r a slave. The discipline of public schools, bad and
demoralising as it is, was light, compared to the tyranny of a
midshipman's berth in 1803.

A mistaken notion has long prevailed, that boys derive advantages from
suffering under the tyranny of their oppressors at schools; and we
constantly hear the praises of public schools and midshipmen's berths on
this very account--namely, "that boys are taught to find their level."
I do not mean to deny but that the higher orders improve by collision
with their inferiors, and that a young aristocrat is often brought to
his senses by receiving a sound thrashing from the son of a tradesman.
But he that is brought up a slave, will be a tyrant when he has the
power; the worst of our passions are nourished to inflict the same evil
on others which we boast of having suffered ourselves. The courage and
daring spirit of a noble-minded boy is rather broken down by ill-usage
which he has not the power to resist, or, surmounting all this, he
proudly imbibes a dogged spirit of sullen resistance and implacable
revenge; which become the bane of his future life.

The latter was my fate; and let not my readers be surprised or shocked,
if, in the course of these adventures; I should display some of the
fruits of that fatal seed, so early and so profusely sown in my bosom.
If, on my first coming into the ship, I shrank back with horror at the
sound of blasphemy and obscenity--if I shut my eyes to the promiscuous
intercourse of the sexes, it was not so long. By insensible degrees, I
became familiarised by vice, and callous to its approach. In a few
months I had become nearly as corrupt as others. I might indeed have
resisted longer; but though the fortress of virtue could have held out
against open violence, it could not withstand the undermining of
ridicule. My young companions, who, as I have observed, had only
preceded me six months in the service, were already grown old in
depravity; they laughed at my squeamishness, called me, "milksop" and
"boarding-school miss," and soon made me as bad as themselves. We had
not quite attained the age of perpetration, but we were fully prepared
to meet it when it came.

I had not been two days on board, when the youngsters proposed a walk
into the main top. I mounted the rigging with perfect confidence, for I
was always a good climber; but I had not proceeded far, when I was
overtaken by the captain of the top and another man, who, without any
cer