abroad; his father turning to me with a very grave and concerned tone,
"Young man," says he, "you ought never to go to sea any more; you ought
to take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be a
seafaring man,"--"Why, Sir," said I, "will you go to sea no more?" "That
is another case," said he; "it is my calling, and therefore my duty; but
as you made this voyage for a trial, you see what a taste Heaven has
given you of what you are to expect if you persist. Perhaps this has all
befallen us on your account, like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray,"
continues he, "what are you; and on what account did you go to sea?"
Upon that I told him some of my story; at the end of which he burst out
with a strange kind of passion; "What had I done," says he, "that such
an unhappy wretch should come into my ship? I would not set my foot in
the same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds," This indeed was,
as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the
sense of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go.
However, he afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhorting me to go
back to my father, and not tempt Providence to my ruin; told me I might
see a visible hand of Heaven against me. "And young man," said he,
"depend upon it, if you do not go back, wherever you go, you will meet
with nothing but disasters and disappointments, till your father's words
are fulfilled upon you."

We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and I saw him no
more: which way he went, I know not. As for me, having some money in my
pocket, I travelled to London by land; and there, as well as on the
road, had many struggles with myself, what course of life I should
take, and whether I should go home, or go to sea.

As to going home, shame opposed the best notions that offered to my
thoughts; and it immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at