40 Crossing the Line 



1751, continued 



suflScient to make them mad. But we cannot from hence derive the ceremony 



of drenching them in water, as it is a practice more hkely to occasion diseases 



than to prevent them. 



Afterwards all those who had been here for the first time collected a sum of 

 money among themselves, to serve as a treat at a Gothenburgh tavern, in case 

 they should return; and it amoimted to three hundred and sixty-four copper 

 dollars, and fifteen ocres. Another collection was made for the orphan-house 

 at Gothenburgh; every one contributed to it, and it amoimted to eight him- 

 dred and thirteen copper .dollars, and twenty-four ocres. 



( Peter Osbeck. A voyage to China and the Eastlndies. Translated from 

 the German [version of the Swedish original] by J. R. Förster. London: 

 Benjamin White, 1771. v. 1, p. 106-107.) 



The title of the Swedish original runs: Dagbok of wer en Ostindisk resa âren 1750, 1751, 1752. 

 Med anmärkningar uti naturkunnigheten, främmande folkslags, sprâk, seder, Hushâllning, m.m. 

 Jämte 12 tabeller och afledne skepps-predikanten Toréns bref. Stockholm, 1757. The Arnold 

 Arboretum has the only copy in this coimtry recorded in the Union Catalogue of the Library of 

 Congress. 



The German translation title runs: Herrn Peter Osbeck, pastors zu Hasslöf . . . Reise nach 

 Ostindien und China. Nebst O. Toreens Reise nach Suratte und C. G. Ekehergs Nachricht von 

 der landwirthschaft der Chineser. Aus dem schwedischen übersetzt von J. G. Georgi. Rostock: 

 J. C. Koppe, 1765. 



Osbeck's ceremony came at the equator, the reference to "Holm's Description of New Sweden" 

 is to the quotation from Campanius here given under 1642. 



1752 



At sea, 27 July [1752]. I had nearly missed my post to-night, by attending to 

 our old sea form in crossing the tropic. This is the boundary of what the 

 ancients called the torrid zone. We crossed the supposed hne of this boundary 

 to day. On these occasions, all the people on board a ship who have not passed 

 it before are subject to a fine, which, if they refuse to pay or cannot procure, 

 they must be ducked; that is, hoisted up by a rope to the yard arm, and from 

 thence dropped souce into the water. This is such fine sport to the seamen, 

 that they would rather lose some of the forfeiture, ( which is usually paid in 

 brandy ) than that every body should escape the ducking. And in many ves- 

 sels they single out some poor helpless boy or landsman to be half drowned 

 for the diversion of his shipmates. But as I do not choose to permit any 

 arbitrary or oppressive laws to be valid in my peaceful kingdom, I always pay 

 for those who cannot pay for themselves. 



( John Newton. Letters and sermons, with a review of ecclesiastical his- 

 tory and hymns. Philadelphia, 1797. v. 7, p. 116, 117.) 



The letters were written by the Rev. John Newton, rector of St. Mary, Woolnoth, London, on 

 three voyages to Africa in 1751-1753. 



