Considering We Have Fifty Men Of Several Tribes And Tongues
Onboard, Wild, Half-Savage Looking Fellows, And Few Of Them
Feeling Any Of The Restraints Of Morality Or Education, We Get On
Wonderfully Well.
There is no fighting or quarrelling, as there
would certainly be among the same number of Europeans with as
little restraint upon their actions, and there is scarcely any of
that noise and excitement which might be expected.
In fine
weather the greater part of them are quietly enjoying themselves-
-some are sleeping under the shadow of the sails; others, in
little groups of three or four, are talking or chewing betel; one
is making a new handle to his chopping-knife, another is
stitching away at a new pair of trousers or a shirt, and all are
as quiet and well-conducted as on board the best-ordered English
merchantman. Two or three take it by turns to watch in the bows
and see after the braces and halyards of the great sails; the two
steersmen are below in the steerage; our captain, or the juragan,
gives the course, guided partly by the compass and partly by the
direction of the wind, and a watch of two or three on the poop
look after the trimming of the sails and call out the hours by
the water-clock. This is a very ingenious contrivance, which
measures time well in both rough weather and fine. It is simply a
bucket half filled with water, in which floats the half of a
well-scraped cocoa-nut shell.
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