Poor Henry Sin from quite a child, I fear, was always rather wild; But all his faults were due To something free and unrestrained, That partly pleased and partly pained The people whom he knew. Untaught (for what our times require), Lazy, and something of a liar, He had a foolish way Of always swearing (more or less); And, lastly, let us say A little slovenly in dress, A trifle prone to drunkenness; A gambler also to excess, And never known to pay. As for his clubs in London, he Was pilled at ten, expelled from three. A man Bohemian as could be-- But really vicious? Oh, no! When these are mentioned, all is said. And then--Commander Sin is dead: _De Mortuis cui bono?_ [Illustration ** Sin and our traveller playing cards and gambling.] Of course, the Public know I mean To publish in the winter. I mention the intention in Connection with Commander Sin; The book is with the Printer. And here, among the proofs, I find The very thing I had in mind-- The portrait upon page thirteen. [Illustration ** Portrait of Sin in a slightly tattered military dress uniform.] Pray pause awhile, and mark The wiry limbs, the vigorous mien, The tangled hair and dark; The glance imperative and hot, That takes a world by storm: All these are in the plate, but what You chiefly should observe is The--Did you say his uniform Betrayed a foreign service? Of course, it does! He was not born In little England! No! Beyond the Cape, beyond the Horn, Beyond Fernando Po, In some far Isle he saw the light That burns the torrid zone, But where it lay was never quite Indubitably known. Himself inclined to Martinique, His friends to Farralone. But why of this discussion speak? The Globe was all his own! Oh! surely upon such a birth No petty flag unfurled! He was a citizen of earth, A subject of the world! As for the uniform he bore, He won it in the recent war Between Peru and Ecuador, And thoroughly he earned it. Alone of all who at the time Were serving sentences for crime, Sin, during his incarceration Had studied works on navigation; And when the people learned it, They promptly let him out of jail, But on condition he should sail. [Illustration ** Prisoner Sin with ball and chain speaking with three military gentlemen.]