Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12)

ered; there were yet very many islands, small and great, on which the eyes of white m

th food. There were no tinned meats two hundred years ago, no luxuries for use even in the cabin. Sailors lived chiefly on salt junk, as hard as leather,

was always the probability of meeting a pirate vessel and of having to fight for life and liberty. Steam has nowadays nearly done away with pirates, except on the China coast and in a few other out-of-the-way places. But things were different long ago, before steamers were invented; and sailors then, when they came h

. So, as was then the custom for those who meant to become doctors, he was bound apprentice to a surgeon in London, under whom he studied for four years. But all the time, as often as his father sent him money, he spent some of it in lear

rgeon of a ship. And by the help of his late master in London, such a post he did get on board the "Swallow" on which ve

so for six years he again went to sea as a surgeon

is time at Wapping, because in that place there are always

99, he sailed from Bristol for the South Se