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upon by his express orders, and that he was ignorant till that very night of my being excused from the duty of pumping, but had taken for granted that I always took my spell. I replied to this by submitting in the most respectful terms, that as I was employed in writing, &c., from morning till night, and also assisted in pumping the ship every watch, it was but fair that I should sleep every night, as all persons under the denomination of "Idlers" invariably do in king's ships. Captain King rejoined that the emergency of the case required every one to assist; that he had given orders to have no idler or other person excused, and that he should therefore insist on my compliance. I observed that he grew warm towards the end of this conference, though I had preserved the respect due to him, in all I had said; however, as I was conscious of being in the right, I ventured to hint that the situation in which I stood, being only a passenger not belonging to the ship, receiving neither pay nor even the allowance of spirits common to the meanest cabin-boy in the service, and which was essentially necessary to support the united hardships of labour and inclement weather; that all these considerations might, I submitted, entitle me to some distinction from the class of persons called idlers, who actually belonged to the ship; and I concluded with an intimation that the emergency of the case could not be so great as that my feeble assistance could not
