On getting on board, I had no little difficulty at first in speaking
English, and I found that I had almost entirely forgotten how to read
and write. Newman, however, used to have me every day into his cabin,
and I very soon recovered the knowledge I had lost. Indeed, he took as
much pains to instruct me as he had done on board the whaler, and he
encouraged me with the hope that he might get me appointed as one of his
mates while he remained in the schooner. But alas! I found that in one
point he was still unchanged. Religion was yet a stranger to his soul.
At length we reached Batavia. He went on shore in high spirits, telling
me that he was going to visit the lady to whom he was engaged; but he
let me know that he must call also on another who had formed an
attachment for him, that he might pacify her respecting his intended
marriage. I feared from what he said that all was not right. I
expected him on board again that night, but he did not return.
In the morning he did not come, so with some anxiety I went on shore to
inquire for him. For a long time I searched in vain. At last I met a
person whom I guessed to be an Englishman.
"Your captain do you ask for?" he answered. "Look there!"
Some police-officers stood at the door of a house. They allowed me to
enter. On the floor of a room at the side lay a body. A cloth covered
the face. I lifted it up. There I beheld all that remained of the
highly endowed Edward Newman, for by no other name did I know him. He
had been poisoned through fiery jealousy. A cup, in pretended
friendship, had been laughingly offered him. Unsuspiciously he had
drunk of it. The Government seized the murderess, who paid the penalty
of her crime with her life.
Thus died one who was well calculated to shine in the higher walks of
life. Who he was, whence he came, or even the slightest clue to his
previous history, I was never able to ascertain. In a strange land he
died, far away from kindred and friends--if, indeed, he had any--his
fate for ever unknown to them. Let this be a warning to those who hear
the sad conclusion of his history. The highest talents, and the most
undaunted courage and perseverance, will avail a man nothing, unless at
the same time he be under the guidance of principle.
The death of my friend threw me completely adrift, and I was glad to
find an opportunity of working my passage to England on board a ship
just going to sail for Liverpool.
Once more I stood on my native shore, a care-worn, weather-beaten man,
well advanced in years. On inquiring for the bank in which I had
invested the savings of my former voyage, I found that it had failed,
and that I was as poor as when I began the world, with this difference,
that I had a profession, and had bought a large amount of experience
with the money I had squandered--which is not always the case with
spend-thrifts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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