My First Voyage to Southern Seas | Page 4

educated, but, at the same
time, those who possess it are not fitted for those pursuits in life which
bring them into contact and competition with all classes and orders of
men. They should not be thrown among the crowd struggling on to gain
wealth, or name, or station, or they most assuredly will be trampled
under foot. So our father said, and I think he judged rightly, when he
advised Herbert to fix his thoughts on becoming a minister of the
gospel. "If I am considered worthy, there is no vocation I would so
gladly follow," was dear Herbert's answer. Those who knew him best
would most assuredly have said that he was worthy, compared to the
usual standard of frail human nature.
The time to which I have now been alluding was during our summer
holidays. We all three went to a first-rate school near Blackheath,
where I believe we were general favourites. I know that Alfred and
Herbert were, and I had many friends among the boys, while the
masters always expressed themselves kindly towards me. If not exactly
what is called studiously disposed, I was, at all events, fond of learning
and reading, and gaining information in every variety of way, and the
commendations I received from my masters encouraged me to be
diligent and attentive. My father also was pleased with my progress;
and as I delighted in giving him pleasure, I had another strong motive
to study hard, not only what I especially liked--for there is very little

virtue in that--but what I was told would ultimately prove a benefit to
me. I was especially fond of reading about foreign countries, and I
thought to myself, if I am not allowed to enter the navy, I will, at all
events, become a great traveller, and, perhaps, as a merchant, be able to
visit all those wonderful lands, with the accounts of which I am now so
much interested. I will not dwell upon my school life. It was a very
happy one. We were boarders, but we came home frequently, and we
did not thereby lose the love of home; for my part, I think we loved it
the more for frequently going to it. We kept up our home interests, had
our home amusements, and our home pets. Our more particular friends
among our school-fellows frequently came home with us, especially to
spend their Easter and Michaelmas holidays, when they would
otherwise have had to remain at school. We had also generally a good
supply of eatables, and for these and the reasons of which I have before
spoken, we were probably altogether the most popular boys at school.
Alfred had been so, and so was Herbert, and I in time came in for my
share of popularity, and, as I found, for what is far more valuable, of
sincere, true friendship. We all at that time undoubtedly enjoyed the
sunshine of prosperity.
We heard occasionally from Alfred; but he was not an apt penman, and
did not prove himself so good a correspondent as we had hoped. We
had a letter from him written at Rio de Janeiro, and a short one from the
Cape of Good Hope. Then the ship went to India, and was there a
couple of years, during which time he wrote occasionally. At last he
sent us a few hurried lines from the Mauritius, saying that he was well,
but that the frigate was about to return to India, and on her way to visit
several interesting places.
Waiting for some time after the receipt of that letter, we began to be
anxious about receiving another, but none came. Day after day, week
after week, and month after month passed by, and we heard nothing.
Our disappointment was great, but our anxiety did not increase in the
same proportion, as we had no doubt that his letters had by some means
miscarried. We never allowed ourselves to suppose for a moment that
the ship had been lost, or that any other misfortune had occurred, still
less that Alfred himself was ill or had died. None of us, it seemed,

could have borne that thought. At last my father became really anxious
and wrote to the captain. He waited for a long time for a reply, and at
last he got one, not from the former captain, who had died from fever,
but from the officer who had been first lieutenant when my brother
sailed, saying that Mr Marsden had thought fit to quit his ship without
leave; he could not be considered as belonging to the navy, and that,
therefore, he had no further charge over him. He did not say where
Alfred had left the ship, or when, or why, allowing us to remain most
cruelly in a