Indeed, this wish to go abroad, to encounter dangers on the mighty deep, to visit foreign countries and climes, to face shipwrecks and disasters, became a passion.

It was my favorite theme of talk by day, and the subject of my dreams by night.

As I increased in years my longing for a sailor's life also increased; and whenever my schoolfellows and myself were conversing about the occupations we should select as the means of gaining a livelihood hereafter, I invariably said, "I will be a sailor." Had my parents lived, it is possible that this deep-seated inclination might have been thwarted; that my destiny might have taken another shape.

But my father died while I was quite young, and my mother survived him but a few years.

She lived long enough, however, to convince me that there is nothing more pure, disinterested, and enduring than a mother's love, and that those who are deprived of this blessing meet at the outset of their pilgrimage a misfortune which can never be remedied.