In These Seas They Are Never (In Fine
Weather) More Than Two Days Without Seeing Land.
Of course
adverse winds or currents sometimes carry them away, but they
soon fall in with some island, and there are always some old
sailors on board who know it, and thence take a new course.
Last
night a shark about five feet long was caught, and this morning
it was cut up and cooked. In the afternoon they got another, and
I had a little fried, and found it firm and dry, but very
palatable. In the evening the sun set in a heavy bank of clouds,
which, as darkness came on, assumed a fearfully black appearance.
According to custom, when strong wind or rain is expected, our
large sails -were furled, and with their yards let down on deck,
and a small square foresail alone kept up. The great mat sails
are most awkward things to manage in rough weather. The yards
which support them are seventy feet long, and of course very
heavy, and the only way to furl them being to roll up the sail on
the boom, it is a very dangerous thing to have them standing when
overtaken by a squall. Our crew; though numerous enough for a
vessel of 700 instead of one of 70 tons, have it very much their
own way, and there seems to be seldom more than a dozen at work
at a time. When anything important is to be done, however, all
start up willingly enough, but then all think themselves at
liberty to give their opinion, and half a dozen voices are heard
giving orders, and there is such a shrieking and confusion that
it seems wonderful anything gets done at all.
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.
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