The Wreck of the Golden Mary | Page 4

rather badly.
At last, being strong and hearty, and having read every book I could lay
hold of, right out, I was walking down Leadenhall Street in the City of
London, thinking of turning-to again, when I met what I call Smithick
and Watersby of Liverpool. I chanced to lift up my eyes from looking
in at a ship's chronometer in a window, and I saw him bearing down
upon me, head on.
It is, personally, neither Smithick, nor Watersby, that I here mention,
nor was I ever acquainted with any man of either of those names, nor
do I think that there has been any one of either of those names in that
Liverpool House for years back. But, it is in reality the House itself that
I refer to; and a wiser merchant or a truer gentleman never stepped.
"My dear Captain Ravender," says he. "Of all the men on earth, I
wanted to see you most. I was on my way to you."
"Well!" says I. "That looks as if you WERE to see me, don't it?" With
that I put my arm in his, and we walked on towards the Royal
Exchange, and when we got there, walked up and down at the back of it
where the Clock-Tower is. We walked an hour and more, for he had

much to say to me. He had a scheme for chartering a new ship of their
own to take out cargo to the diggers and emigrants in California, and to
buy and bring back gold. Into the particulars of that scheme I will not
enter, and I have no right to enter. All I say of it is, that it was a very
original one, a very fine one, a very sound one, and a very lucrative one
beyond doubt.
He imparted it to me as freely as if I had been a part of himself. After
doing so, he made me the handsomest sharing offer that ever was made
to me, boy or man--or I believe to any other captain in the Merchant
Navy--and he took this round turn to finish with:
"Ravender, you are well aware that the lawlessness of that coast and
country at present, is as special as the circumstances in which it is
placed. Crews of vessels outward-bound, desert as soon as they make
the land; crews of vessels homeward-bound, ship at enormous wages,
with the express intention of murdering the captain and seizing the gold
freight; no man can trust another, and the devil seems let loose. Now,"
says he, "you know my opinion of you, and you know I am only
expressing it, and with no singularity, when I tell you that you are
almost the only man on whose integrity, discretion, and energy--" &c.,
&c. For, I don't want to repeat what he said, though I was and am
sensible of it.
Notwithstanding my being, as I have mentioned, quite ready for a
voyage, still I had some doubts of this voyage. Of course I knew,
without being told, that there were peculiar difficulties and dangers in it,
a long way over and above those which attend all voyages. It must not
be supposed that I was afraid to face them; but, in my opinion a man
has no manly motive or sustainment in his own breast for facing
dangers, unless he has well considered what they are, and is able
quietly to say to himself, "None of these perils can now take me by
surprise; I shall know what to do for the best in any of them; all the rest
lies in the higher and greater hands to which I humbly commit myself."
On this principle I have so attentively considered (regarding it as my
duty) all the hazards I have ever been able to think of, in the ordinary
way of storm, shipwreck, and fire at sea, that I hope I should be

prepared to do, in any of those cases, whatever could be done, to save
the lives intrusted to my charge.
As I was thoughtful, my good friend proposed that he should leave me
to walk there as long as I liked, and that I should dine with him
by-and-by at his club in Pall Mall. I accepted the invitation and I
walked up and down there, quarter-deck fashion, a matter of a couple
of hours; now and then looking up at the weathercock as I might have
looked up aloft; and now and then taking a look into Cornhill, as I
might have taken a look over the side.
All dinner-time, and all after dinner-time, we talked it over again. I
gave him my views of his plan, and he very much approved of the same.
I told him I had nearly decided, but not