This was done, and I went round to Terragall in her, where we landed
our passengers. These last all came and took leave of me, the admiral
making me a present of a good jacket, that he had worn himself at sea,
with a quantity of tobacco. I have got that jacket at this moment. The
ladies spoke kindly to me, and all this gave my heart fresh pangs.
From Terragall we went to Sourabaya, where I prevailed on the captain to
send me to the hospital, the mate still insisting I was merely shamming
inability to work. The surgeons at Sourabaya, one of whom was a Scotchman,
thought with the mate; and at the end of twenty days, I was again taken on
board the ship, which sailed for Samarang. While at Sourabaya there were
five English sailors in the hospital. These men were as forlorn and
miserable as my self, death grinning in our faces at every turn. The men
who were brought into the hospital one day, were often dead the next, and
none of us knew whose turn would come next. We often talked together, on
religious subjects, after our own uninstructed manner, and greatly did we
long to find an English bible, a thing not to be had there. Then it was I
thought, again, of the sermon I had heard at the Sailors' Retreat, of the
forfeited promises I had made to reform; and, more than once did it cross
my mind, should God permit me to return home, that I would seek out that
minister, and ask his prayers and spiritual advice.
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