But The Most Remarkable Thing About Him, Was
The Power Of His Mind.
His memory was perfect; seeming to form a
regular chain, reaching from his earliest childhood up to the time
I knew him, without one link wanting.
His power of calculation,
too, was remarkable. I called myself pretty quick at figures, and
had been through a course of mathematical studies; but, working by
my head, I was unable to keep within sight of this man, who had
never been beyond his arithmetic: so rapid was his calculation.
He carried in his head not only a log-book of the whole voyage,
in which everything was complete and accurate, and from which no
one ever thought of appealing, but also an accurate registry of
all the cargo; knowing, precisely, where each thing was, and how
many hides we took in at every port.
One night, he made a rough calculation of the number of hides that
could be stowed in the lower hold, between the fore and main masts,
taking the depth of hold and breadth of beam, (for he always knew
the dimension of every part of the ship, before he had been a month
on board,) and the average area and thickness of a hide; he came
surprisingly near the number, as it afterwards turned out. The mate
frequently came to him to know the capacity of different parts of
the vessel, so he could tell the sailmaker very nearly the amount
of canvas he would want for each sail in the ship; for he knew the
hoist of every mast, and spread of every sail, on the head and foot,
in feet and inches. When we were at sea, he kept a running account,
in his head, of the ship's way - the number of knots and the courses;
and if the courses did not vary much during the twenty-four hours,
by taking the whole progress, and allowing so many eighths southing
or northing, to so many easting or westing; he would make up his
reckoning just before the captain took the sun at noon, and often
came wonderfully near the mark. Calculation of all kinds was his
delight. He had, in his chest, several volumes giving accounts
of inventions in mechanics, which he read with great pleasure,
and made himself master of. I doubt if he ever forgot anything
that he read. The only thing in the way of poetry that he ever
read was Falconer's Shipwreck, which he was delighted with,
and whole pages of which he could repeat. He knew the name
of every sailor that had ever been his shipmate, and also,
of every vessel, captain, and officer, and the principal dates
of each voyage; and a sailor whom he afterwards fell in with,
who had been in a ship with Harris nearly twelve years before,
was very much surprised at having Harris tell him things about
himself which he had entirely forgotten. His facts, whether dates
or events, no one thought of disputing; and his opinions, few of
the sailors dared to oppose; for, right or wrong, he always had
the best of the argument with them. His reasoning powers were
remarkable. I have had harder work maintaining an argument with
him in a watch, even when I knew myself to be right, and he was
only doubting, than I ever had before; not from his obstinacy,
but from his acuteness. Give him only a little knowledge of his
subject, and, certainly among all the young men of my acquaintance
and standing at college, there was not one whom I had not rather meet,
than this man. I never answered a question from him, or advanced
an opinion to him, without thinking more than once. With an iron
memory, he seemed to have your whole past conversation at command,
and if you said a thing now which ill agreed with something said
months before, he was sure to have you on the hip. In fact,
I always felt, when with him, that I was with no common man.
I had a positive respect for his powers of mind, and felt often
that if half the pains had been spent upon his education which
are thrown away, yearly, in our colleges, he would have been
a man of great weight in society. Like most self-taught men,
he over-estimated the value of an education; and this, I often
told him, though I profited by it myself; for he always treated
me with respect, and often unnecessarily gave way to me, from an
over-estimate of my knowledge. For the intellectual capacities
of all the rest of the crew, captain and all, he had the most
sovereign contempt. He was a far better sailor, and probably
a better navigator, than the captain, and had more brains than
all the after part of the ship put together. The sailors said,
"Tom's got a head as long as the bowsprit," and if any one got
into an argument with him, they would call out - "Ah, Jack! you'd
better drop that, as you would a hot potato, for Tom will turn
you inside out before you know it."
I recollect his posing me once on the subject of the Corn Laws.
I was called to stand my watch, and, coming on deck, found him
there before me; and we began, as usual, to walk fore and aft,
in the waist. He talked about the Corn Laws; asked me my opinion
about them, which I gave him; and my reasons; my small stock of
which I set forth to the best advantage, supposing his knowledge
on the subject must be less than mine, if, indeed, he had
any at all. When I had got through, he took the liberty of
differing from me, and, to my surprise, brought arguments and
facts connected with the subject which were new to me, to which
I was entirely unable to reply. I confessed that I knew almost
nothing of the subject, and expressed my surprise at the extent
of his information.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 78 of 167
Words from 78818 to 79829
of 170236
