My Jamaica business afforded far more leisure than Corbet and Possy’s, and my acquaintance was, by the means of Dr. Lembeck and Mr. Woodrife, extended among a circle of their friends, from whom I imbibed a more general taste for reading, without acquiring a particular bias for any subject. Thus it happened, that at the time when my acquaintance was renewed with the Ascomys, I was become somewhat of a town man; for I had no desire to embark deeply in business—I saw that the state of society in England prognosticated the coming on of difficulties to young men entering the world, and that although the French disasters in Russia were then thickening by every post, the circumstances of our own country were also becoming day after day more perplexing.

It may be thought that in yielding to the inactivity which this opinion of things encouraged, I betrayed my own interests—but it should be recollected that the scheme of my life, though it was not of my own contrivance, had been blighted, and that adversity, whether it come of ourselves or of our neighbours, is mildew on exertion. I could not redeem the past—the state of the times did not encourage me to attempt it, and disappointment had castigated my desires into moderation. But whatever the reader may think of me at that period, I am bound, by what I have herein undertaken, to relate only the truth—the best truth, however. It cannot in reason be expected that I should speak ill of myself.