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After a cruise of two months, we returned to port, when I had the pleasure of hearing from my respected friends in S——shire. Our stay in Yarmouth roads was short; we put to sea again in company with several smaller vessels, of which our captain was commodore. A violent storm, however, soon dispersed our little squadron, and we at length with much difficulty gained the river Humber, from whence we returned to Yarmouth. During this winter we were continually at sea, except for very short intervals; and the oldest seaman in the ship declared they had never known a more tempestuous season. Several fine frigates, sloops, brigs, &c., were lost in the North Sea, and on the northern coasts of England. My hardships, of course, rather increased than diminished, and I heartily repented the step I had taken; not that I disliked the service, or the mode of living on ship-board; but I found myself unequal to the duty of watching, &c., and was also uncomfortably situated with respect to my messmates, whose manners and ideas of enjoyment did not coincide with mine. The notion of finding pleasure in books was ridiculed by them; and I was sometimes told that I ought to have been a parson; but it was agreed on all sides, that I was better adapted for a clerk than a sailor. These hints and suggestions were not thrown away upon me; I felt the force of their justice, and longed for an opportunity of ameliorating my situation which at length, to my great joy, unexpectedly occurred.
