BIOGRAPHICAL 143 



for real use, wild Mohammedan troopers 

 riding on ivory horses and stately Hindu 

 rajahs perched on elephants' backs. There 

 was no envy in the boy's heart as he saw 

 these things, but rather the proud con- 

 sciousness that all this was the fruit of per- 

 sonal endeavor and that he too might some 

 day win a prize as great. To this end he 

 studied at school. He might hate mathe- 

 matics, but without learning navigation how 

 could he sail his ship ? and so he learned 

 his lessons. When fourteen years of age he 

 begged to be allowed to go to sea, when 

 fifteen he argued that he should be allowed 

 to, and when sixteen he was not longer to 

 be restrained, and his parents yielded. And 

 the boy was really older than his years. He 

 had learned that lesson which comes nat- 

 urally to the brute creation, but late or 

 never to the youth of to-day, self-reliance. 

 He shipped, not through the cabin win- 

 dows, but in the forecastle, and though his 

 own brother might be captain he fared no 

 better than the merest stranger. The crew 



