52 SEA CAPTAINS 



an extremity. Our own ship rolled and pitched so un- 

 mercifully, from the short chopjDing nature of the sea, 

 that it was almost imj)ossible for the men to keep 

 their footing, and most of them, as well as the 

 officers, were obliged to hold on by some part of the 



I myself stood on the quarter-deck grasping a rope or 

 a belaying pin, to prevent my being tossed from one side 

 of the ship to the other. 



When the storm had abated, each ship had to make 

 the best of her way to port ; and, casting anchor at 

 Macao, three days after we had the satisfaction of seeing 

 our convoy pass almost singly up the river to Whampoa, 

 nearly all in a disabled state. 



A little later I accompanied the captain to Canton, 

 and at the residence of the East India Company's agent, 

 or consul, remained two or three days, and was intro- 

 duced to the captain of a 1200 ton ship, the GireM' 

 cester, with whom I was to take my passage to England. 

 In their company was the captain of the Bedaigneuse, 

 who I soon learned was about to take his passage home 

 in the same ship. 



The captain of the Indiaman, though bred to the sea, 

 was a gentleman of quiet manners and pleasing address, 

 and, coming north of the Tweed, was a tolerably good 

 specimen of a commander in the E.I.C. service. 



The captain of H.M. ship Dedaigneiise struck me 

 as being of a higher order. His antecedents, in regard 

 to a very lamentable affair, had gone the round of every 

 cockpit in the British navy for now more than a dozen 

 years, and had surrounded his name and history with a 



