and I for one was not sorry. There is a good deal of incident, even when you get on shore, over a collision case. The solicitor’s clerks are very busy collecting or procuring evidence of sorts. I believe there is more honest perjury in collision cases than in any other. It appears to me that no two men view the same thing in exactly the same light. Thus-- (_a_) There is the thing as it happened. (_b_) The thing as each individual thought it happened. (_c_) The thing that you state in court, after your solicitor has persuaded you the particular manner in which it ought to have happened. After we got a new crank-shaft and repaired damages we had a change of captains. Draper had to stay behind for the law business, and I was once more shipmate with Vyvyan. The voyage passed pleasantly and without incident. I had been warned before leaving Southampton to hold myself in readiness to transfer to a coasting steamer, but as no one gave me positive orders to go I made the complete trip, one of the most pleasurable of all, the passage home being very jolly, with nice passengers. I was ordered out as a passenger in the _African_ to serve on the coast, and was told it was a compliment to be selected for the post, but that will need another chapter. CHAPTER VII “One meets now and then with polished men, who know everything.”--EMERSON. I regretted to leave the _Syria_ chiefly because I had grown to thoroughly appreciate the character of my captain, and to enjoy the many talks we had on subjects connected with the sea and matters relating to seamen. He was an exceptional man, as his after career has proved, but he was not liked by every one, and for the matter of that, what man worth his salt ever is? When I had arrived home, Captain Ker, the superintendent, asked me why I had not stayed on the coast, to which I replied that no man bade me do so. “Then you will go out in the _African_ as a passenger,” he retorted, “and relieve Mr. Owen.”