- end_line
- 1964
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1907
- text
- Hospital, where they had nothing to do, but prepare themselves for
their latter end. And I wondered whether there were any such good
sailors among my ship-mates; and observing that one of them laid on
deck apart from the rest, I thought to be sure he must be one of them:
so I did not disturb his devotions: but I was afterward shocked at
discovering that he was only fast asleep, with one of the brown jugs by
his side.
I forgot to mention by the way, that every once in a while, the men
went into one corner, where the chief mate could not see them, to take
a “swig at the halyards,” as they called it; and this swigging at the
halyards it was, that enabled them “to taper off” handsomely, and no
doubt it was this, too, that had something to do with making them so
pleasant and sociable that night, for they were seldom so pleasant and
sociable afterward, and never treated me so kindly as they did then.
Yet this might have been owing to my being something of a stranger to
them, then; and our being just out of port. But that very night they
turned about, and taught me a bitter lesson; but all in good time.
I have said, that seeing how agreeable they were getting, and how
friendly their manner was, I began to feel a sort of compassion for
them, grounded on their sad conditions as amiable outcasts; and feeling
so warm an interest in them, and being full of pity, and being truly
desirous of benefiting them to the best of my poor powers, for I knew
they were but poor indeed, I made bold to ask one of them, whether he
was ever in the habit of going to church, when he was ashore, or
dropping in at the Floating Chapel I had seen lying off the dock in the
East River at New York; and whether he would think it too much of a
liberty, if I asked him, if he had any good books in his chest. He
stared a little at first, but marking what good language I used, seeing
my civil bearing toward him, he seemed for a moment to be filled with a
certain involuntary respect for me, and answered, that he had been to
church once, some ten or twelve years before, in London, and on a
week-day had helped to move the Floating Chapel round the Battery, from
the North River; and that was the only time he had seen it. For his
books, he said he did not know what I meant by good books; but if I
wanted the Newgate Calendar, and Pirate’s Own, he could lend them to
me.
When I heard this poor sailor talk in this manner, showing so plainly
his ignorance and absence of proper views of religion, I pitied him
more and more, and contrasting my own situation with his, I was
grateful that I was different from him; and I thought how pleasant it
was, to feel wiser and better than he could feel; though I was willing
to confess to myself, that it was not altogether my own good endeavors,
so much as my education, which I had received from others, that had
made me the upright and sensible boy I at that time thought myself to
be. And it was now, that I began to feel a good degree of complacency
and satisfaction in surveying my own character; for, before this, I had
previously associated with persons of a very discreet life, so that
there was little opportunity to magnify myself, by comparing myself
with my neighbors.
Thinking that my superiority to him in a moral way might sit uneasily
upon this sailor, I thought it would soften the matter down by giving
him a chance to show his own superiority to me, in a minor thing; for I
was far from being vain and conceited.
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