Withal I was puzzled: if slavery
was not to be my lot, what had my enemies gained?
But I was soon, in sooth, in no state either to feed my imagination
or to nurse my wrongs. The unaccustomed motion of the vessel
produced on me the effect which but few escape; and we were no
sooner fairly out in the Channel than I turned sick, and suffered
the more severely, as I was told afterwards, because I had had no
food for upwards of fifteen hours. For a whole day I lay in
helpless misery: but then Captain Cawson (so he was named) himself
came to me, hauled me to my feet, and with an oath bade me go and
scrub the floor of the cook's galley. At the time I thought him a
monster of brutality, driving me to my death; but I soon learned
that nothing prolongs sea sickness, or indeed any sickness, so much
as brooding on it, and the activity thus forced upon me had some
part, I doubt not, in hastening my recovery.
From that time I was the ship's drudge. At everybody's beck and
call, I was employed from morning till night in all kinds of menial
offices. It was a hard life, and the treatment meted out to me was
rough; but having got the better of my first rage and indignation,
I resolved to make the best of my situation and to show no
sullenness; besides I honestly wished to learn all that I could of
a sailor's duty, and felt some little amusement in thinking that,
if my enemies had sought this way of crushing me, they had very
much mistaken their man.
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