Let me resume the thread of my own adventures.

As soon as my companions were gone, I tore the seal
from the packet. It contained a long and closely written
letter.

[figure description] Page 191.[end figure description]

The two first words irresistibly excited my curiosity.
The letter began—“My son”—

Perhaps I ought to apologize for laying the whole
paper before my readers. Although it was natural that
I should devour its contents with impatient eagerness, yet
it is more than probable that they will be fatigued by its
great length, and its occasionally unnecessary details.

I ought perhaps to have curtailed and abridged the
document, since, although it is necessary that the reader
should be acquainted with its main substance, yet it must
be confessed that its most important parts might have
been compressed into a much smaller compass.

I have, however, felt myself incapable of altering or
epitomizing the manuscript, and must content myself
with thus removing the responsibility of its prolixity from
my father to myself.

“My Son,

“I have prepared the following brief sketch of my life
under every disadvantage. I have been obliged to compile
it at intervals, and at stolen moments, when my exhausted
frame rather required repose, than the excitement
of which a retrospect of my past unhappy career
is sure to be the cause.

“I felt, however, that to myself and to my son, I owed
a duty which I owe to no other living mortal. I determined
for my son's sake that I would, as far as was in
my power, remove the load of obloquy that is likely to
rest upon my memory.

[figure description] Page 192.[end figure description]

“I have been the victim of my own early crimes, and
of a certain fatality which has always thrown my every
folly in the strongest light, while it cast a broad shadow
over every germ of virtue. A strong nature would have
been perhaps but slightly affected by the circumstances
which cast an early blight upon mine; but I was born
with an irritable and an impatient disposition.

“I found, or I thought I found, that I was the victim
of an unhappy fate. I felt myself continually placed in
situations in which there were few who would not have
erred, but which the generality of mankind are fortunate
enough to escape.

“If I formed a virtuous resolution, accident was sure
to prevent its execution; and at last a succession of misfortunes
acting upon a naturally despairing temperament,
produced their necessary result. I became reckless and
abandoned. It was evident that fate had intended me
for a scapegrace. My relations had always assured me
that such was the fact before I was old enough to understand
their meaning; with the utmost candour they had
always pointed to the gallows as the ultimate termination
of my career; and at last, so completely had I been convinced
by their arguments, that I already regarded it as
a settled matter, and looked complacently forward to that
goal as to the natural finale of my adventures.

“Thus you see one exemplification of the advantages
of making the worst of every thing. I dare say, if I had
ever received encouragement and occasional praise when
I deserved it, that I might have become a respectable
member of society.

“Your grandfather, John Morton, was a rich, steadygoing
old merchant. He intended his eldest son, Joshua,
who was always a studious and pains-taking, although

[figure description] Page 193.[end figure description]

an eccentric youth, for the bar; and wished me to succeed
him in his business.

“It was not my fault that this employment was not to
my taste. I had previously informed all concerned that
such was the fact; but finding it impossible to convince
any one, I was obliged to take the affair into my own
hands. Accordingly, I seized my first opportunity and
ran away. I had for some time possessed several valuable
acquaintances among the sea-faring gentry of my
native town. I exerted my influence with them, and
surreptitiously procured a passage in a brig bound to
Jamaica; this was when I was a little past my fourteenth
year.

“I have since been informed that my father was for a
short time quite inconsolable. After a day or two, however,
he consoled himself with the reflection that his
prophecies were now certain to be fulfilled. There could
now be no doubt that my destiny was the gallows. Accordingly
my doom was looked upon as sealed, and my
brother Joshua succeeded me in the arduous duties of
tasting treacle and counting sugar-boxes.

“When our brig was within a day or two of the successful
termination of her voyage, we one afternoon descried
a strange sail. It proved to be a schooner which
was evidently bearing down rapidly upon us. As this
was at the time when the celebrated buccaneers were
holding their carnival in the West Indian Archipelago,
you may conceive that our captain was not particularly
delighted with the prospect before us. He did his best to
escape, but the enemy had the longest legs. Within an
hour after her first appearance, the schooner was alongside
of us.

“As soon as we were within hailing distance a gruff

[figure description] Page 194.[end figure description]

voice desired our better acquaintance; and our captain
having complied with the polite invitation, the pirate
signified his intention of making us a visit. Resistance
was of course out of the question, as our whole force
amounted but to six men, and a one-legged negro. The
latter was a cook, and better adapted to his profession
than to any thing of a warlike character. As for myself
I was an undersized lad for my age, and although of considerable
importance in my own estimation, my existence
was hardly recognized in the brig.

“To be brief, the pirate came on board and ordered us
all into his own vessel. That we might feel no delicacy
about accepting his hospitality, he ordered each of us to
be escorted thither by two tall fellows from his own crew.
They answered all objections which we thought proper
to make, by binding our arms and gagging our mouths.
After these ingenious processes were completed, we all
observed a decorous silence.

