He commenced his naval career as a common sailor, in which subordinate situation he did not remain long, for his talents still rendered him conspicuous, and he was appointed mate and having made several voyages to the West Indies as common sailor and mate he was at last appointed master of a vessel. And now being at liberty to follow the bent of his inclination, being of a wild and ardent disposition, he betook himself to a sea-faring-life, for which his habits, and the experience he had gained by a long residence near to a sea-port, had well prepared him. Was dismissed from the employ of Lord Selkirk. "But," says his lordship, "there are two of them what has your son done: is he also guilty?" Old Paul cooly replied, " Oh no, please your lordship, I just put him in for the sake of symmetry." In this service he continued for some years, but at length being detected in certain knavish tricks, which would have entitled him to a situation in the summer-house, or some closer place of confinement, on other grounds than those of symmetry, he In the other young Paul appeared, looking out of the corresponding window, which induced his lordship to enquire of the gardener why those lads were confined to which the gardener replied, "My lord, I caught the rascal stealing your lordship's fruit. One day Lord Selkirk, in his walks, observed a man locked up in one of the summer-houses, and looking out of the window. In the gardens there were two summer-houses alike. His father's name was Paul, a steady methodical Scotchman, who was head gardener to Lord Selkirk, to whom young Paul acted as assistant in the same establishment, as will appear from the following story recorded of the father and the son:. This extraordinary character, who kept the coasts of the United Kingdom in a constant state of alarm for a considerable time, was born on the estate of Lord Selkirk, near Kirkcudbright, in Scotland, about the year 1728.
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