Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/310

258 of the Melville Castle, which had been provided with an interim captain, under the prospect of this succession. This was a most unhopeful commencement of the course that afterwards awaited him, but the alternatives that were proposed against his going to sea were equally so. His female relatives wished that he should complete his studies, and take orders in the Church of England, in the hope of attaining a bishopric ; while the great Croesus of the day, Mr. Coutts, the warm friend of Haldane's father, to whom he had been greatly indebted, offered to take the youth into his own counting-house as a partner, and make him a thriving banker. Who would have thought that a youth with so many tempting offers at the outset of life, would finally prefer to them all the lowly office of an itinerant preacher !

On embarking upon his new profession, James Haldane devoted himself earnestly to his duties, ambitious to become an active seaman and skilful navigator. Besides this, his love of general literature, which his previous education had imparted, made him spend all his leisure time in the study of the best authors, of which he carried with him a well-stored sea-chest, and in this way lie was unconsciously training himself to become an able theological writer and eloquent preacher. He made in all four voyages to India and China; and during the long period over which these extended, he saw much of the variety of life, as well as experienced the usual amount of hair's-breadth escapes so incidental to his profession. During his third voyage, in which he was third officer of the Hillsborough, and while returning from India, he encountered one of those dangers so frequently attendant upon the naval and military service, and so unreasonable and contemptible in services so full of perils of their own, because so utterly gratuitous. One of the passengers, a cavalry officer, notorious as a quarrelsome bully and a good shot, picked a quarrel with James Haldane, and at the mess-table threw a glass of wine in his face, which the other retorted by throwing a decanter at the captain's head. A challenge was inevitable, and Haldane was the more ready to receive it, as, from his antagonist's reputation as a duellist, a refusal might have looked like cowardice. Such was that law of honour, now so generally abjured, which in a few years more will evaporate amidst the general derision. No opportunity occurred of a hostile meeting until the ship arrived at St. Helena, where the parties went ashore early in the morning, to settle their quarrel by mortal arbitrament. James Haldane who, the night before, had made his will, and written a farewell letter to his brother, to be delivered in the event of his death, raised his pistol at the signal, and inwardly ejaculating, with fearful inconsistency, the solemn prayer, " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," he drew the trigger. The pistol burst, and one of the splinters wounded him in the face, while his opponent, whose weapon at the same instant missed fire, declared himself fully satisfied. Thus terminated the first and last affair of the kind in which he ever was engaged. His amiable disposition, as well as his acknowledged courage and spirit, alike prevented him afterwards from giving or receiving injury.

After his fourth voyage was completed, James Haldane, now at the age of twenty-five, was found fully competent to assume the command of the Melville Castle; and on passing his examinations he was promoted to that office in 1793. After his appointment, he married Miss Joass, only child of Major Joass, fort-major of Stirling Castle, and niece of Sir Ralph Abercromby. As his fortune was still to seek, while his bride was a young lady of great attrac-