He had such adventures as our modern boys sit up at night to read of.

For there were pirates to be encountered then, flesh-and-blood pirates with black flags and the rest of it.

And deep-sea storms meant more in those days of sails and comparatively light vessels than we can even imagine today.

So swiftly did Peter grow up under this stern yet thrilling education with the English colours, that after four short years he was a lieutenant.

And in another six, at an age when most young men are barely standing on the threshold of their life-work, he was posted a full captain and given his first command! His ship was H.M.S._Grafton_, of seventy guns,--no small honour for a boy of hardly twenty-four,--and it proved to be no empty honour either.