466 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



the sealing part of our voyage we gave the crew an extra allowance of grog, with which, as is always usual with sail- 

 ors on Saturday night, if in their power, they drank "sweethearts and wives"; those who are married invariably 

 drink " wives and sweethearts. " After this we mustered all onr music, which was a drum and fife, and negro Dick, 

 who could siug jigs and contra dances enough to tire out all on board, found a good opportunity to test his peculiar 

 talents. At midnight the entertainment broke up with three cheers and a " good bye to sealing," none calculating on 

 anything but pleasure for the rest of the voyage, having finished what we considered the fatiguing part of it. 



July 4, being fine weather, and feeling disposed tohonor the day as much as was in onr power, an extra allowance 

 of grog was given to the crew. This produced no little mirth and jollity. Not one of the men thought but that he 

 was under republican government, although nothing but a strict monarchical form was ever tried with success on 

 board of a ship. Many of our crew were very smart, ambitious young men, and might reasonably calculate on being 

 ship-masters, marine monarchs (ship-masters), themselves in proper time, and now seemed to enjoy a little of those 

 feelings by anticipation which they hoped hereafter to possess. In our voyage across the Pacific they exerted them- 

 selves to be qualified for commanding ships, and the captain gave them as much indulgence as he could for that object, 

 allowing them time and giving them instruction. It was quite a regular good school on board, and the progress was 

 even greater than in some literary institutions on shore. Some men that could not do a sum in addition when we left 

 America could now work lunar observations. We had fine weather, and Bothiug material occurred until the 2d of 

 August, when our crew began to complain of the scurvy. It first showed itself in bard,, blue spots on the legs, with 

 pain in the joints. Several men were very sick, and ten were sick with it when we arrived at the Saodwich Islands 

 on the 14th of August. They recruited wonderfully on getting vegetables. In twenty-four hours there was an evi- 

 dent convalescence. One man, who was black from his feet to his hips, and whom we expected to lose, was well 

 within a week. 



From the 14th to the 30th of August the Neptune was at the Sandwich Islands, about which 

 a detailed account is written. 



We left these islands on the 31st of August, on onr way to Canton, our crew having benefited much in health 

 during our stay. On the 10th of September our distance is the same east or west from Greenwich, our longitude being 

 180 degrees east or west from that observatory. We now lose one day and call it the llth of September. On the 3d 

 of October we made the island of Tinian, in latitude 14 54' north, longitude 144 32' east. 



Mention is made of the inhabitants here and at some islands touched at, and on the 24th of 

 October, 1798, the vessel arrived at Macao. 



We went on shore at Macao to get a pilot for Canton. Our first duty was to call on the governor, and we 

 understood that civility required our calling on Captain Turner, the commodore of the English ships then lying in 

 the Typa. We were received by both very politely. At Captain Turner's an English gentleman who had been in 

 America, wishing to be civil, said to me that he had been through the United States, with which he was very much 

 pleased, and, I presume suspecting I was a full-blooded Yankee, said to me, " Were you everin Connecticut 1" I replied, 

 "Yes". He said, "Were yon ever in New Haven!" "Yes, sir; Ihave been there frequently." "Well, that is the 

 place that I was pleased with." 



After three hours' delay at Macao, we secured a pilot and proceeded up the river, and anchored at Whampoo at 2 

 o'clock on the morning of the 25th. On the 26th we got up among the shipping at our moorings and went up to Can- 

 ton in a san pan, which is one of their small passage boats. We had to stop about half a dozen times at the chop 

 houses for examination. On onr arriving at Canton we were immediately invited by several of the captains 

 and supercargoes to take up our quarters with them until we should be fixed in our own. I accepted the invitation of 

 Mr. Gray, of Boston. * * * On the 29th we took possession of our factory between us and a northwest trader from 

 Boston, each to pay $400, not expecting to want it over a month or five weeks. 



We sold our skins at $2 each, and the northwest captain sold his sea-otter skins at $28 each, both making great 

 voyages. On the 2d of November we began receiving onr skins into the factory. The lower part was for storage and 

 we lived in the upper part. On the lower floor there was a large space in the center and a small room on the other 

 side, with which we had nothing to do. The skins were brought in and laid in piles of one hundred. 



The men were bringing them in and I was walking back and forth. I soon noticed a change in one of the piles, 

 counted them, and found five skins missing. They could not have gone out of the door, for there was one man stand- 

 ing there. The door of the room wo had not seen opened, but we concluded they could not possibly go anywhere else, 

 and inquired for the key, which could not be found. We got an ax and were about breaking it open when a Chinin 

 stepped up with the key, lotting us know that it was his room. We went in and found nothing there but a sailor's 

 chest, apparently empty, and were about giving up the search when we thought possibly they might be in the chest. 

 We were obliged to apply the ax to that, and found in one end a small box, into which the skins were packed, and into 

 which we should not have thought it possible to have got a single skin. There was great dispatch and ingenuity in tlio 

 management ; I think none but a Chinin could have done it. We gave the fellow a good rattauiug on the spot and 

 let him run, which was less trouble than to have applied to the police, and there was no danger of his complaining, 

 for if he had he would have been more severely punished. It appears to be very much the practice here for foreigners 

 to take their own satisfaction for petty offences. 



As we had agreed for about 1,000 chests of Bohia tea, which is something of a job to be packed, we soon com- 

 menced receiving that part of onr cargo. This sort of tea is brought in from the country in baskets, and is a very in- 



