Chapter 17

The candle began to frighten me, with the bedchamber sconce which had been frightening me half my life, ladies and gentlemen; At present my intimidation is wholly on account of my brain, which is not a very pleasant thing to confess to all of you, before elaborating; But perhaps you will be most disposed to believe that I am not quite a coward, for you will find me daring enough to stand up to my already clean heart which hurts me so much hitherto, and these are the details I can describe.

I trained for the sea when I was as long as my walking stick; I made sufficient use of my time to be fit for my companion's place at the age of twenty-five and in the year eighteen, or nineteen, I'm not quite sure I reached the aforementioned age of twenty-five, you'll excuse me for my memory was not very good as to With dates, names, numbers, places, and the like.

However, there is no fear of the details which I undertake to tell you; I got them all and kept them like a ship in my mem