I GO TO SEA IN THE COVENANT OF DYSART.             61
come to an end; but in these days of my youth, white
men were still sold into slavery on the plantations, and
that was the destiny to which my wicked uncle had con-
demned me.
The cabin-boy Ransome (from whom I had first
heard of these atrocities) came in at times from the
round-house, where he berthed and served, now nursing
a bruised limb in silent agony, now raving against the
cruelty of Mr. Shuan. It made my heart bleed; but
the men had a great respect for the chief mate, who was,
as they said, " the only seaman of the whole jing-bang,
and none such a bad man when he was sober." Indeed,
I found there was a strange peculiarity about our two
mates : that Mr. Riach was sullen, unkind, and harsh
when he was sober, and Mr. Shuan would not hurt a fly
except when he was drinking. I asked about the
captain; but I was told drink made no difference upon
that man of iron.
I did my best in the small time allowed me to make
something like a man, or rather I should say something
like a boy, of the poor creature, Ransome. But his mind
was scarce truly human. He could remember nothing
of the time before he came to sea ; only that his father
had made clocks, and had a starling in the parlour, which
could whistle " The North Countrie; " all else had been
blotted out in these years of hardship and cruelties. He
had a strange notion of the dry land, picked up from
sailors' stories: that it was a place where lads were put
to some kind of slavery called a trade, and where appren-