J82T.] Adventures of Naufragiis. loD 



sailor must bo a man of some! scientific acquirement ; his hourly security 

 depends only upon habits of the most acute observation although con- 

 lined, perhaps, within a somewhat limited sphere; and the records of somo 

 of the earlier voyages of the private traders to the coasts of India and 

 Africa, not to speak of those who carried their commercial speculations to 

 Mexico and Peru, display a spirit of enterprise, and a variety of incident, 

 which, however, disfigured by traits of injustice, and even of barbarity, 

 render them among the most interesting narratives that our literature 

 affords. The author of the present work, as will appear in the course of 

 our notice, writes from the experience of a sea life, passed chiefly on the 

 coasts of India a ground with which he is familiar in a very extraordinary 

 degree ; but his book contains the incidents and changes of a life, which, 

 his profession apart, would, by no means, have been devoid of interest; 

 and develops some facts and principles, which (to others than young men 

 thrown upon the world in search of a livelihood) may not be without their 

 utility. The preface states, that the narrative names of parties, of 

 course excepted may be considered as founded strictly on fact ; and, 

 from the internal evidence, even in this book-making age, our decided 

 belief is that it is so. 



Naufragus [this title, of course, is assumed] is the son of a London mer- 

 chant, who, after possessing considerable wealth, ends by becoming unfor- 

 tunate in trade ; and at an early age finds the somewhat stinted charity of 

 an " uncle" a gentleman of large fortune, who has married his father's 

 sister pretty nearly his only dependence. After passing two or threei 

 years miserably at a Yorkshire school, he is sent to sea, at fourteen, as 

 midshipman, on board an Indiaman a situation of very abundant general 

 discomfort ; and, being recommended by his relative according to the usage 

 made and provided in the cases of children who are the objects of bounty 

 as " a lad wh'o had nothing to look for," and who, therefore, was 

 "not to be spared," but to be " made a sailor of," &c. he is so harshly 

 treated on board, that his patience fails ; and, on his second voyage at 

 Pulo Penang, he gives his last dollar to a boatman to convey him secretly 

 on shore, and quits his ship. (It might be a nice point for the admiralty 

 judges, perhaps, whether it ought to be written down " desertion.") 



" On the morrow the ship was to leave Pulo-Penang : the morrow then 

 was to form an epoch in my life ; my prospects were to change, possibly not 

 for the better, since I was about to enter on a wide world, unknowing and un- 

 known : driven to an act of such desperate resource, by the brutality of an 

 enemy on the one hand, and on the other, by the inadvertence of my natural 

 protector. During the night I slept, but little, racked as I was with scorpion 

 anxiety, and dreaming of appalling dangers ; but the morning rays relieved me, 

 and I then began my preparations by packing up my clothes, dressing myself, and 

 pocketing all the treasure I had to begin the world with, and that was one 

 dollar." 



" At six in the evening I was ready : 1 went down on the gun-deck, ana 

 exchanged a farewell with Smith, who, actuated by friendship most sincere, 

 invoked many a blessing on my head. The hoarse voice of my persecutor, baw- 

 ling ' Naufragus !' summoned me before him. I surveyed him steadily, and with 

 a calm look, though conscious that I stood before him whom I should never cease 

 to execrate as the man who drove me friendless on the world ' What !' said he ; 

 'dressed so smart! going on shore, I suppose? [ironically]. Here give this 

 receipt to the boatman who brought the cask of lime-juice, and tell him he 

 may go.' " 



" The shade of evening had but just spread round the vessel, when I went on 

 deck : a fall of rain, with a distant roll of thun&r, and a heavy gust of wind 



T 2 



