John Paul took the captain's place, for no one else knew so much about seamanship. This was a daring thing for one so young, as he was not yet twenty years old. When he brought the vessel safely into port, the owners were so grateful to him that they made him the captain. Soon afterward he sailed for the West Indies. The carpenter on board was, one day, very disrespectful to the young captain. He was punished by a flogging, and was discharged. Not long after this he died of a fever. The enemies of John Paul, who were jealous of him, thought this was their chance to do him harm. They said that the flogging had killed the carpenter. Many people believed this, and when John Paul again returned to Scotland, he found that his friends had lost their faith in him. During the next two years he made several voyages, but all the while he remembered the injustice done to him. He finally succeeded, however, in proving to his friends that he was worthy of their confidence. III.--THE BEGINNING OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. When John Paul visited his brother in Virginia, America was not much like what it is now. Most of the country was an unexplored wilderness, and there was no United States as we know it to-day. Some large settlements, known as colonies, had been made in that part of the country which lies between the Atlantic Ocean and the Alleghany Mountains. Most of the people who lived in these colonies were English, and their governors were appointed by the king of England. Each governor, with the help of a few men whom he chose from the people, would make laws for the colony. Not all the laws were made in this way. Sometimes the king, without caring for the wishes of the colonists, would make laws to suit himself. Up to this time the people had been obedient and loyal to their king. But when George the Third came to the throne of England, he caused the people a great deal of trouble. He sent orders to the governors that the colonists should trade with no other country than his own. All their goods should be bought in England, and, to pay for them, they must send to the same country all the corn, cotton, and tobacco which they had to sell. The colonists wished to build factories and weave their own cloth, but the king would not allow this. For a long while England had been at war with France. King George said that the colonists should help pay the expenses of that war, and therefore he began to tax them heavily. They were obliged to pay a tax on every pound of tea, and stamped paper must be bought for every legal document. The colonists were much aroused on account of the tea tax and the stamp act, as it was called. One day startling news came to John Paul in Virginia. A shipload of tea had anchored in Boston harbor. The colonists declared that they would not pay the tax on this tea, and some of them, dressed as Indians, had gone on board the vessel and thrown it all into the harbor.