to the southward. The commander had been directed to
visit the archipelagoes on the western side of the Pacific, but he
wished first to make a survey of the island on which we had so nearly
run during the gale on our course northward.

I have, by-the-by, said very little about my messmates, except Mr
Worthy, Peter Mudge (who acted as my Mentor, as he was likewise that of
all the youngsters), and my chum Tommy Peck. There was another mate,
who had lately passed,--Alfred Stanford, a very gentlemanly, pleasing
young man. We had, besides, a surgeon, a master's assistant, the
captain's clerk and the purser's clerk, who made up the complement in
our berth. My chief friend among the men was Dick Tillard, an old
quartermaster, to whom I could always go to get instruction in
seamanship, with the certainty that he would do his best to enlighten
me. He had been at sea all his life, and had scarcely ever spent a
month on shore at a time. He was a philosopher, in his way; and his
philosophy was of the best, for he had implicit confidence in God's
overruling providence. If anything went wrong, his invariable remark
was,--"That's our fault, not His who rules above; trust him, lads, trust
him, and he will make all things right at last."

I have very little to say about our second lieutenant, or the master, or
surgeon, or purser,--who, as far as I knew, were respectable men, not
above the average in intellect, and got on very well together in the
gunroom; so that our ship might have been looked upon as a happy one, as
things go, though I confess that we cannot expect to find a paradise on
board a man-of-war.

I must not omit to mention our boatswain, a person of no small
importance on board ship. So, at all events, thought Mr Fletcher
Yallop, as he desired to be called; and if we youngsters ever wanted him
to do anything for us, we always thus addressed him--though, of course,
the commander and officers called him simply Mr Yallop. If the men
addressed him as Mr Yallop, he invariably exclaimed,--"Mr Fletcher
Yallop is my name, remember, my lad; and I'll beg you always to
denominate me by my proper appellation, or a rope's end and your back
will scrape acquaintance with each other."

He explained his reasons to me in confidence one day. "You see, Mr
Rayner, I expect before I die to come into a fortune, when I shall be,
of course, Fletcher Yallop, Esquire. I can't make the men call me so
now, because I am but a simple boats