The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

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write.

In his usual way he soon made acquaintance with his fellow passengers
and did them many a friendly turn. They took him for one of themselves
and showed little curiosity as to where he came from, who he was, or
where he was going. He says: "The sailors called me 'mate,' the officers
addressed me as 'my man,' my comrades accepted me without hesitation for
a person of their own character and experience. One, a mason himself,
believed I was a mason, several, among these at least one of the seamen,
judged me to be a petty officer in the American navy; and I was so often
set down for a practical engineer that at last I had not the heart to
deny it."

The emigrants were from many countries, though the majority were Scotch
and Irish bound for the new world with the hope of meeting with better
fortune than they had had in the old, and they whiled away the days at
sea in their several ways, making the best of their discomforts and