CHAPTER VII. TOUCHING AN AMPHIBIOUS ANIMAL, A SPECIAL INTRODUCTION, ANDITS CONSEQUENCES.
I soon took an interest in my new acquaintance. He was communicative,shrewd, and peculiar; and though apt to express himself quaintly, it wasalways with the pith of one who had seen a great deal of at leastone portion of his fellow-creatures. The conversation, under suchcircumstances, did not flag; on the contrary, it soon grew moreinteresting by the stranger's beginning to touch on his privateinterests. He told me that he was a mariner who had been cast ashore byone of the accidents of his calling, and, by way of cutting in a word inhis own favor, he gave me to understand that he had seen a great deal,more especially of that castle of his fellow-creatures who like himselflive by frequenting the mighty deep.
"I am very happy," I said, "to have met with a stranger who can give meinformation touching an entire class of human beings with whom I have asyet had but little communion. In order that we may improve the occasionto the utmost, I propose that we introduce ourselves to each other atonce, and swear an eternal friendship, or, at least, until we may findit convenient to dispense with the obligation."
"For my part, I am one who likes the friendship of a dog better than hisenmity," returned my companion, with a singleness of purpose that lefthim no disposition to waste his breath in idle compliments. "I acceptthe offer, therefore, with all my heart; and this the more readilybecause you are the only one I have met for a week who can ask me how Ido without saying, 'Come on, cong portez-vous.' Being used to meet withsqualls, however, I shall accept your offer under the last conditionnamed."
I liked the stranger's caution. It denoted a proper care of character,and furnished a proof of responsibility. The condition was thereforeaccepted on my part as frankly as it had been urged on his.
"And now, sir," I added, when we had shaken each other very cordially bythe hand, "may I presume to ask your name?"
"I am called Noah, and I don't care who knows it. I am not ashamed ofeither of my names, whatever else I may be ashamed of."
"Noah--?"
"Poke, at your service." He pronounced the word slowly and verydistinctly, as if what he had just said of his self-confidence weretrue. As I had afterward occasion to take his signature, I shall at oncegive it in the proper form--"Capt. Noah Poke."
"Of what part of England are you a native, Mr. Poke?"
"I believe I may say of the new parts."
"I do not know that any portion of the island was so designated. Willyou have the good-nature to explain yourself?"
"I'm a native of Stunin'tun, in the State of Connecticut, in old NewEngland. My parents being dead, I was sent to sea a four-year-old, andhere I am, walking about the kingdom of France without a cent in mypocket, a shipwrecked mariner. Hard as my lot is, to say the truth, I'dabout as leave starve as live by speaking their d--d lingo."
"Shipwrecked--a mariner--starving--and a Yankee!"
"All that, and maybe more, too; though, by your leave, commodore, we'lldrop the last title. I'm proud enough to call myself a Yankee, but myback is apt to get up when I hear an Englishman use the word. We are yetfriends, and it may be well enough to continue so until some good comesof it to one or other of the parties."
"I ask your pardon, Mr. Poke, and will not offend again. Have youcircumnavigated the globe?"
Captain Poke snapped his fingers, in pure contempt of the simplicity ofthe question.
"Has the moon ever sailed round the 'arth! Look here, a moment,commodore"--he took from his pocket an apple, of which he had beenmunching half a-dozen during the walk, and held it up to view--"drawyour lines which way you will on this sphere; crosswise or lengthwise,up or down, zigzag or parpendic'lar, and you will not find moretraverses than I've worked about the old ball!"
"By land as well as by sea?"
"Why, as to the land, I've had my share of that, too; for it has been myhard fortune to run upon it, when a softer bed would have given a morequiet nap. This is just the present difficulty with me, for I am nowtacking about among these Frenchmen in order to get afloat again, likean alligator floundering in the mud. I lost my schooner on the northeastcoast of Russia--somewhere hereabouts," pointing to the precise spot onthe apple; "we were up there trading in skins-and finding no meansof reaching home by the road I'd come, and smelling salt water downhereaway, I've been shaping my course westward for the last eighteenmonths, steering as near as might be directly athwart Europe and Asia;and here I am at last within two days' run of Havre, which is, if I canget good Yankee planks beneath me once more, within some eighteen ortwenty days' run of home."
