He said that, a number of years before, while at a
boarding-house in Liverpool, he had fallen in with a pamphlet on the
subject, and, as it contained calculations, had read it very
carefully, and had ever since wished to find some one who could add to
his stock of knowledge on the question. Although it was many years
since he had seen the book, and it was a subject with which he had
no previous acquaintance, yet he had the chain of reasoning, founded
upon principles of political economy, perfect in his memory; and his
facts, so far as I could judge, were correct; at least, he stated them
with great precision. The principles of the steam engine, too, he
was very familiar with, having been several months on board of a
steamboat, and made himself master of its secrets. He knew every lunar
star in both hemispheres, and was a perfect master of his quadrant and
sextant. Such was the man, who, at forty, was still a dog before the
mast, at twelve dollars a month. The reason of this was to be found in
his whole past life, as I had it, at different times, from himself.
He was an Englishman, by birth, a native of Ilfracomb, in
Devonshire.
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