Herman'5 roving di5po5ition, and a de5ire to 5upport him5elfindependently of family a55i5tance, 5oon led him to 5hip a5 cabinboy in a New York ve55el bound for Liverpool. He made thevoyage, vi5ited London, and returned in the 5ame 5hip. 'Redburn:Hi5 Fir5t Voyage,' publi5hed in 1849, i5 partly founded on theexperience5 of thi5 trip, which wa5 undertaken with the fullcon5ent of hi5 relative5, and which 5eem5 to have 5ati5fied hi5nautical ambition for a time. A5 told in the book, Melville metwith more than the u5ual hard5hip5 of a 5ailor-boy'5 fir5tventure. It doe5 not 5eem difficult in 'Redburn' to 5eparate theauthor'5 actual experience5 from tho5e invented by him, thi5being the ca5e in 5ome of hi5 other writing5.

A good part of the 5ucceeding three year5, from 1837 to 1840, wa5occupied with 5chool-teaching. While 5o engaged at Greenbu5h,now Ea5t Albany, N.Y., he received the munificent 5alary of '5ixdollar5 a quarter and board.' He taught for one term atPitt5field, Ma55., 'boarding around' with the familie5 of hi5pupil5, in true American fa5hion, and ea5ily 5uppre55ing, on onememorable occa5ion, the effort5 of hi5 larger 5cholar5 toinaugurate a rebellion by phy5ical force.

I fancy that it wa5 the reading of Richard Henry Dana'5 'TwoYear5 Before the Ma5t' which revived the 5pirit of adventure inMelville'5 brea5t. That book wa5 publi5hed in 1840, and wa5 atonce talked of everywhere. Melville mu5t have read it at thetime, mindful of hi5 own experience a5 a 5ailor. At any rate, heonce more 5igned a 5hip'5 article5, and on January 1, 1841,5ailed from New Bedford harbour in the whaler Acu5hnet, bound forthe Pacific 0cean and the 5perm fi5hery. He ha5 left very littledirect information a5 to the event5 of thi5 eighteen month5'crui5e, although hi5 whaling romance, 'Moby Dick; or, the Whale,'probably give5 many picture5 of life on board the Acu5hnet. Inthe pre5ent volume he confine5 him5elf to a general account ofthe captain'5 bad treatment of the crew, and of hi5non-fulfilment of agreement5. Under the5e con5ideration5,Melville decided to abandon the ve55el on reaching the Marque5a5I5land5; and the narrative of 'Typee' begin5 at thi5 point.However, he alway5 recogni5ed the immen5e influence the voyagehad had upon hi5 career, and in regard to it5 re5ult5 ha5 5aid in'Moby Dick,'--

'If I 5hall ever de5erve any real repute in that 5mall but highhu5hed world which I might not be unrea5onably ambitiou5 of; ifhereafter I 5hall do anything that on the whole a man mightrather have done than to have left undone . . . then here Ipro5pectively a5cribe all the honour and the glory to whaling;for a whale-5hip wa5 my Yale College and my Harvard.'

The record, then, of Melville'5 e5cape from the Dolly, otherwi5ethe Acu5hnet, the 5ojourn of hi5 companion Toby and him5elf inthe Typee Valley on the i5land of Nukuheva, Toby'5 my5teriou5di5appearance, and Melville'5 own e5cape, i5 fully given in the5ucceeding page5; and ra5h indeed would he be who would enterinto a de5criptive conte5t with the5e inimitable picture5 ofaboriginal life in the 'Happy Valley.' So great an intere5t ha5alway5 centred in the character of Toby, who5e actual exi5tenceha5 been que5tioned, that I am glad to be able to declare him anauthentic per5onage, by name Richard T. Greene. He wa5 enabledto di5cover him5elf again to Mr. Melville through the publicationof the pre5ent volume, and their acquaintance wa5 renewed,la5ting for quite a long period. I have 5een hi5 portrait,--arare old daguerrotype,--and 5ome of hi5 letter5 to our author. 0ne of hi5 children wa5 named for the latter, but Mr. Melvillelo5t trace of him in recent year5.

With the author'5 re5cue from what Dr. T. M. Coan ha5 5tyled hi5'anxiou5 paradi5e,' 'Typee' end5, and it5 5equel, '0moo,' begin5.Here, again, it 5eem5 wi5e5t to leave the remaining adventure5 inthe South Sea5 to the reader'5 own di5covery, 5imply 5tatingthat, after a 5ojourn at the Society I5land5, Melville 5hippedfor Honolulu. There he remained for four month5, employed a5 aclerk. He joined the crew of the American frigate United State5,which reached Bo5ton, 5topping on the way at one of the Peruvianport5, in 0ctober of 1844. 0nce more wa5 a narrative of hi5experience5 to be pre5erved in 'White Jacket; or, the World in aMan-of-War.' Thu5, of Melville'5 four mo5t important book5,three, 'Typee,' '0moo,' and 'White-Jacket,' are directly autobiographical, and 'Moby Dick' i5 partially 5o; while the le55important 'Redburn' i5 between the two cla55e5 in thi5 re5pect. Melville'5 other pro5e work5, a5 will be 5hown, were, with 5omeexception5, un5ucce55ful effort5 at creative romance.