"Shortly before my fourteenth birthday I was offered a midshipman's rating on board the _Thetis_, a fine 36-gun frigate which had been taken from the French and purchased into the navy in 1808; and as my father--a retired rear-admiral who had served with distinction under Keppel and Rodney--was determined that I should follow in his footsteps and serve King George afloat, I bade farewell to the old school and all my chums and journeyed down to Chatham, where the frigate was `fitting foreign.' "Those were stirring times in the navy, I can tell you, my friends! and our captain was no niggard of shot and shell; indeed a more dashing officer never trod his majesty's quarter-deck! "His invariable rule was to engage every Frenchman under a `74' that he fell in with, and he certainly managed to fall in with a good many; so that during the four years I remained in the _Thetis_ I saw my share of fighting, and was twice wounded--once when engaged in a `cutting-out' affair, and again in action with a 50-gun ship, which I'm proud to say we took. "Having powerful interest at the Admiralty it was not long before I received my commission, and when barely twenty years of age I was appointed second lieutenant of the _Dido_, a corvette on the West Indian station. "My messmates regarded me as one of fortune's special favourites, but the `fickle goddess' treated me scurvily enough in the end; and if my promotion had been rapid, at any rate I was not destined to enjoy it for any length of time. "Whilst at Jamaica I stumbled up against my old school-fellow, Mat Flinders, then a lieutenant in the --th Foot. Mat was quartered at Kingston, and as the _Dido_ had been docked to undergo certain repairs we saw a good deal of each other, and renewed our friendship. "But now it was that Dame Fortuna began to frown upon me, or perhaps it would be more honest to say that I incurred her displeasure by my rash conduct. It so happened that I had the ill-luck to offend my captain, a man of imperious overbearing temper; high words ensued between us, and in a moment of ungovernable passion I knocked him down. Of course my prospects in the navy were for ever blighted; no provocation could be urged as an excuse for such a gross act of insubordination; no interest with the `powers that be' could shield me from the consequences of my rash act. "A court-martial assembled, and I was tried, found guilty of the charges preferred against me, and sentenced to be dismissed his majesty's service. "My fair-weather friends gave me the cold shoulder, for Captain B--was a near relation of the Governor and a man of considerable influence; so everybody took his part, and abused me roundly. No, not everybody! I had one true friend--Matthew Flinders. If I were to tell all that Tom's father did for me during that miserable time I might keep you round this table until we reach Table Bay. Suffice it to say, that never did poor unfortunate meet with a kinder or stauncher comrade.