a passion rather uncommon in the history of a southern farmer's boy.
In the case of Washington the desire was only overcome
at the solicitations of his mother. The mother of Marion, in like manner,
strove to dissuade her son from this early inclination. She did not succeed,
however, and when scarcely sixteen, he embarked in a small vessel
for the West Indies. The particulars of this voyage, with the exception
of the mode in which it terminated, have eluded our inquiry.
We have looked for the details in vain. The name of the vessel,
the captain, the port she sailed from, have equally escaped our search.
To the wanton destruction of private and public records by the British,
together with the heedless improvidence of heads of families in the South,
we owe this poverty of historical resource. The voyage must have been taken
somewhere about the year 1747-8. At that period there were perils of the sea
to which the mariner is not often exposed at the present day.
The waters of the Gulf of Mexico, in particular, were covered with pirates.
The rich produce of New Spain, the West Indies, and the Southern Colonies
of the English, were rare temptations. The privateers of Spain and France,
a sort of legalized pirates, hung about the ports of Carolina,
frequently subjecting them to a condition of blockade,
and sometimes to forced contributions. In the occasional absence
of the British armed vessels appointed for the protection of these ports,
the more enterprising and spirited among their citizens
frequently fitted out their own cruisers, drawing them, for this purpose,
from the merchant service; manning them in person, and requiting themselves
for their losses of merchandise by the occasional capture of some richly laden
galleon from New Spain. No doubt the imagination of young Marion was fired
by hearing of these exploits. The sensation produced in the community,
by the injuries done to its commerce, in all probability gave the direction
to his already excited and restless disposition. It does not appear, however,
that Marion's first and only voyage was made in an armed vessel.