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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