cy

While I was busied with my friend in the practice. The doctor chanced
to pass by the place where we were, and stopping to observe me appeared
very well satisfied with my application; and afterwards sent for me to
his cabin, where, having examined me touching my skill in surgery,
and the particulars of my fortune, he interested himself so far in my
behalf, as to promise his assistance in procuring a warrant for me,
seeing I had already been found qualified at Surgeons' Hall for the
station I filled on board; and in this good office he the more cordially
engaged when he understood I was nephew to lieutenant Bowling, for whom
he expressed a particular regard. In the meantime, I could learn from
his discourse that he did not intend to go to sea again with Captain
Oakum, having, as he thought, been indifferently used by him during the
last voyage.

While I lived tolerably easy, in expectation of preferment, I was not
altogether without mortifications, which I not only suffered from the
rude insults of the sailors and petty officers, among whom I was known
by the name of Loblolly Boy, but also from the disposition of Morgan,
who, though friendly in the main, was often very troublesome with his
pride, which expected a good deal of submission from me, and delighted
in recapitulating the favours I had received at his hands.

About six weeks after my arrival on board, the surgeon, bidding me to
follow him into his cabin, presented a warrant to me, by which I
was appointed surgeon's third mate on board the Thunder. This he
had procured by his interest at the Navy Office; as also another
for himself, by virtue of which he was removed into a second-rate. I
acknowledged his kindness in the strongest terms my gratitude could
suggest, and professed my sorrow at the prospect of losing so valuable a
friend, to whom I hoped to have recommended myself still further, by my
respectful and diligent behaviour. But his generosity rested not here;
for before he left the ship he made me a present of a chest and some
clothes that enabled me to support the rank to which he had raised me.

I found my spirit revive with my good fortune; and, now I was an
officer, resolved to maintain the dignity of my station, against all
opposition or affronts; nor was it long before I had occasion to exert
my resolution. My old enemy, the midshipman (whose name was Crampley),
entertaining an implacable animosity against me for the disgrace he had
suffered