him and discovered it was one of Pharoah's chariot-wheels, when he was capsized in the Red Sea." This suited the meridian of the old lady's understanding: "Ay, ay, Johny, cried she," I can believe this, for we read of it in the bible; but never talk to me of flying fish." The truth is, that those who have seen much of the world are placed in rather an awkward situation. If, on being questioned, they relate all they have seen or known, though with the strictest attention to truth, they are almost certain of being reckoned travellers, a term pretty well understood as synonymous to lying: on the other hand, if, to avoid such odium, they decline giving an account of what they have seen, their good-natured neighbours set them down as fools, for not having noticed something abroad more wonderful than they have seen at home! To steer clear, therefore, of such imputation as much as is in the Author's power, he will neither assert nor deny the truth of what is herein related, but leave it to the free exercise of the Reader's credence. If, as an uninformed inhabitant of the torrid zone, he could believe the tale of water becoming a solid body, there will be nothing more difficult to believe in this history; but, should his faith, like the old lady's, be confined to his own bible, he is welcome to believe or disbelieve as little or as much as he pleases. Land at Plymouth; decline a promising good offer to live on shore; to sea again; at the attack of the Havannah and re-taking of New- Meet with my old shipmate; carry a challenge from him to his former commander; obliged to fly; overtaken and cooped up in Dover- Peaceable times; disbanded sea-officers ut a loss what to do; my relation volunteers with Count Orlow; accept a military appointment for India, commence soldier; the King of Denmark at the Tower; a Embark for India; my old shipmate B follows my relation Dugdale in the Russian service; passage to the Cape of Good Hope 123 |