50 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP was consequently almost the last to greet us. He was in his sixty-fifth 
year, and was unusually strong and active for his age, notwithstanding 
1^25 inconvenience of considerable corpulency. He was dressed in a 
sailor's shirt and trousers and a low-crowned hat, which he instinctively 
held in his hand until desired to put it on. He still retained his 
sailor’s gait, doffing his hat and smoothing down his bald forehead 
whenever he was addressed by the officers. 
It was the first time he had been on board a ship of war since the 
mutiny, and his mind naturally reverted to scenes that could not fail to 
produce a temporary embarrassment, heightened, perhaps, by the fami- 
liarity with which he found himself addressed by persons of a class with 
those whom he had been accustomed to obey. Apprehension for his 
safety formed no part of his thoughts : he had received too many de- 
monstrations of the good feeling that existed towards him, both on the 
part of the British government and of individuals, to entertain any 
alarm on that head ; and as every person endeavoured to set his mind 
at rest, he very soon made himself at home *. 
The young men, ten in number, were tall, robust, and healthy, 
with good-natured countenances, which would any where have pro- 
cured them a friendly, reception ; and with a simplicity of manner and 
a fear of doing wrong which at once prevented the possibility of giving 
offence. Unacquainted with the world, they asked a number of questions 
which would have applied better to persons with whom they had been 
intimate, and who had left them but a short time before, than to perfect 
strangers; and inquired after ships and people we had never heard 
of, Their dress, made iqi of the presents which had been given them 
by the masters and seamen of merchant ships, was a perfect caricature. 
Some had on long black coats without any other article of dress ex- 
cept trousers, some shirts without coats, and others waistcoats without 
either; none had shoes or stockings, and only two possessed hats, 
neither of which seemed likely to hang long together. 
They were as anxious to gratify their curiosity about the decks, as 
we were to learn from them the state of the colony, and the particulars 
* Since the MS. of this narrative was sent to press, intelligence of Adams’ death has 
been communicated to me by our Consul at the Sandwich Islands. 
