Occasionally, during his advance towards manhood, he was engaged with the neighbouring farmers, when, during such occupation, an incident, of _apparently_ no material importance, occurred, which constituted, under the ordering of an allwise and gracious Providence, the grand turning-point in his destiny, from a probable ordinary and unobserved occupation, to a stirring, adventurous and conspicuous life. The change was induced by some unpleasant treatment he received from the family with whom he was residing. He became disgusted with a position which, without satisfying the natural capabilities and enterprise of his mind, exposed him to such indignities. The idea had, probably, been often in his mind before; but he now first resolved on leaving the occupation for which his father had destined him, and on trying at the nearest sea-port, Whitby, the adventure of a seafaring life. It is somewhat curious that the course of life, in respect to the adoption of a seafaring profession, of two individuals,—Captain Cook and my Father,—whose names are associated with much of interest in the history of Whitby, and who became, in their relative degrees, conspicuous as adventurous seamen,—turned upon apparently trifling incidents; and, as to the exciting of feelings of disgust with their previous occupations, of a similar character. James Cook, like my Father, was, in early youth, employed along with his father, in agricultural labours.[B] His turn of mind, however, being suited to something requiring more tact than the ordinary toils in which farmers’ boys were wont to be engaged, he was removed from the work of the field to that of the counter, with the view of learning the business of a country shopkeeper. It was at the fishing town of Staiths, about ten miles north-west of Whitby, and at the shop of a Mr. W. Sanderson, haberdasher, where Cook, at the age of sixteen or seventeen, entered on his new employment; and it was whilst there that the incident, which led to his abandonment of domestic trade for sea-life, occurred.