26 EATING ASPARAGUS 



primitive ideas, but of a noble and generous nature. He 

 was also a j^'^^otege of the captain's, and was extremely 

 well connected. I remember it was a standing joke 

 against him, which he always took with habitual good- 

 humour, that one day at the captain's table he attemjDted 

 to invert the process of eating asparagus, by squeezing 

 the palatable part between his fingers, and putting the 

 less succulent end to his lips ; the loud laughter of the 

 captain's guests soon corrected the mistake. 



Nevertheless, his simple and unsophisticated manner 

 gained him friends ; and, had his life been spared, he 

 Avould have been a star in the firmament of the profession, 

 which he followed with much ardour and devotion. He 

 was sent away in a boat with two others, under the 

 command of a lieutenant and boatswain, to cut out and 

 destroy some Malay praams that had taken shelter under 

 the hi2:h land on the coast of Sumatra. The lieutenant 

 was the first to climb the bows of the pirate ; my poor 

 friend followed him, when the foremost IMalay made a 

 thrust with his spear, which passing through the lieu- 

 tenant's trousers, entered the chest of this brave 

 youth, and caused him to fall backwards ; the boatswain, 

 whose name I remember was Thomas George, a fine 

 athletic fellow, mounting the deck at the moment, with 

 his cutlass severed the fellow's head from his body. The 

 rascals soon ran below ; and on battening down the 

 hatches to secure them and mustering the crew, only 

 one was missing, and that was my most esteemed friend. 



It was supposed that from the force of the spear alone 

 he must have fallen between the praam and the gunwale 

 of his 0A\Ti boat, and, from his bodv not being found, have 



