- end_line
- 8605
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 8548
- text
- Harry! indifferent to my historic mosses, and caring not for my annual
verdure, thou must needs be lured by other tassels, and wouldst fain,
like the Prodigal, squander thy patrimony, then, go not away from old
Bury to do it. For here, on Angel-Hill, are my coffee and card-rooms,
and billiard saloons, where you may lounge away your mornings, and
empty your glass and your purse as you list.
In vain. Bury was no place for the adventurous Harry, who must needs
hie to London, where in one winter, in the company of gambling
sportsmen and dandies, he lost his last sovereign.
What now was to be done? His friends made interest for him in the
requisite quarters, and Harry was soon embarked for Bombay, as a
midshipman in the East India service; in which office he was known as a
_“guinea-pig,”_ a humorous appellation then bestowed upon the middies
of the Company. And considering the perversity of his behavior, his
delicate form, and soft complexion, and that gold guineas had been his
bane, this appellation was not altogether, in poor Harry’s case,
inapplicable.
He made one voyage, and returned; another, and returned; and then threw
up his warrant in disgust. A few weeks’ dissipation in London, and
again his purse was almost drained; when, like many prodigals, scorning
to return home to his aunt, and amend—though she had often written him
the kindest of letters to that effect—Harry resolved to precipitate
himself upon the New World, and there carve out a fresh fortune. With
this object in view, he packed his trunks, and took the first train for
Liverpool. Arrived in that town, he at once betook himself to the
docks, to examine the American shipping, when a new crotchet entered
his brain, born of his old sea reminiscences. It was to assume duck
browsers and tarpaulin, and gallantly cross the Atlantic as a sailor.
There was a dash of romance in it; a taking abandonment; and scorn of
fine coats, which exactly harmonized with his reckless contempt, at the
time, for all past conventionalities.
Thus determined, he exchanged his trunk for a mahogany chest; sold some
of his superfluities; and moved his quarters to the sign of the Gold
Anchor in Union-street.
After making his acquaintance, and learning his intentions, I was all
anxiety that Harry should accompany me home in the Highlander, a desire
to which he warmly responded.
Nor was I without strong hopes that he would succeed in an application
to the captain; inasmuch as during our stay in the docks, three of our
crew had left us, and their places would remain unsupplied till just
upon the eve of our departure.
And here, it may as well be related, that owing to the heavy charges to
which the American ships long staying in Liverpool are subjected, from
the obligation to continue the wages of their seamen, when they have
little or no work to employ them, and from the necessity of boarding
them ashore, like lords, at their leisure, captains interested in the
ownership of their vessels, are not at all indisposed to let their
sailors abscond, if they please, and thus forfeit their money; for they
well know that, when wanted, a new crew is easily to be procured,
through the crimps of the port.
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