His career as an officer in the mercantile navy was cut short by a period of imprisonment in a small town in Madagascar.
He did not specify his offence, but gave a vivid account of life in the gaol.
'There were twenty of us altogether,' he said--'nineteen niggers and myself.

There was no nonsense about discipline or work.

We just sat about all day in an open courtyard, with nothing but a big iron gate between us and liberty.

All the same, there was very little chance of escape.

There were always four black soldiers on guard, truculent scoundrels with curly swords.