38 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
another occasion, he had received an appointment as Third Officer of the
Foullis Indiaman. He was detained in Scotland longer than he expected,
and when he arrived in London the Foullis had sailed. This was a great disappointment
; but it turned out to be a most providential circumstance, as the
Foullis was never more heard of, and is supposed to have been burned at sea.
Various other incidents of the same kind might be related, which were calculated
to make an impression on a reflecting mind, and inspire a sense of the providence
of God, and the importance of being prepared for eternity.
Immediately after his appointment as Captain of the Jlelville Castle, Captain
Haldane married Miss Mary Joass, the only daughter of Alexander Joass, Esq.,
of Colleinwart, in Banffshire, by Elizabeth, the eldest sister of the celebrated
General Sir Ralph Abercromby. The circumstance of his marriage was calculated
to foster a desire to remain at home ; but the situation he held as Captain
of an East Indiaman was at that period the sure road to fortune, and more
especially in the case of Mr. Haldane, who had the double support of his own
and his wife’s connections-the former securing to him the patronage of Lord
Melville, the President of the Board of Control-and the latter, the patronage
of Sir Robert Abercromby, the Governor of Bombay and Commander-in-Chief
of the Forces in India.
During the months Mr. Haldane remained in command of the Jfelville
Castle at Spithead, a mutiny took place on board the Dutton, which gave occasion
for the display of that daring courage and presence of mind for which he
was at all times conspicuous. It was occasioned by the Captain of the Dutton
sending a man-of-war’s boat to have several of his men pressed for some real
or alleged act of insubordination. The mutiny broke out in the nightshots
were fired-and one man was killed. It was under these circumstances that
Captain Haldane ordered out his boat, and went alongside the Dutton. The
mutineers threatened him with death if he attempted to come on board. The
officers and their supporters, on the contrary, invited his assistance. By the
exercise of the greatest determination he succeeded in boarding the Dutton,
amidst the clamour and menaces of the mutineers, and the cheers of the other
party, who now invited him to put himself at their head, and, sword in hand,
drive the mutinous crew beneath the hatches. This proposal, however, he
declined j and, going forward alone into the midst of the mutineers, he addressed
them on the folly of their conduct, and the certain punishment which would
follow if they were successful in overcoming their officers. The result was,
Chat order was restored without further bloodshed ; and Captain Haldane, who
had always been popular as an officer, was on all hands complimented for this
service.
It was, however, about this time that a great change was effected in the
mind of Captain Haldane. The following
is his own simple and interesting account, in a letter to one of his messmates
:-“I had a book by me which, from prejudice of education, and not
from any rational conviction, I called the Word of God. I never got so
It was not sudden, but gradual.