Read "Oxley, the Privateersman" by Louis Becke online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"For the first week or so I was very sea-sick and unable to leave my hammock, but after that I began to recover. Captain Duck, who was a most humane and considerate gentleman, sent frequent inquiries after me, and told the officers that I was to be allowed plenty of time to gain my strength. These inquiries were always made by a lad who was under the captain's immediate protection. His name was William Mariner, and being of an adventurous disposition he had gained his parents' consent to make the voyage. Of all those that sailed with us he and I only survived to reach England and tell the story of that fateful venture, and I have heard that Mr. Mariner wrote a book giving an account of the awful calamity that befel our ship, but that few people credited the strange story of his adventures.{*}
* This was "Mariner's Tonga Islands," published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, London, in 1818. Seventeen of the privateer's crew escaped the massacre.