The Eighteenth Century 53 



shaved. They were lathered with a mixture of kitchen grease and pot black 

 and scraped with a notched stick for a razor. Others, blindfolded, he ordered 

 pitched into the sea. They were tipped backward into a tub of water. Though 

 it was only horseplay, some of the more superstitious Highlanders believed 

 the big sailor was in truth Neptune and his judgements frightened them 

 badly. 



There were many new-comers to the tropics and Neptune was still at his 

 work judging them in the late afternoon when the lookout reported a sail on 

 the horizon, to the south. As the stranger came closer it revealed itself as a 

 Hght schooner. Both vessels changed courses to pass close by. 



(Inglis Fletcher. The Scotswoman. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill 

 Company [1954] p. 217.) 



Reprinted with permission. 



The "Scotswoman" is Flora MacDonald, and here we are told of one day on the voyage the 

 family made to settle in North Carolina after the troubles of "the '45." It is particularly welcome 

 because it gives one more of the few times when the tale is found in fiction. 



1776 



On the first of September we crossed the Equator, in the longitude of 27° 38' 

 West, with a fine gale at South East by South; and not withstanding my ap- 

 prehensions of falling in with the coast of Brazil in stretching to the South 

 West, I kept the ship a full point from the wind. 



(A voyage to the Pacific Ocean ... in the years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 

 1780. By Captain James Cook. London, 1785. 2. edition, v. 1, p. 34.) 



A footnote to the "September" tells how the editor of this posthumous report felt about such 

 performances: 



The afternoon, as appears from Mr. Anderson's Journal, was spent in performing the 

 old and ridiculous ceremony of ducking those who had not crossed the Equator before. 

 Though Captain Cook did not suppress the custom, he thought it too trifling to deserve 

 the least mention of it in his Journal, or even in his log-book. Pemetty, the Writer 

 of Bougainville's Voyage to the Falkland Islands, in 1763 and 1764, thought differently; 

 for his account of the celebration of this childish festival on board his ship is extended 

 through seventeen pages, and makes the subject of an entire chapter, under the title of 

 Baptême de la Ligne. 



It may be worth while to transcribe his introduction to the description of it. 'C'est 

 un usage qui ne remonte pas plus haut que ce voyage célèbre de Gama, qui a fourni 

 au Camoens le sujet de La Lusiad . . . Car, partout, dès que le peuple parle, il faut que 

 le sage se mette à l'unison.' 



The introduction to the British account fills 89 quarto pages, sumptuous in real eighteenth 

 century style as to composition and typography, but never a word Üiere about "the old and 

 ridiculous ceremony." 



The BougainviUe chapter is entered under 1763 above. 



1780 



Juillet. Nous arrivâmes près du tropique du Cancer où en passant pour la I"^^ 

 fois il est d'usage de recevoir le baptême du Bonhomme Tropique, c'est im 

 droit qu'il faut payer au matelot, et la manière singuhère, et pittoresque de 

 cette cérémonie, mérite d'être lue ime fois. 



