about seven o'clock in the
morning
This new domestic , whose name was Maurice , underwent , with great applause , the examination of our hero , who perceived in him a fund of sagacity and presence of mind , by which he was excellently qualified for being the valet of an adventurer . He was therefore accommodated with a second-hand suit and another shirt , and at once listed under the banners of Count Fathom , who spent the whole afternoon in giving him proper instructions for the regulation of his conduct . Having settled these preliminaries to his own satisfaction , he and his baggage were embarked about six o'clock in the month of September , and it was not without emotion that he found himself benighted upon the great deep , of which , before the preceding day , he had never enjoyed even the most distant prospect . However , he was not a man to be afraid , where there was really no appearance of danger ; and the agreeable presages of future fortune supported his spirits , amidst the disagreeable nausea which commonly attends landsmen at sea , until he was set ashore upon the beach at Deal , which he entered in good health about seven o'clock in the morning . Like Caesar , however , he found some difficulty in landing , on account of the swelling surf , that tumbled about with such violence as had almost overset the cutter that carried him on shore ; and , in his eagerness to jump upon the strand , his foot slipped from the side of the boat , so that he was thrown forwards in an horizontal direction , and his hands were the first parts of him that touched English ground . Upon this occasion , he , in imitation of Scipio 's behaviour on the coast of Africa , hailed the omen , and , grasping a handful of the sand , was heard to exclaim , in the Italian language : `` Ah , ah , Old England , I have thee fast . '' As he walked up to the inn , followed by Maurice loaded with his portmanteau , he congratulated himself upon his happy voyage , and the peaceable possession of his spoil , and could not help snuffing up the British air with marks of infinite relish and satisfaction .