The Crater | Page 8

Quaker
owners, turning his peaceful character to great profit, thus giving Mark
many opportunities of seeing as much of what is called the world, as
can be found in sea-ports. Great, indeed, is the difference between
places that are merely the marts of commerce, and those that are really
political capitals of large countries! No one can be aware of, or can
fully appreciate the many points of difference that, in reality, exist
between such places, who has not seen each, and that sufficiently near
to be familiar with both. Some places, of which London is the most
remarkable example, enjoy both characters; and, when this occurs, the
town gels to possess a tone that is even less provincial and narrow, if
possible, than that which is to be found in a place that merely rejoices
in a court. This it is which renders Naples, insignificant as its
commerce comparatively is, superior to Vienna, and Genoa to Florence.
While it would be folly to pretend that Mark, in his situation, obtained

the most accurate notions imaginable of all he saw and heard, in his
visits to Amsterdam, London, Cadiz, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Leghorn,
Gibraltar, and two or three other ports that might be mentioned and to
which he went, he did glean a good deal, some of which was useful to
him in after-life. He lost no small portion of the provincial rust of home,
moreover, and began to understand the vast difference between "seeing
the world" and "going to meeting and going to mill."[3] In addition to
these advantages, Mark was transferred from the forecastle to the cabin
before the ship sailed for Canton. The practice of near two years had
made him a very tolerable sailor, and his previous education made the
study of navigation easy to him. In that day there was a scarcity of
officers in America, and a young man of Mark's advantages, physical
and moral, was certain to get on rapidly, provided he only behaved well.
It is not at all surprising, therefore, that our young sailor got to be the
second-mate of the Raucocus before he had quite completed his
eighteenth year.
[Footnote 3: This last phrase has often caused the writer to smile, when
he has heard a countryman say, with a satisfied air, as is so often the
case in this good republic, that "such or such a thing here is good
enough for _me_;" meaning that he questions if there be anything of the
sort that is better anywhere else. It was uttered many years since, by a
shrewd Quaker, in West-Chester, who was contending with a neighbour
on a subject that the other endeavoured to defend by alluding to the
extent of his own observation. "Oh, yes, Josy," answered the Friend,
"thee's been to meeting and thee's been to mill, and thee knows all
about it!" America is full of travellers who have been to meeting and
who have been to mill. This it is which makes it unnecessarily
provincial.]
The voyage from London to Canton, and thence home to Philadelphia,
consumed about ten months. The Rancocus was a fast vessel, but she
could not impart her speed to the Chinamen. It followed that Mark
wanted but a few weeks of being nineteen years old the day his ship
passed Cape May, and, what was more, he had the promise of Captain
Crutchely, of sailing with him, as his first officer, in the next voyage.
With that promise in his mind, Mark hastened up the river to Bristol, as

soon as he was clear of the vessel.
Bridget Yardley had now fairly budded, to pursue the figure with which
we commenced the description of this blooming flower, and, if not
actually expanded into perfect womanhood, was so near it as to show
beyond all question that the promises of her childhood were to be very
amply redeemed. Mark found her in black, however; or, in mourning
for her mother. An only child, this serious loss had thrown her more
than ever in the way of Anne, the parents on both sides winking at an
association that could do no harm, and which might prove so useful. It
was very different, however, with the young sailor. He had not been a
fortnight at home, and getting to be intimate with the roof-tree of
Doctor Yardley, before that person saw fit to pick a quarrel with him,
and to forbid him his house. As the dispute was wholly gratuitous on
the part of the Doctor, Mark behaving with perfect propriety on the
occasion, it may be well to explain its real cause. The fact was, that
Bridget was an heiress; if not on a very large scale, still an heiress, and,
what was more, unalterably so in right of her mother; and the thought