leaves and branches, so as to be quite
indistinguishable, and, seating himself on the high seat in the villages,
receive homage from the people, and also gifts and offerings, the most
valuable of which were pretty damsels, and then betake himself back
again, with his followers, into the woods. Oh the tales that my brother
used to tell us of the high Barbary shore! Poor fellow! what became of
him I can't say; the last time he came back from a voyage, he told us
that his captain, as soon as he had brought his vessel to port and
settled with his owner, drowned himself off the quay, in a fit of the
horrors, which it seems high Barbary captains, after a certain number of
years, are much subject to. After staying about a month with us, he went
to sea again, with another captain; and, bad as the old one had been, it
appears the new one was worse, for, unable to bear his treatment, my
brother left his ship off the high Barbary shore, and ran away up the
country. Some of his comrades, whom we afterwards saw, said that there
were various reports about him on the shore; one that he had taken on
with Mumbo Jumbo, and was serving him in his house in the woods, in the
capacity of swashbuckler, or life-guardsman; another, that he was gone in
quest of a mighty city in the heart of the negro country; another, that
in swimming a stream he had been devoured by an alligator. Now, these
two last reports were bad enough; the idea of their flesh and blood being
bit asunder by a ravenous fish was sad enough to my poor parents; and not
very comfortable was the thought of his sweltering over the hot sands in
quest of the negro city; but the idea of their son, their eldest child,
serving Mumbo Jumbo as swashbuckler was worst of all, and caused my poor
parents to shed many a scalding tear.

'I stayed at home with my parents until I was about eighteen, assisting
my father in various ways. I then went to live at the Squire's, partly
as groom, partly as footman. After living in the country some time, I
attended the family in a trip of six weeks which they made to London.
Whilst there, happening to have some words with an old ill-tempered
coachman, who had been for a great many years in the family, my master
advised me to leave, offering to recommend me to a family of his
acquaintance who were in need of a footman. I was glad to accept his
offer, and in a few days went to my new place. My new master was one of
the great gentry, a baronet in P