“As soon as the coast was clear, the buccaneer amused
himself with inspecting our cargo. He had evidently
mistaken our character; for finding that the brig was
loaded merely with salt fish, and no other New England
delicacies, he was exceedingly disappointed. One would
have thought that he might have let us off, poor devils as
we were, when he found how unprofitable an adventure
it would turn out.

“The buccaneer had no such humane feelings. He
preferred making a bonfire of the vessel. He laid a
train accordingly, and then returned with his men to
his own ship.

“We had hardly got well out of the way when the
Jezebel blew up with a tremendous explosion. The
pirate pointed it out to us with great glee, and seemed

[figure description] Page 195.[end figure description]

to regard it as an affair got up for our special amusement.

“As soon, however, as that matter was settled, things
began to look serious. A cloud came over the buccaneer's
brow, and he began to abuse the captain for the
meagre character of his cargo. He logically expounded
to us that if he had known we had been no better worth
capturing he should have left us in peace, but that having
already taken the step he had, a due regard to his
own safety required our immediate immolation. He regretted
the measure he was obliged to take, but consoled
us with the assurance that we had nobody to blame but
ourselves. Having arrived at this conclusion, he commenced
operations by seizing the cook by his one leg,
and throwing him into the sea.

“Hereupon our captain by a spasmodic exertion forced
the gag from his mouth, and commenced an eloquent
remonstrance. In answer, the buccaneer told him to be
d—d, and cut his throat by way of expediting the
process.

“In five minutes all my unfortunate comrades were
butchered and thrown overboard. I was the last in the
row, but a savage-looking blackguard had his knuckles
already against my throat, when to my utter amazement
the captain ordered him to desist. Actuated by some
unaccountable freak, the captain signified his intention
of sparing my life. I was released accordingly, and refreshed
with some rum and water. The captain afterwards
told me that he was pleased with my countenance,
and had decided that in time I should make an excellent
pirate. He agreed to spare my life on condition of my
enlisting under the black flag. With an internal reflection
on the probable truth of my father's prognostications

[figure description] Page 196.[end figure description]

I consented. The love of life proved stronger than the
love of argument, otherwise it would have been an excellent
opportunity to have made my exit from life, for the
sake of giving all my friends the lie. The conviction
that I was born and educated for the gallows became
stronger. To what else but my evil destiny could it be
owing, that before I was fifteen I was already a buccaneer.

“In the cruise that succeeded I was comparatively but
little employed. There were one or two prizes made, but
without any bloodshed. So that fortunately for my
morality, the massacre of my own comrades was the only
one of which I was doomed to be present.

“After I had been at my piratical apprenticeship
about three weeks, the career of my companions already
approached its termination. The last capture that they
made was, indeed, the catching of a Tartar: for one fine
morning we were made a prize of by his majesty's
frigate the Tartar, carrying thirty guns.

“We were carried into Jamaica, and immediately
thrown into prison. The cheerful prophecies of my
friends were now apparently to be consummated. My
protestations of innocence, and the absurd account I
gave of myself were treated with contempt. In short,
the judges one and all, detected in the expression of my
countenance an evidence of ferocious depravity. It was
decided that I was the most abandoned of the gang.
When we were in court I reproached the captain of the
buccaneers with the fate to which he had brought me:
he answered me with sneers, and assured all present
that my story was a parcel of trumpery. There was
no struggling against my fate, so I gave up the point,
and accordingly after having doomed us all to death that

[figure description] Page 197.[end figure description]

day fortnight, the judge went to dinner, and we returned
to our dungeons.

“Luckily in the interval between our condemnation
and its consummation, one of the counsellors who had
compassion for my extreme youth, and who had not
been so entirely convinced by my depraved expression
(the result probably of the dungeon air and two months
starvation,) as the rest of the court, exerted himself to
procure a pardon for me.

“Aided by the full confession of two of the pirates,
he at last succeeded. My life was spared—the captain
was hung, and I had the laugh on my side.

“I emerged from the prison, and found myself once
more at large; as I had hardly a rag to my back, or a
halfpenny in my pocket, I thought after all that they
might as well have finished the matter. However, the
worthy counsellor once more came to aid, and by his assistance
I was put in possession of a few clothes and
other indispensables, and procured a passage in a homeward
bound vessel.

“The report of my adventures had, however, preceeded
me. Great additions and exaggerations were of
course liberally made, so that the most charitably disposed
believed that I had been convicted of robbery and
murder in the West Indies, but had been pardoned on
account of my extreme youth. This was deemed a
trivial offence compared with the catalogue of crimes
which report had already tacked to my fame; but still it
was sufficient to exclude me from the society of all decent
persons. My father cursed me, and banished me from
his presence; but my brother Joshua, the most kindhearted
of mortals, supplied my wants, and consoled me
with his occasional and stolen visits, although the load

[figure description] Page 198.[end figure description]

of evidence had also entirely convinced him of my
crimes.

