SCIENCE. 39 



men every day in his cabin to be instructed 

 in navigation. My aptitude for learning 

 had not forsaken me, and I quickly left my 

 competitors for scientific acquirements a 

 long way behind. Geometry, Trigonometry, 

 and Mensuration were soon mastered, so 

 well had I been prepared at the school I 

 had so recently and so reluctantly quitted. 

 At the end of six weeks I was as capa- 

 ble of taking and working a lunar observa- 

 tion as any officer in the ship much to the 

 annoyance of many of my brother midship- 

 men, my seniors in age and service ; and 

 having obtained a greater share of notice in 

 consequence, did not add to my own social 

 comfort or happiness. Nevertheless, confi- 

 dent, or vain, perhaps, of the superiority I 

 had gained, I treated their jeers and their 

 contumely with all the contempt I could 

 assume, though I was frequently provoked 

 to words of recrimination and abuse. 



One of these, whose sponsors had thought 

 proper to bestow on him the lofty baptismal 



