t, and I will have
my eye on you. The next time you come home, you shall go to school; and
see if you cannot pick up some knowledge of reading during the voyage."

I constantly think of the saying, "Man proposes, but Heaven disposes."
So I found it in this instance. My kind captain would have done all he
intended, but his plans for my benefit were frustrated by circumstances
then unforeseen by either of us.

A few days after this, we sailed for the Mediterranean. We had shipped
a couple more guns, and four additional hands. In those days it was
necessary for merchantmen frequenting that sea to be strongly armed, for
it was sadly infested by pirates. There were Moorish pirates, Salee
rovers, and others, who went to sea in large vessels as well as in
boats, and robbed indiscriminately all vessels they could overpower;
then there were Algerine pirates, who had still larger vessels, and were
superior to them in numbers; and, lastly, there were Greek pirates,
every island and rock in the Aegean Sea harbouring some of them. Long
years of Turkish misrule and tyranny had thoroughly enslaved and debased
the great mass of the people; and the more daring and adventurous
spirits, finding all lawful exercise of their energies denied them on
shore, sought instead for such excitement and profit as piracy could
afford them afloat. Some of them darted out in small boats from the
sheltered coves and bays when any unarmed merchantman was becalmed near
them; while others, in well-formed and well-manned vessels of large
size, cruised about in all directions in search of prizes. Sometimes
their strongholds, when discovered by the Turks, were attacked and
destroyed, but generally they carried on their system of rapine with
perfect impunity; and though the people of other governments complained,
they had no legal power to punish the subjects of a friendly nation. So
the Greeks, rejoicing in impunity, grew more and more audacious, till
they levied contributions on all the civilised nations of Europe whose
traders ventured into the Levant. Such was the state of things when the
_Rainbow_ sailed on her first voyage to Smyrna. Captain Helfrich had
been there before, and he knew the character of the people he had to
deal with.

We met with bad weather soon after leaving the Channel, and had already
been driven some way to the westward, when, as we were in about the
latitude of Lisbon, it came on to blow harder than ever from the
eastwa