192 NIMBOD OF THM SEA; OB, 



yond sui-gical aid. But this advice didn't chime in with his 

 Yankee idea that where there is life there is hope, and he sent 

 a messenger into the interior, some thirty miles, for a Ger- 

 man physician. The good Samaritan hastened down to the 

 coast, dressed the captain's wounds, and giving him restora- 

 tives, brought him to bear transportation on an ambulance 

 slung between two mules, away from the unhealthy coast to 

 a healthy mountain home. Here in six months the old man 

 recovered sufficiently to resume command of his ship, which 

 in the mean time had made a successful cruise on the off- 

 shore ground. His left hand had healed into an unsightly 

 stump, with the two forefingers so contracted on the palm 

 that, when he afterward went in the boat, it was necessary 

 to wear a thick mitten to prevent the lance-warp from catch- 

 ing under them. But the hand was still good to direct the 

 lance to the life of many a good whale. 



" Such was the effect produced on his mind by this terri- 

 ble encounter with the whale, that it became a favorite be- 

 lief with the brave, good old man that he was a monument 

 of God's loving mercy, ' living on borrowed time ;' and his ex- 

 perience of a protecting Providence, as especially extended 

 to those engaged in whaling, led him to remark that ' some- 

 how men were wonderfully preserved who stuck close to the 

 business.' In any other occupation he would say, ' A crew 

 of thirty-two men could not go out forty-eight months with- 

 out some loss before the end, but he had seen them go safe 

 in whaling, voyage after voyage. He told me of a family of 

 five brothers in Nantucket, all masters of whalers, now liv- 

 ing at an average age of eighty-two years." 



Hinton's rich mellow voice struck in here : 



"The winds they blew a hurricane, the sea was mountains rollin', 

 When Barny Buntlin turned his quid, and said to Billy Bowlin' : 

 'A strong sow-wester's blowing, Billy ; don't yap hear it roar now ? 

 How I pity all unhappy folks as lives upon the shore now ! ' " 



