[Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas by Herman Melville]@TWC D-Link bookOmoo: Adventures in the South Seas CHAPTER VII 5/7
He told me his history.
Thrown upon the world a foundling, his paternal origin was as much a mystery to him as the genealogy of Odin; and, scorned by everybody, he fled the parish workhouse when a boy, and launched upon the sea.
He had followed it for several years, a dog before the mast, and now he had thrown it up for ever. And for the most part, it is just this sort of men--so many of whom are found among sailors--uncared for by a single soul, without ties, reckless, and impatient of the restraints of civilization, who are occasionally found quite at home upon the savage islands of the Pacific.
And, glancing at their hard lot in their own country, what marvel at their choice? According to the renegado, there was no other white man on the island; and as the captain could have no reason to suppose that Hardy intended to deceive us, he concluded that the Frenchmen were in some way or other mistaken in what they had told us.
However, when our errand was made known to the rest of our visitors, one of them, a fine, stalwart fellow, his face all eyes and expression, volunteered for a cruise.
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