212 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OR, 



position of his own. The captain considered all hands as 

 treated, by proxy, in that single glass of rum, and we thank- 

 ed him for his thoughtfulness. He allowed the Spanish 



dons to fire their blood, and Captain M to soak himself 



with the remainder of the square bottle. Fortunately we 

 were inured to temperance, and heartily took to dancing. 

 Senor and don, Pedro and Emanuelo, danced fandango and 

 cachucha, and Jack took kindly to the reel, breakdown, and 

 hornpipe. A chowder interrupted the " light fantastic," etc., 

 and our crowded deck was soon turned into a banquet-hall. 

 After the dinner dancing was resumed until midnight, when 

 we sought comfort in old rye straw. 



Nov. 29 (Sunday). Starboard watch on shore. A mis- 

 chievous freak of part of our watch nearly led to serious 

 results, and the adventure is worth a place in the journal. 

 I am aware that such details may prove wearisome to the 

 President and his secretaries when they seek history in my 

 journal, and I suspect that others might prefer a disquisi- 

 tion on the igneous play which enabled these islands to 

 hold their heads above water. But I put to you, gentle 

 reader: How are you to realize the adventurous life of 

 the boys who have completely mastered the proud situa- 

 tion of the American whaleman, if I suppress our mischief 

 and fun ? How could you understand the race, which has 

 proved an overmatch for one of the most matchless races 

 the world has known, the boys who met John Bull on his fa- 

 vorite tramping- ground, the sea, and in "fir-built frigates" 

 and hulking whale-ship backed him square down? How 

 could you realize how the hollow-chested Yankees drove 

 from the seven hundred and fifty million square miles of 

 Pacific hunting-ground, the bluff, hearty Britons, if I did 

 not give the points which show the character, good and 

 bad, of the fellows who did it ? I do not think it could be 

 done. 



