AUGUSTINE BAY. 



197 



scramble up the ship's side. The natives climbed 

 up over the bulwarks like ants out of a broken 

 hill. They were terrible fellows. They had grass 

 mats around their loins. Some had arrayed them- 

 selves in dirty flannel shirts. Their women wore 

 nondescript garments of cotton cloth, and had 

 their hair done up in little knots like nutmegs 

 and covered with grease. 



We set to business directly. The chief and his 

 cabinet — "big men," they say — followed me 

 down into the cabin, where the pow-wow began. 

 I wanted to land and to recruit the Clara Bell 

 with wood and water. I wanted to buy that 

 privilege cheap. They, on their part, wanted 

 cotton cloth. They wanted all they could get 

 of it. And that's where we disagreed. 



Whatever those fuzzies thought of my seaman- 

 ship, they evidently held a very low estimate of 

 my diplomacy ; but in that they were mistaken. 

 For we had gammed with a ship from that very 

 port and I knew the ropes like any old sea-dog. 

 I knew just how much I ought to give, and just 

 where I ought to draw the line. The regulation 

 tariff was thirty yards to the chief and five 

 fathoms to each of his advisers. That I offered 

 and there I stuck. 



But time was precious and I knew that, too. 

 For I had two tribes to deal with. These chaps 



