cover the after-part of the deck. Harry then
went below to bring up his wife and her sister. They were by this time
pretty well accustomed to a sea life, as three weeks had passed since we
left Brisbane in Queensland. My brother Harry, who had been a
lieutenant in the navy, had about four years before come out to settle
in the colony, being engaged at the time to Miss Mary Amiel, the eldest
daughter of an English clergyman. Agricultural pursuits had not been
much to his taste, and he had therefore settled himself in Brisbane for
the purpose of carrying on a mercantile business. He had made a very
fair commencement, and had returned about a year before the time I am
speaking of to marry his intended. On his arrival he found that Mr
Amiel had died, and that his family, consisting of another daughter and
a son, were left in very poor circumstances. Prompted by his generous
feelings, he at once invited Fanny and Nat to return with him and his
bride to the colony. This they gladly agreed to do, and the whole party
forthwith took a passage on board an emigrant ship, which after a
prosperous voyage reached the colony.

I had from my earliest days wished to go to sea, and my mother having
consented, as I could not obtain a nomination for the _Britannia_, I got
a berth as a midshipman on board a trader bound for China. I was
unfortunate in my ship and my captain. This gave me a dislike not so
much to the sea as to the merchant service, and on my return from my
first voyage, finding that my brother, to whom I was much attached, had
gone back to Queensland, I got leave from my mother, after representing
to her the sort of life I had been leading, to go and join him, she
being certain that he would be very glad to receive me.

As I had made the best use of my opportunities of becoming a seaman
during my first voyage, I had no difficulty in obtaining a berth on
board a ship bound to Queensland, called the _Eclipse_, commanded by
Captain Archer, and I was thus able to work my passage out free of
expense. On this occasion also I made good use of my time, by adding
considerably to my knowledge of seamanship, and by studying navigation.
Though I was before the mast, as I had my own sextant and books the
officers allowed me to take observations with them and to keep the
ship's reckoning, I had thus a right, with the experience I had had, to
consider myself a fair seaman.

The _Eclipse_ had been four days at sea, when the th