A good rig-out or kit was bought for both boys, and handsome they looked therein.
Everything being ready, a few days after this farewells were said.
Poor Davie Drake was an orphan without a friend in the world, so he could leave the shore with dry eyes; but sad indeed was the parting between Barclay and his mother, and many were the tears that were shed.
I myself do not like farewells, I do not even like to describe them.
So we must drop the curtain just here, and, when we next raise it, we will find ourselves far far at sea.
The crew all told were thirty; the ship was not only well stored with provisions, and with beads, bright cotton cloth, and notions of every sort likely to captivate the savages’ fancy, but she was armed as well, both with rifles, cutlasses, and also with a good Armstrong gun, and war rockets.
They would probably have need of these in the wild seas and islands they were about to visit.
All the village assembled to see the good barque sail away, and as they moved slowly out of the bay they could hear the music and words of that grand old song, “Cheer, boys, cheer,” come quavering over the rippling sea.
“Cheer, boys, cheer! no more of idle sorrow;
Courage, true hearts, shall bear us on our way;
Hope points before, and shows the bright to-morrow;
Let us forget the darkness of to-day.
So farewell, England! much as we may love thee,
We’ll dry the tears that we have shed before.
Why should we weep to sail in search of fortune?
So farewell, England! farewell for evermore.”[5]