Rarely,
However, Did Any Cold-Water Caitiff Of The Kind Darken The Doors
Of Old Baranoff; The Coasting Captains Knew
Too well his humor
and their own interests; they joined in his revels, they drank,
and sang, and whooped, and
Hiccuped, until they all got "half
seas over," and then affairs went on swimmingly.
An awful warning to all "flinchers" occurred shortly before Mr.
Hunt's arrival. A young naval officer had recently been sent out
by the emperor to take command of one of the company's vessels.
The governor, as usual, had him at his "prosnics," and plied him
with fiery potations. The young man stood on the defensive until
the old count's ire was completely kindled; he carried his point,
and made the greenhorn tipsy, willy nilly. In proportion as they
grew fuddled they grew noisy, they quarrelled in their cups; the
youngster paid old Baranoff in his own coin by rating him
soundly; in reward for which, when sober, he was taken the rounds
of four pickets, and received seventy-nine lashes, taled out with
Russian punctuality of punishment.
Such was the old grizzled bear with whom Mr. Hunt had to do his
business. How he managed to cope with his humor; whether he
pledged himself in raw rum and blazing punch, and "clinked the
can" with him as they made their bargains, does not appear upon
record; we must infer, however, from his general observations on
the absolute sway of this hard-drinking potentate, that he had to
conform to the customs of his court, and that their business
transactions presented a maudlin mixture of punch and peltry.
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