He Was An Englishman, By Birth, A Native Of Ilfracomb, In Devonshire.
His Father Was Skipper Of A Small Coaster,
From Bristol, and dying,
left him, when quite young, to the care of his mother, by whose
exertions he received
A common-school education, passing his
winters at school and his summers in the coasting trade, until his
seventeenth year, when he left home to go upon foreign voyages.
Of his mother, he often spoke with the greatest respect, and said
that she was a strong-minded woman, and had the best system of
education he had ever known; a system which had made respectable
men of his three brothers, and failed only in him, from his own
indomitable obstinacy. One thing he often mentioned, in which he
said his mother differed from all other mothers that he had ever
seen disciplining their children; that was, that when he was out
of humor and refused to eat, instead of putting his plate away,
as most mothers would, and saying that his hunger would bring
him to it, in time, she would stand over him and oblige him to
eat it - every mouthful of it. It was no fault of hers that he
was what I saw him; and so great was his sense of gratitude for
her efforts, though unsuccessful, that he determined, at the
close of the voyage, to embark for home with all the wages he
should get, to spend with and for his mother, if perchance he
should find her alive.
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