“My father resisted all my efforts at conciliation and
justification. Joshua seconded them to the utmost of
his power but it was of no avail. I fell into despair, but
was at last roused by the information that my father
in a fit of extraordinary clemency, had consented to my
exportation to the Pacific in one of his whaling ships.

“The expedition was to last three years and perhaps
longer. This indulgence, he informed me through
Joshua (for he still refused to see me,) was to be ascribed
solely to my brother's intercession; and was not at all
in consequence of any change of opinion with regard to
my guilt or innocence.

“I had nothing for it therefore, but to turn whaler—
so a whaling I went.

“My education of course progressed in this course of
life; and my morals and manners were much improved
by the society of my associates. There now no longer
remained a doubt in my own mind regarding my inevitable
destiny.

“I throve and grew strong, however, on the luxuries
of my whaling life, so that after I had fairly circumnavigated
the globe, and finished my three years' voyage I
stepped on shore a full-grown man. The alteration in
my appearance was so complete that I was not recognized
by the few acquaintances whom I met. I hailed this
change as a lucky omen, for feeling that my former self
was not likely to be a very influential patron to me in
future, I rejoiced that I might assume as it were a new
character, and perhaps in time become a respectable
person.

“My old fate, however, was against me. The first

[figure description] Page 199.[end figure description]

evening of my arrival, as I was making my way to the
ship in search of my effects, I was assaulted by two strong
fellows, and robbed of my three years' wages. This was
not all, for a number of persons being aroused by the
bustle, the rogues contrived to make it appear that I was
the assailant, and very coolly accused me of assault and
robbery. The sapient spectators were as usual completely
convinced by my shabby dress and sinister expression,
so that half a dozen constables were called,
and I was shuffled into jail. In the mean time the
real rogues effected their escape.

“The next morning my father and brother were informed
of the arrival of the ship, and at the same moment
learned that their hopeful relative had been committed
for robbery and murder the first evening of his
arrival.

“Even the benevolent Joshua now gave me up, and
although I was of course after a few days' repose in the
prison, released by the non-appearance of my accusers;
yet my doom was fixed, and not a voice found a single
argument in my favour.

“As I was now abandoned by every human being, I
resolved to leave the place where my position in society
could no longer be considered an eligible one. I had
had enough of the sea, so I resolved to push into the
wilderness. I made my way into the valley of the
Connecticut, which I knew was the constant seat of
Indian warfare, and resolved if possible to gain a livelihood
by earning the bounty upon Indian scalps. It
seemed to me that this business was the only one in
which my shabby character was not likely to prevent
success.

“I settled in D—, and made the acquaintance of

[figure description] Page 200.[end figure description]

one of the settlers. Agriculture was at that time carried
on with a spade in one hand, and a loaded musket in
the other. The farmer, whose name was Killburn, was
willing to take me as an apprentice. He furnished me
with a hoe and a rifle, and I soon made a rapid progress
in the trade. I found Indian hunting, as it was then
practised, an exhilarating amusement, and, in the course
of a few years, my industry, and the sale of my scalps,
enabled me to lay by a tolerable sum.

“I removed a little further up the river, and purchased
a small tract of land.

“Three years had now elapsed since I had seen or heard
from any one of my relations. One day however, I was
profoundly astonished at receiving a letter from Joshua.
This gentle-tempered brother informed me that he had
been afflicted upon hearing of my departure, and regretted
his hastiness. Although he did not intimate to
me that his opinions with regard to the real truth of my
past career had undergone any change, but on the contrary,
gave me pretty plainly to understand that he still
considered me, to his sorrow, as a tolerably abandoned
young gentleman, yet he begged to inform me that any
assistance I might be in need of would be most cheerfully
furnished by him. He furthermore informed me,
that our youngest brother, Augustine Morton, and himself
had been passing a summer in a village about
twenty miles from me—that our father had stationed
him there to superintend the clearing and cultivating of
some very extensive tracts of land which he had purchased
a few years previously; and to conclude, that
Augustine was about to marry a daughter of a wealthy
pioneer in the valley.

“All this information I received as I was about

[figure description] Page 201.[end figure description]

departing on an expedition of unusual importance. A
strong party of Pequods, the most inveterate Englishhaters
of the New England tribes, had lately assaulted
the village of P—, and after massacreing several families
had concluded with setting fire to the place, and departing
with a number of captives.

“I had immediately assembled a strong party of friends
who desired nothing better than to wreak their vengeance
on the accursed savages. We swore to pursue their
trail and to rescue the captives, or according to the usual
heroic formula, to perish in the attempt.

“I read my brother's letter, thrust it hastily in my bosom,
and then set off on our scouting party.”