314 George Caiman's Random Records. [MARCH, 



imagine. As far, therefore, as enlightening the minds of a couple of 

 lads belonging to the rising generation of England, the frog took his 

 voluntary leap of self-destruction, like another Curtius, for the good of 

 his country !" After this, we may believe any thing that we are told of 

 the coxcombry of Sir Joseph's science. Peter Pindar should not have 

 let this exploit escape him ; it was even better than that celebrated expe- 

 riment which ended in " Fleas are not lobsters, d mn their souls !" 



At Scarborough George for the first time saw the sea, with which he 

 was inclined to be disappointed, for he had always conceived it from the 

 poets, to be in a fine frenzy rolling, to rage in a perpetual storm. How- 

 ever, he was on more mature knowledge convinced, " as George Hanger 

 wrote of an army of many thousand men, that it was not to be sneezed 

 at." On the morning after his arrival, he walked down to the beach, 

 where he entered a bathing machine, to take his " maiden plunge." 

 He found Omai wading in the water, of whom he gives this curious 

 description. (( The sun-beams shot their lustre upon the tawny priest 

 (Omai's profession in Otaheite), and heightened the gloss he had received 

 from the water; he looked like a specimen of moving mahogany 

 highly varnished ; not only varnished, indeed, but curiously veneered 

 for from his hips and the small of his back downwards, he was tattooed 

 with striped arches, broad, and black, by means of a sharp shell or fish's 

 tooth, imbued with an indelible dye." He invited young George to take 

 .a swim on his back. The offer was accepted. " Omai, who was highly 

 pleased with my confidence in him, walked a considerable way out 

 before the water came up to his chin ; he then struck out, and having 

 thus weighed anchor for this my first voyage, I found myself on board 

 the Omai, decidedly not as commander of the vessel, but as a passive 

 passenger, who must submit without an effort to the very worst that 

 might happen. My wild friend appeared as much at home in the waves, 

 as a rope-dancer upon a cord. But as soon as he had got out of his 

 depth, my apprehensions were aroused, and I began to think that, if he 

 should take a sudden fancy to dive, or to turn round, and float with his 

 face to the sky, I, who was upon his back, must be in a very awkward 

 situation. Every fresh motion of his arms and legs carried us some 

 yards further out ; after a time, however, we went on so steadily, that 

 my fears subsided. At last I felt not only quite at ease, but delighted 

 with my mode of vectigation ; it had, doubtless, one advantage over 

 sailing in a ship, for there was no rolling and pitching about, to occasion 

 sea-sickness, and I made my way as smoothly as Arion upon his dolphin. 

 I could not, indeed, touch the lyre, nor had I any musical instrument 

 to play on unless it were the comb which Omai carried in one hand, 

 and which he used, while swimming, to adjust his harsh black locks, 

 hanging in profusion over his shoulders. Having performed a trip of 

 full three-quarters of an hour, the Omai came gallantly into harbour, 

 all safe passenger in good health." 



A pleasantry is next recorded of John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, 

 (afterwards Duke of Buckingham). This " warrior, politician, courtier, 

 and poet, had fled from the plague of 1665 in London to his Yorkshire 

 estate ; there he rendered himself so popular, that on his return, his 

 tenantry attended him in a body to some distance, trying to extract a 

 promise of his soon coming to reside among them again, The request 

 was evaded for a while ; but the crowd at last forced an answer. ' My 

 worthy friends/ said the Earl, ' I shall make a point of coming among 

 you at the next plague !' " 



