There He Learned That There Was A
Ship At The Leeward, About To Sail For Boston; And, Taking Passage
In
The Pilgrim, which was then at Monterey, he came slowly down,
visiting the intermediate ports, and examining the trees, plants,
Earths, birds, etc., and joined us at San Diego shortly before
we sailed. The second mate of the Pilgrim told me that they had
an old gentleman on board who knew me, and came from the college
that I had been in.
He could not recollect his name, but said he was a "sort of an
oldish man," with white hair, and spent all his time in the bush,
and along the beach, picking up flowers and shells, and such truck,
and had a dozen boxes and barrels, full of them. I thought over
everybody who would be likely to be there, but could fix upon no
one; when, the next day, just as we were about to shove off from
the beach, he came down to the boat, in the rig I have described,
with his shoes in his hand, and his pockets full of specimens.
I knew him at once, though I should not have been more surprised
to have seen the Old South steeple shoot up from the hide-house.
He probably had no less difficulty in recognizing me. As we left
home about the same time, we had nothing to tell one another;
and, owing to our different situations on board, I saw but little
of him on the passage home. Sometimes, when I was at the wheel
of a calm night, and the steering required no attention, and the
officer of the watch was forward, he would come aft and hold a
short yarn with me; but this was against the rules of the ship,
as is, in fact, all intercourse between passengers and the crew.
I was often amused to see the sailors puzzled to know what to make
of him, and to hear their conjectures about him and his business.
They were as much puzzled as our old sailmaker was with the captain's
instruments in the cabin.
He said there were three: - the chro-nometer, the chre-nometer,
and the the-nometer. (Chronometer, barometer, and thermometer.)
The Pilgrim's crew christened Mr. N. "Old Curious," from his zeal
for curiosities, and some of them said that he was crazy, and that
his friends let him go about and amuse himself in this way. Why
else a rich man (sailors call every man rich who does not work
with his hands, and wears a long coat and cravat) should leave a
Christian country, and come to such a place as California, to pick
up shells and stones, they could not understand. One of them,
however, an old salt, who had seen something more of the world
ashore, set all to rights, as he thought, - "Oh, 'vast there! - You
don't know anything about them craft. I've seen them colleges,
and know the ropes. They keep all such things for cur'osities,
and study 'em, and have men a' purpose to go and get 'em.
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