ever, are episodes. Let us return once more to the Galatea
and her worthy commander.

Captain Towne retired to Salem after the hands were discharged, and
took me with him to reside in his family until he was ready for
another voyage. In looking back through the vista of a stormy and
adventurous life, my memory lights on no happier days than those spent
in this sea-faring emporium. Salem, in 1821, was my paradise. I
received more kindness, enjoyed more juvenile pleasures, and found
more affectionate hospitality in that comfortable city than I can well
describe. Every boy was my friend. No one laughed at my broken
English, but on the contrary, all seemed charmed by my foreign accent.
People thought proper to surround me with a sort of romantic mystery,
for, perhaps, there was a flavor of the dashing dare-devil in my
demeanor, which imparted influence over homelier companions. Besides
this, I soon got the reputation of a scholar. I was considered a
marvel in languages, inasmuch as I spoke French, Italian, Spanish,
English, and _professed_ a familiarity with Latin. I remember there
was a wag in Salem, who, determining one day to test my acquaintance
with the latter tongue, took me into a neighboring druggist's, where
there were some Latin volumes, and handed me one with the request to
translate a page, either verbally or on paper. Fortunately, the book
he produced was AEsop, whose fables had been so thoroughly studied by
me two years before, that I even knew some of them by heart. Still,
as I was not very well versed in the niceties of English, I thought it
prudent to make my version of the selected fable in French; and, as
there was a neighbor who knew the latter language perfectly, my
translation was soon rendered into English, and the proficiency of the
"Italian boy" conceded.

* * * * *

I sailed during five years from Salem on voyages to various parts of
the world, always employing my leisure, while on shore and at sea, in
familiarizing myself minutely with the practical and scientific
details of the profession to which I designed devoting my life. I do
not mean to narrate the adventures of those early voyages, but I
cannot help setting down a single anecdote of that fresh and earnest
period, in order to illustrate the changes that time and
"_circumstances_" are said to work on human character.

In my second voyage to India, I was once on shore with the captain at
Quallahbattoo, in s