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CHAPTER X. 



A VISIT TO SOME STRANGE PLACES. 



We had now entered upon what promised to be the 

 most interesting part of our voyage. As a commercial 

 speculation, I have to admit that the voyage was to me 

 a matter of absolute indifference. Never, from the first 

 week of my being on board, had I cherished any illusions 

 upon that score, for it was most forcibly impressed 

 on my mind that, whatever might be the measure of 

 success attending our operations, no one of the crew 

 forward could hope to benefit by it. The share of profits 

 was so small, and the time taken to earn it so long, 

 such a number of clothes were worn out and destroyed 

 by us, only to be replaced from the ship's slop-chest at 

 high prices, that I had quite resigned myself to the 

 prospect of leaving the vessel in debt, whenever that 

 desirable event might happen. Since, therefore, I had 

 never made it a practice to repine at the inevitable, and 

 make myself unhappy by the contemplation of mis- 

 fortunes I was powerless to prevent, I tried to interest 

 myself as far as was possible in gathering information, 

 although at that time I had no idea, beyond a general 

 thirst for knowledge, that what I was now learning 

 would ever be of any service to me. Yet I had been 



