CHAPTER I.
Early History—Studies Medicine and Surgery—Surgeon on board an East Indiaman—The "Lord Hawkesbury"—Military Floggings in 1803—Wreck of a Regiment—Quits the East India Service in Disgust—Enters upon Mercantile Life—Voyage to the Cape—Ignorance in the Mercantile Marine Seventy Years Ago—Berry teaches himself Navigation—What made Sir Thomas Brisbane an Astronomer—Berry arrives at the Cape of Good Hope—Blackstone's Commentaries and Conservatism.
I was born (during a terrible snow storm) in Fifeshire, Scotland, on the 30th of November, 1781, and having received my early education at the Grammar School of Cupar, Fife, I afterwards proceeded in due course to the University of St. Andrews. Having determined to adopt the study of medicine, I became, during the vacations, a pupil of Dr. Gowan, the principal physician of Cupar; a gentleman who had an interest in an apothecary's shop, where I first acquired some knowledge of pharmacy, chemistry, and anatomy; but I completed my medical education at the University of Edinburgh.
Delighted with the accounts of the naval
