He lived ashore in a nicely furnished house.

The shipwrights were giving it to him rent-free.
Fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, and ice came to this house every day, and he paid for none of it.

It was part of his graft from the various merchants.

And all the while, with tears in his eyes, he bemoaned the vile treatment I was receiving from the gang.

No, I did not fall among thieves.