While shivering with ague, and thinking of my wretched fare on board the schooner John, and my uncomfortable lodgings during the passage from Savannah, I listened, with patience at least, to the suggestions of my friends about a change of occupation.

Arrangements were accordingly made by which I was to bid adieu to the seas forever.
It cost me something to abandon a vocation to which I had looked for years as the stepping-stone to success in life; and as my health and spirits returned, I began to doubt whether I was acting wisely; but having embarked in a new pursuit, I determined to go ahead, and to this determination I unflinchingly adhered, for at least THREE MONTHS, when I fell in with a distant relation, Captain Nathaniel Page, of Salem, who was about proceeding on a voyage to the Brazils.

After expressing surprise at my course in abandoning the sea, he more than hinted that if I wished a situation before the mast with him, it was at my service.
This was applying the linstock to the priming with a vengeance.

My good resolutions vanished like a wreath of vapor before a westerly gale.
Those longings which I had endeavored to stifle, returned with more than their original force.

In fancy's eye, I saw a marlinspike where Macbeth saw the dagger, and snuffed the fragrance of a tar-bucket in every breeze.
At the expiration of three days after my interview with Captain Page, I took the stage coach and proceeded to Salem.