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officers, and with the most lively pleasure by my future messmates. Mr. Rowley very kindly sent the cutter to bring my chest, &c., from the packet; and I was then formally introduced by that gentleman to the midshipmen's birth. After a jovial evening, spent in festivity and merriment, I retired to my hammock, in which I slept well, notwithstanding the novelty of my situation. The next day was spent in overhauling my chest, as the young, tars termed an inspection of its contents; and I had the pleasure to. find, that my judgment and taste in the purchases I had made, were universally approved of. Day after day increased the happiness I felt in my novel and respectable situation; and my gratitude to those who were, under Providence, the promoters of my good fortune.
The mess, of which I was become a member, consisted of eleven persons; namely, nine midshipmen of different ages, the captain's clerk, and surgeon's mate: the latter was a most curious character, a Welshman named Jones; and reminded me, on a very short acquaintance, of Morgan in Roderic Random, whom he resembled in many particulars: and I soon found that he was, like, him, a kind of butt for the others to exercise their waggery upon; but in the main he was a good-hearted, inoffensive young man. The captain's clerk was a genteel youth, who had served under his present commander several years, and was in expectation of being soon
