Tom Cringle's Log Volume 1

by Michael Scott

I had been invited this day to dine with the Captain, Mr Splinter, the first lieutenant being also of the party; the cloth had been withdrawn, and we had all had a glass or two of wine a--piece, when the fog settled down so thickly, although it was not more than five o'clock in the afternoon, that the captain desired that the lamp might be lit. It was done, and I was remarking the contrast between the dull, dusky, brown light, or rather the palpable London fog that came through the skylight, and the bright yellow sparkle of the lamp, when the second lieutenant, Mr Treenail, came down the ladder.

596 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1833

About the author

Michael Scott was a Scottish author and autobiographer who wrote under the pseudonym Tom Cringle. The son of a Glasgow merchant, in 1806 he went to Jamaica, first managing some estates, and afterwards joining a business firm in Kingston. The latter post necessitated his making frequent journeys, on the incidents of which he based his best known book, Tom Cringle's Log.

In 1822 he left Jamaica and settled in Glasgow, where he engaged in business. Tom Cringle's Log began to appear serially in Blackwood's Magazine in 1829. Scott’s second story, The Cruise of the Midge, was also first published serially in Blackwood's in 1834–1835. The first appearance in book-form of each story was in Paris in 1834. Both stories - autobiographical portraits of Jamaica in the 1820s - were originally published anonymously, and their authorship was not known till after Scott's death at Glasgow.

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