288 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OB, 



tie tail gleaming hell-fires. The rattling of a chain by Posey, 

 and a few brimstone matches, came in appropriately at the 

 same time, while I continued : 



"Double, double, toil and trouble, 

 Fire burn and caldron bubble. 

 For a charm of powerful trouble, 

 Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble ; 

 Double, double, toil and trouble, 

 Antonio burn, Kanakas bubble." 



By this time I was almost as ready as the frightened au- 

 dience to see " Auld Clootie himseP " peering through the 

 darkness between decks; and all hands scampered up the 

 ladder to escape the sulphurous fumes which Posey was in- 

 dustriously generating, clanking his chain at intervals mean 

 while. He said afterward that the effect was splendid, seen 

 through the opening into the hold, through which he thrust 

 the phosphorized monkey. The peace of mind of poor An- 

 tonio was destroyed. Formerly he only believed in his sa- 

 tanic majesty; now he knows of him. I must in mercy ini- 

 tiate him into the virtues of a horse-shoe to avert the malign 

 influences of bogies, spooks, and other evil beings. 



March 6. The repairs of the stoven boat have been the 

 main work, and knotting yarns and picking oakum the rec- 

 reations of the watch on deck. The captain has been trying 

 his hand on a rawhide rope, or rather whip-cord plait, for a 

 wheel-rope. The sailor is no match for the farmer's boy in 

 working rawhide ; the little I had learned stood me in good 

 stead to-day in helping the captain to a neatly-plaited rope. 

 To-day we are in lat. 2 24' S., long. 156 W., only one degree 

 east of Hawaii. The current here is so strong to the west- 

 ward that we have made but one degree eastward, after 

 steadily beating for two months, the drift of the night under 

 short sail setting us back all we made by day. It is in these 

 ocean rivers, where the food of the sperm-whale is gathered, 



