Indeed , many of these poor fellows -LRB- as the event proved -RRB- were upon their last cruise ; the deep seas and cannibal fish received them ; and it is a thankless business to speak ill of the dead . Among other good deeds that they did , they returned my money , which had been shared among them ; and though it was about a third short , I was very glad to get it , and hoped great good from it in the land I was going to . The ship was bound for the Carolinas ; and you must not suppose that I was going to that place merely as an exile . The trade was even then much depressed ; since that , and with the rebellion of the colonies and the formation of the United States , it has , of course , come to an end ; but in those days of my youth , white men were still sold into slavery on the plantations , and that was the destiny to which my wicked uncle had condemned me . The cabin-boy Ransome -LRB- from whom I had first heard of these atrocities -RRB- came in at times from the round-house , where he berthed and served , now nursing a bruised limb in silent agony , now raving against the cruelty of Mr. Shuan . It made my heart bleed ; but the men had a great respect for the chief mate , who was , as they said , `` the only seaman of the whole jing-bang , and none such a bad man when he was sober . '' Indeed , I found there was a strange peculiarity about our two mates : that Mr. Riach was sullen , unkind , and harsh when he was sober , and Mr. Shuan would not hurt a fly except when he was drinking . I asked about the captain ; but I was told drink made no difference upon that man of iron . I did my best in the small time allowed me to make some thing like a man , or rather I should say something like a boy , of the poor creature , Ransome . But his mind was scarce truly human . He could remember nothing of the time before he came to sea ; only that his father had made clocks , and had a starling in the parlour , which could whistle `` The North Countrie ; '' all else had been blotted out in these years of hardship and cruelties . He had a strange notion of the dry land , picked up from sailor 's stories : that it was a place where lads were put to some kind of slavery called a trade , and where apprentices were continually lashed and clapped into foul prisons . In a town , he thought every second person a decoy , and every third house a place in which seamen would be drugged and murdered . To be sure , I would tell him how kindly I had myself been used upon that dry land he was so much afraid of , and how well fed and carefully taught both by my friends and my parents : and if he had been recently hurt , he would weep bitterly and swear to run away ; but if he was in his usual crackbrain humour , or -LRB- still more -RRB- if he had had a glass of spirits in the roundhouse , he would deride the notion . It was Mr. Riach -LRB- Heaven forgive him ! -RRB- who gave the boy drink ; and it was , doubtless , kindly meant ; but besides that it was ruin to his health , it was the pitifullest thing in life to see this unhappy , unfriended creature staggering , and dancing , and talking he knew not what . Some of the men laughed , but not all ; others would grow as black as thunder -LRB- thinking , perhaps , of their own childhood or their own children -RRB- and bid him stop that nonsense , and think what he was doing . As for me , I felt ashamed to look at him , and the poor child still comes about me in my dreams . All this time , you should know , the Covenant was meeting continual head-winds and tumbling up and down against head-seas , so that the scuttle was almost constantly shut , and the forecastle lighted only by a swinging lantern on a beam . There was constant labour for all hands ; the sails had to be made and shortened every hour ; the strain told on the men 's temper ; there was a growl of quarrelling all day long from berth to berth ; and as I was never allowed to set my foot on deck , you can picture to yourselves how weary of my life I grew to be , and how impatient for a change .
And a change I was to get , as you shall hear ; but I must XXXXX tell of a conversation I had with Mr. Riach , which put a little heart in me to bear my troubles .
Carolinas day days first forecastle hour jing-bang murdered pitifullest third