18 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OR, 



clipper; easy times aboard that ship. You've trade-winds 

 most of the way to Cape Horn : trade-winds, you know, are 

 steady ; as fixed, sir, as the needle to the pole, as the poet 

 has it. And then there's the Pacific! Grand sea that; all 

 about Juan Fernandez, Magellan, and the Southern Cross it's 

 as calm and smiling as a miU-dam — so smooth that the il- 

 limitable sea seems a boundless oil-tank ; where you see re- 

 flected in it the belt of Orion and the Pleiades. The thought 

 almost tempts me to run out on a voyage, just to see that 

 whaleman's heaven. 



" Do you know that you get fresh beef at sea ? Yes, sir, 

 you do. Porpoises are to be had for the catching. Por- 

 poise has muscle in it; you'd stiffen up on porpoise. And 

 albatross too, big as geese ; a little oily, but you'll get used 

 to that. . It makes a man water-proof to eat albatross." 



The good man never dreamed that this moment was the 

 fulfillment of the dreams of my short life. When I was a 

 little boy, I had rigged and sailed my toy boats ; and when a 

 few years older, I had devoured Cook and Delano, and was 

 happy in the library of Mavor, looking forward to the time 

 when I too should visit the strange seas and scenes I had 

 pictured in imagination. I took joy in the major's persua- 

 sions, as I knew that he would accept me, and allow me to 

 go in his ship. Let me say it was no freak of a child, no 

 sudden whim, which led me to this point. Twice I had been 

 disappointed in going to sea. Once I had shipped in the 

 Globe, East Indiaman, when a severe accident kept me con- 

 fined for weeks after she had been under way. On a bed 

 of sickness my young heart followed that gallant ship on 

 her course, and I found consolation only in the promise of 

 my fatherly brother, that when well another berth should be 

 found me. 



Then I shipped on board the saucy little free-trader. Star, 

 bound for the coast of British India. She was armed, and 



