dungeon, which, I
understood, was immersed several feet under water, being immediately
above the hold. I had no sooner approached this dismal gulph, than my
nose was saluted with an intolerable stench of putrified cheese and
rancid butter, that issued from an apartment at the foot of the ladder,
resembling a chandler's shop, where, by the faint glimmering of a
candle, I could perceive a man with a pale, meagre countenance, sitting
behind a kind of desk, having spectacles on his nose, and a pen in his
hand. This (I learned of Mr. Thompson) was the ship's steward, who sat
there to distribute provision to the several messes, and to mark what
each received. He therefore presented my name to him, and desired
I might be entered in his mess; then, taking a light in his hand,
conducted me to the place of his residence, which was a square of about
six feet, surrounded with the medicine-chest, that of the first mate,
his own, and a board by way of table fastened to the after powder room;
it was also inclosed with canvas nailed round to the beams of the ship,
to screen us from the cold, as well as from the view of the midshipmen
and quartermaster, who lodged within the cable-tiers on each side of us.
In this gloomy mansion he entertained me with some cold suit pork, which
he brought from a sort of locker, fixed above the table: and calling for
the boy of the mess, sent for a can of beer, of which he made excellent
flip to crown the banquet.

By this time I began to recover my spirits, which had been exceedingly
depressed with the appearance of everything about me, and could no
longer refrain from asking the particulars of Mr. Thompson's fortune
since I had seen him in London. He told me, that being disappointed in
his expectations of borrowing money to gratify the rapacious s--t--ry at
the Navy Office, he found himself utterly unable to subsist any longer
in town, and had actually offered his service, in quality of mate, to
the surgeon of a merchant ship, bound to Guinea on the slaving trade;
when, one morning, a young fellow, of whom he had some acquaintance,
came to his lodgings, and informed him that he had seen a warrant made
out in his name at the Navy Office, for surgeon's second mate of a
third-rate. This unexpected piece of good news he could scarcely believe
to be true, more especially as he had been found qualified at Surgeons'
Hall for third mate only; but that he might not be wanting to himself,
he went thither to be