314 WHALING AND FISHING. 



English. Yain hope, truly. It was worse 

 the French upon which I had months ago ex- 

 hausted all my powers of understanding. 



But the worst was yet to come. On the morn- 

 ing following the advent of our new crew, the 

 mate came out ten times more Scotch than ever ; 

 and when, not understanding an order he gave, I 

 asked him to explain himself in English, he 

 gravely asked if that was not English, meaning 

 the patois in which he had spoken. The majority 

 rules, even on shipboard. While our old crew 

 was yet on board, the plain " Anglo-Saxon " car- 

 ried the day triumphantly, and more than once 

 Scotch Jack took occasion to rally the officers 

 upon their unintelligible Scotch English, by ask- 

 ing them if such a language was permitted be 

 neath the British Union -Jack. But now the 

 other side was in the majority, and it shortly 

 began to be whispered about among the boys, 

 that I could not understand plain English. 



This was good enough to laugh at. But when 

 some days after we left port, the captain in a fit 

 of unusual candor owned that he did not under- 

 stand more than half I said, the matter assumed 

 to me a graver air, and I heartily advised him to 

 procure a grammar and dictionary of the English 

 language. 



Our return cargo for Port Louis consisted of 

 gait, sheep, and butter. In one week after our 

 change of crews we were loaded. We got under 

 way with a fine but rather stiff North-wester a 



