ike all the rest
of the male Saint Legers, for as many generations as we could trace
back, had been a seaman, and had died abroad, leaving my mother such a
moderate provision as would enable her, with care, to end her days in
peace and comfort beneath the old roof-tree. It was a lonely life for
her, poor soul! for I was her only child, and--being a Saint Leger--took
naturally to the sea as a profession. That I should do so was indeed so
completely a foregone conclusion, that I was especially educated for it
at Greenwich; upon leaving which, I had been bound apprentice to my
father. And under him I had faithfully served my time, and had risen to
the position of second mate when death claimed him, and he passed away
in my arms, commending my mother to my tenderest care with his last
breath.

Since that terrible time I had made several voyages to our eastern
possessions, and now, when my story opens, was chief mate of a fine
clipper-ship, with some hopes of promotion to the rank of "captain" when
a suitable vacancy should occur.

The voyage which I had just concluded had been a singularly fortunate
one for me, for on our homeward passage, when a short distance to the
eastward of the Cape, we had fallen in with a derelict, homeward-bound
from the Moluccas and Philippines, with a cargo of almost fabulous value
on board; and, having taken possession of her, I had been placed in
command, with a crew of four hands, with instructions to take her into
Table Bay, there to raise my crew to the full complement, and, having
done so, to afterwards navigate her to her destination. This I had
successfully accomplished, arriving home only nine days after my own
ship. A claim for salvage had been duly made, and I calculated that
when the settling day arrived, my own share would fall very little short
of three thousand pounds, if, indeed, it did not fully reach that
figure.

I have stated that when, upon the termination of an Australian voyage
and the completion of my duties as chief mate, I returned to my
ancestral home for the purpose of spending a brief holiday with my
mother prior to my departure upon yet another journey to the antipodes,
I had found her in dire trouble. This trouble was the natural--and I
may say inevitable--result of my father's mistaken idea that he was as
good a man of business as he was a seaman. Acting under this
impression, he had relied entirely upon his own unaided judgment in the
investment of his