"I shall be very glad to do it," said he, "if your father can be prevailed on to let you go; and as I want an expert smith for an armourer, the one I have shipped for that purpose not being sufficiently master of his trade, I have no doubt that you will answer my turn well, as I perceive you are both active and ingenious, and on my return to America I shall probably be able to do something much better for you in Boston. I will take the first opportunity of speaking to your father about it, and try to persuade him to consent." He accordingly, the next evening that he called at our house, introduced the subject: my father at first would not listen to the proposal. That best of parents, though anxious for my advantageous establishment in life, could not bear to think of parting with me, but on Captain Salter's telling him of what benefit it would be to me to go the voyage with him, and that it was a pity to keep a promising and ingenious young fellow like myself confined to a small shop in England, when if I had tolerable success I might do so much better in America, where wages were much higher and living cheaper, he at length gave up his objections, and consented that I should ship on board the _Boston_ as an armourer, at the rate of thirty dollars per month, with an agreement that the amount due to me, together with a certain sum of money, which my father gave Captain Salter for that purpose, should be laid out by him on the North-West coast in the purchase of furs for my account, to be disposed of in China for such goods as would yield a profit on the return of the ship; my father being solicitous to give me every advantage in his power of well establishing myself in my trade in Boston, or some other maritime town of America. Such were the flattering expectations which this good man indulged respecting me. Alas! the fatal disaster that befell us, not only blasted all these hopes, but involved me in extreme distress and wretchedness for a long period after.