also by other causes of irritation, he decided at one time to quit the
Navy. No indication of such feeling, however, appears in his letters.
On the contrary, one of the surest signs with him of pleasurable, or
at least of interested, excitement, was now manifested in his
improving health. As he himself said, many years later, "To say the
truth, when I am actively employed I am not so bad."[17] A month
after reaching England, though then midsummer, he wrote: "It is not
kind in one's native air to treat a poor wanderer as it has me since
my arrival. The rain and cold at first gave me a sore throat and its
accompaniments; the hot weather has given me a slow fever, not
absolutely bad enough to keep my bed, yet enough to hinder me from
doing anything;" and again, "I have scarcely been able to hold up my
head." In blustering October, on the other hand, while in the midst of
the detested Impress work, he says: "My health, thank God, was never
better, and I am fit for any quarter of the globe;" although "it rains
hard, and we have had very bad weather of late." Whatever momentary
vexation he may have vented in a hasty expression, it was entirely
inconsistent with his general tone to take amiss an employment whose
vital importance he would have been the first to admit. Lack of zeal,
or haggling about the duty assigned him, was entirely foreign to his
character; that the country needed the men who were to be pressed was
reason sufficient for one of his temper. If, indeed, there had been an
apparent intention to keep him in such inglorious occupation, and out
of the expected war, he might have chafed; but his orders to be
constantly ready indicated the intention to send him at once to the
front, if hostilities began. Doubtless he was disappointed that the
application he made for a ship-of-the-line was not granted; but he
knew that, being still a very young captain, what he asked was a
favor, and its refusal not a grievance, nor does he seem to have
looked upon it otherwise.