Chapter 14

I can scarcely say how I got to England again; Whether I was given a bed, or paid for it, or what I did to get home, I can't help but remember that the ship in which I was a passenger broke her back in Algoa Bay, near the Cape, and became a total wreck, there was not the slightest danger that we were surrounded by boats great and small, and every soul on board was saved; but I convulsed terribly and incessantly as the boats were leaving the ship, so that the whole ship's company came up and was pushed over the side, and I was not allowed to go in the longboat, but was dragged alone at the back in a rowboat to the shore, and then carried off in another ship, which she did not Nothing but a shake all the way from the Cape to Plymouth, and at last I came to England, and I had written countless letters to my friends and relatives, to Tilly and to my Uncle Bonsor; But the only answer I received was a few solemn lines from my uncle's solicitor, telling me that my illegible scribbles had c