The Nineteenth Century 105 



vergues, où il reste jusqu'au mercredi des Cendres. Ce jour-là la procession recommence 

 et on immerge Mardi-Gras; on le mouille, comme disent les marins. La manœuvre pour 

 cette cale, donnée à l'image du Carême-Prenant, est la même que pour le mouillage 

 d'une ancre; elle est commandée avec gravité, comme s'il s'agissait d'une opération 

 sérieuse. Les travestissemens des matelots sont bizarres, grotesques, incompréhensibles 

 pour la plupart; c'est tout simple; les élémens des costumes de caractères leur manquent 

 tout-à-fait; ils se changent donc, se barbouillent, se défigiuent, tout cela avec de la 

 farine, de la suie, du goudron, et surtout les pavillons de signaux dont les couleurs 

 éclatantes leur font de riches turbans, de belles ceintures, ou de longues tuniques 

 bariolées. 



(A. Jal. Scènes de la vie maritime. Paris, 1832. v. 1, p. 295-345.) 



Following this comes a description of theatricals on shipboard, fuU of interest, but beside the 

 point here. 



In the first few paragraphs noted above some of tlie original te.xt has been omitted, parts 

 sketching various passengers, but I hope it may be accepted that in this saving of space nothing 

 e.ssential to the picture is left out. Details omitted may add to the extent of sketching but they 

 are little more than repetition. Omissions are marked by the usual three dots. Later in the dia- 

 logues dots are used in the original to show hesitation by the speaker, and here they have been 

 followed with care. 



A. Jal, truly a lover of the sea, of its life, on the surface or below, is most of all in love with 

 the sailor and his ships. Scènes de la vie maritime gives a series of snapshots — no, that is too 

 informal a term, but "essays" or "interpretations" would perhaps fail to show how intimate and 

 revealing are the various "chapitres," and so suppose we let it stand — of the men, the vessels, 

 the rigging, the desertions, the frolics, all in all an instructive picture of life at sea as French 

 mariners saw and lived it in the early 19th century. He dates his book from Paris, July 1, 1832, 

 the year of its publication; he gives 1816-1819 as the date of chapter on "Baptême sous la Ligne." 



He dedicates the Scènes to Vice-Admiral de Rigny, pays tribute to other writers in the same 

 une, most of all to James Fenimore Cooper, whom he rates highest, adds other French and 

 British writers, but of all fixes Cooper as 'leiu' maître et le notre." He opens his preface with 

 "voici un essai dans un geru-e de littératem: qui a déjà ses chefs-de-œuvre," Cooper easily first; 

 sums his own story up in "Si vous ne trouvez pas la exactitude absolue, j'espère que vous y 

 trouvez vérité." 



In this particular chapter he carries tlie tale along with artistic suspense; says not one word 

 as to how much is fiction and how much factual enough for evidence in court of law. It stands 

 out among the quotations about the "crossing" already given, and to follow, by taking time to 

 picture the passengers and to say plainly that in this case, at least. Jack Tar sized these gentry 

 up and gave each the treatment he felt was rightly deserved when time came for initiation; is 

 alone, as I recall it, in telling how a chapel and a priest in clerical garb were provided for the 

 baptism; is worthy of note too as being the first, early in this second decade of the century, to 

 tell how some of the landlubbers agreed — with a little help and suggestion — that they saw 

 clearly just what that "line" of the equator really looked like, a bit of fooling that seems to have 

 had to wait for its counterpart imtü the last decade of the century when Mark Twain tells us 

 how he followed the equator. 



The whole tale calls immistakably for delving into the records of the French navy to tell us 

 more about Captain Prior and his Achille, about the rating of this French naval vessel, about its 

 crew and its later history, enough at least to satisfy Sir Anthony Absolute. 



Or, does it? 



1817 



Du l.^"" au 5 novembre, plusieurs hommes de l'équipage, ainsi que quelques 

 personnes de 1 etat-major, furent pris presque instantanément de coHques 

 assez fortes: ces indispositions diurèrent de vingt-quatre à quarante-lauit 

 heures. Nos médecins ont été obHgés d'en chercher la cause dans le passage 

 brusque d'une zone atmosphérique dans une autre qui contenoit des principes 

 morbides. Insensiblement cependant nos malades se rétablirent; nous n'en 



