Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands | Page 3

extend my practice;
and so I found other patients in the dogs and cats around me. Many
luckless brutes were made to simulate diseases which were raging
among their owners, and had forced down their reluctant throats the
remedies which I deemed most likely to suit their supposed complaints.
And after a time I rose still higher in my ambition; and despairing of
finding another human patient, I proceeded to try my simples and
essences upon--myself.

When I was about twelve years old I was more frequently at my
mother's house, and used to assist her in her duties; very often sharing
with her the task of attending upon invalid officers or their wives, who
came to her house from the adjacent camp at Up-Park, or the military
station at Newcastle.
As I grew into womanhood, I began to indulge that longing to travel
which will never leave me while I have health and vigour. I was never
weary of tracing upon an old map the route to England; and never
followed with my gaze the stately ships homeward bound without
longing to be in them, and see the blue hills of Jamaica fade into the
distance. At that time it seemed most improbable that these girlish
wishes should be gratified; but circumstances, which I need not explain,
enabled me to accompany some relatives to England while I was yet a
very young woman.
I shall never forget my first impressions of London. Of course, I am not
going to bore the reader with them; but they are as vivid now as though
the year 18-- (I had very nearly let my age slip then) had not been long
ago numbered with the past. Strangely enough, some of the most vivid
of my recollections are the efforts of the London street-boys to poke
fun at my and my companion's complexion. I am only a little brown--a
few shades duskier than the brunettes whom you all admire so much;
but my companion was very dark, and a fair (if I can apply the term to
her) subject for their rude wit. She was hot-tempered, poor thing! and
as there were no policemen to awe the boys and turn our servants'
heads in those days, our progress through the London streets was
sometimes a rather chequered one.
I remained in England, upon the occasion of my first visit, about a year;
and then returned to Kingston. Before long I again started for London,
bringing with me this time a large stock of West Indian preserves and
pickles for sale. After remaining two years here, I again started home;
and on the way my life and adventures were very nearly brought to a
premature conclusion. Christmas-day had been kept very merrily on
board our ship the "Velusia;" and on the following day a fire broke out
in the hold. I dare say it would have resisted all the crew's efforts to put

it out, had not another ship appeared in sight; upon which the fire
quietly allowed itself to be extinguished. Although considerably
alarmed, I did not lose my senses; but during the time when the contest
between fire and water was doubtful, I entered into an amicable
arrangement with the ship's cook, whereby, in consideration of two
pounds--which I was not, however, to pay until the crisis arrived--he
agreed to lash me on to a large hen-coop.
Before I had been long in Jamaica I started upon other trips, many of
them undertaken with a view to gain. Thus I spent some time in New
Providence, bringing home with me a large collection of handsome
shells and rare shell-work, which created quite a sensation in Kingston,
and had a rapid sale; I visited also Hayti and Cuba. But I hasten onward
in my narrative.
Returned to Kingston, I nursed my old indulgent patroness in her last
long illness. After she died, in my arms, I went to my mother's house,
where I stayed, making myself useful in a variety of ways, and learning
a great deal of Creole medicinal art, until I couldn't find courage to say
"no" to a certain arrangement timidly proposed by Mr. Seacole, but
married him, and took him down to Black River, where we established
a store. Poor man! he was very delicate; and before I undertook the
charge of him, several doctors had expressed most unfavourable
opinions of his health. I kept him alive by kind nursing and attention as
long as I could; but at last he grew so ill that we left Black River, and
returned to my mother's house at Kingston. Within a month of our
arrival there he died. This was my first great trouble, and I felt it
bitterly. For days I never stirred--lost to all that passed around me in a
dull