At early light we were called and made to get ready for the remainder of the journey, not being allowed any breakfast. On our arrival at Chicopee Falls I was given up to the tender mercies of one—— the then reigning tyrant of Chicopee Falls, occupying the station highest in the gift of the Manufacturing Corporation, viz: that of Agent. His tyranny I felt to be far more oppressive than that of any other power I was ever doomed to submit to. The remembrance of that morning scene[32] will cling closely to my mind, when all others shall have been obliterated. Years have passed since its transaction, yet my blood almost ceases to flow when by memory I am carried back to those days. I went into the mill, but I went with a heart thirsting for revenge. My stay was short. By the first of July I had got a few dollars together, and I resolved that on the fourth I would declare myself free and independent, at least from the tyranny of——. On the morning of the fifth, at an early hour, I bade adieu to home and all I held dear, resolved that never again would I even visit the scene of my childhood. I went to Hartford, took passage to Boston, thence to New Bedford, shipped myself on board a brig bound to the coast of Africa, on a whaling expedition. [33] CHAPTER II. Leaves New Bedford. Touch at the Azores. Description of them. Encounter a heavy squall. The author is struck by lightning. Goes on shore at Fernando Po for water. Trade with the natives. Treatment offered a thief. See a native suffering with the Chiger. Deceive a British Man-of-War. Have poor success and sail for the Brazil Banks. Providential escape at Barbadoes. Land at St. Vincent. Great frolic with the natives. Thrown in prison. Sail for N. Bedford. Storm in the Gulf Stream. Arrive at New Bedford.