James Braithwaite, the Supercargo | Page 5

to the heavens, shone in the sunbeams like pillars of
snow.
The Barbara proved herself a fast sailer, and could easily keep up with
our Active protector, which kept sailing round the majestic-looking but
slow-moving Indiamen, as if to urge them on, as the shepherd's dog
does his flock. We hove-to off Falmouth, that other vessels might join
company. Altogether, we formed a numerous convoy-- some bound to
the Cape of Good Hope, others to different parts of India--two or three
to our lately-established settlements in New South Wales, and several
more to China.
I will not dwell on my feelings as we took our departure from the land,
the Lizard lights bearing north half east. I had a good many friends to
care for me, and one for whom I had more than friendship. We had
magnificent weather and plenty of time to get the ship into order;
indeed I, with others who had never been to sea, began to entertain the
notion that we were to glide on as smoothly as we were then doing
during the whole voyage. We were to be disagreeably undeceived. A
gale sprang up with little warning about midnight, and hove us almost
on our beam-ends; and though we righted with the loss only of a spar or
two, we were tumbled about in a manner subversive of all comfort, to
say the least of it.
When morning broke, the hitherto trim and well-behaved fleet were
scattered in all directions, and several within sight received some
damage or other. The wind fell as quickly as it had risen, and during the
day the vessels kept returning to their proper stations in the convoy.
When night came on several were still absent, but were seen
approaching in the distance. Our third mate had been aloft for some
time, and when he came into the cabin he remarked that he had counted
more sail in the horizon than there were missing vessels. Some of the

party were inclined to laugh at him, and inquired what sort of craft he
supposed they were, phantom ships or enemy's cruisers.
"I'll tell you what, gentlemen,--I think that they are very probably the
latter," said the captain. "I have known strange things happen; vessels
cut out at night from the midst of a large convoy, others pillaged and
the crews and passengers murdered, thrown overboard, or carried off.
We shall be on our guard, and have our guns loaded, and if any gentry
of this sort attempt to play their tricks on us they will find that they
have caught a tartar."
CHAPTER TWO.
THE FIGHT.
I may as well here give an account of the Barbara, and how I came to
be on board her. Deprived of my father, who was killed in battle just as
I was going up to the University, and left with very limited means, I
was offered a situation as clerk in the counting-house of a distant
relative, Mr Janrin. I had no disinclination to mercantile pursuits. I
looked on them, if carried out in a proper spirit, as worthy of a man of
intellect, and I therefore gladly accepted the offer. As my mother lived
in the country, my kind cousin invited me to come and reside with him,
an advantage I highly appreciated. Everything was conducted in his
house with clock-work regularity. If the weather was rainy, his coach
drew up to the door at the exact hour; if the weather was fine, the
servant stood ready with his master's spencer, and hat, and gloves, and
gold-headed cane, without which Mr Janrin never went abroad. Not
that he required it to support his steps, but it was the mark of a
gentleman. It had superseded the sword which he had worn in his youth.
I soon got to like these regular ways, and found them far pleasanter
than the irregularity of some houses where I had visited. I always
accompanied Mr Janrin when he walked, and derived great benefit
from his conversation, and though he offered me a seat in the coach in
bad weather, I saw that he was better pleased when I went on foot.
"Young men require exercise, and should not pamper themselves," he
observed; "but, James, I say, put a dry pair of shoes in your

pocket--therein is wisdom; and don't sit in your wet ones all day."
Thus it will be seen that I was treated by my worthy principal from the
first as a relative, and a true friend he was to me. But I was introduced
into the mysteries of mercantile affairs by Mr Gregory Thursby, the
head clerk. He lived over the counting-house, and on my first
appearance in it, before any of the other clerks had arrived, he was
there to receive me. He