"You allow me, then, to call the planks Yankee?"
"Call 'em what you please, commodore; though I should prefar to call 'emthe 'Debby and Dolly of Stunin'tun,' to anything else, for that was thename of the craft I lost. Well, the best of us are but frail, and thelongest-winded man is no dolphin to swim with his head under water!"
"Pray, Mr. Poke, permit me to ask where you learned to speak the Englishlanguage with so much purity?"
"Stunin'tun--I never had a mouthful of schooling but what I got athome. It's all homespun. I make no boast of scholarship; but as fornavigating, or for finding my way about the 'arth, I'll turn my backon no man, unless it be to leave him behind. Now we have people with usthat think a great deal of their geometry and astronomies, but I holdto no such slender threads. My way is, when there is occasion to goanywhere, to settle it well in my mind as to the place, and then tomake as straight a wake as natur' will allow, taking little account ofcharts, which are as apt to put you wrong as right; and when they do getyou into a scrape it's a smasher! Depend on yourself and human natur',is my rule; though I admit there is some accommodation in a compass,particularly in cold weather."
"Cold weather! I do not well comprehend the distinction."
"Why, I rather conclude that one's scent gets to be dullish in a frost;but this may be no more than a conceit after all, for the two times I'vebeen wrecked were in summer, and both the accidents happened by sheerdint of hard blowing, and in broad daylight, when nothing human short ofa change of wind could have saved us."
"And you prefer this peculiar sort of navigation?"
"To all others, especially in the sealing business, which is my raaloccupation. It's the very best way in the world to discover islands; andeverybody knows that we sealers are always on the lookout for su'thin'of that sort."
"Will you suffer me to inquire, Captain Poke, how many times you havedoubled Cape Horn?"
My navigator threw a quick, jealous glance at me, as if he distrustedthe nature of the question.
"Why, that is neither here nor there; perhaps I don't double either ofthe capes, perhaps I do. I get into the South Sea with my craft, andit's of no great moment how it's done. A skin is worth just as much inthe market, though the furrier may not happen to have a glossary of theroad it has travelled."
"A glossary?"
"What matters a signification, commodore, when people understandeach other? This overland journey has put me to my wits, for you willunderstand that I've had to travel among natives that cannot speak asyllable of the homespun; so I brought the schooner's dictionary withme as a sort of terrestrial almanac, and I fancied that, as they spokegibberish to me, the best way was to give it to them back again as nearas might be in their own coin, hoping I might hit on su'thin' totheir liking. By this means I've come to be rather more voluble thanformerly."
"The idea was happy."
"No doubt it was, as is just evinced. But having given you a prettyclear insight into my natur' and occupation, it is time that I ask a fewquestions of you. This is a business, you must know, at which we doa good deal at Stunin'tun, and at which we are commonly thought to behandy,"
"Put your questions, Captain Poke; I hope the answers will besatisfactory."
"Your name?"
"John Goldencalf--by the favor of his majesty, Sir John Goldencalf,Baronet."
"Sir John Goldencalf--by the favor of his majesty, a baronet! Is baroneta calling? or wha
t sort of a crittur or thing is it?"
"It is my rank in the kingdom to which I belong."
"I begin to understand what you mean. Among your nation mankind is whatwe call stationed, like a ship's people that are called to go about; youhave a certain berth in that kingdom of yours, much as I should have ina sealing schooner."
"Exactly so; and I presume you will allow that order, and propriety, andsafety result from this method among mariners?"
"No doubt--no doubt, we station anew, however, each v'yage, according toexperience; I'm not so sure that it would do to take even the cook fromfather to son, or we might have a pretty mess of it."
Here the sealer commenced a series of questions, which he put with avigor and perseverance that I fear left me without a single fact of mylife unrevealed, except those connected with the sacred sentiment thatbound me to Anna, and which were far too hallowed to escape me evenunder the ordeal of a Stunin'tun inquisitor. In short, finding thatI was nearly helpless in such hands, I made a merit of necessity, andyielded up my secrets as wood in a vice discharges its moisture. It wasscarcely possible that a mind like mine, subjected to the action ofsuch a pair of moral screws, should not yield some hints touching itsbesetting propensities. The Captain seized this clew, and he went at thetheory like a bulldog at the muzzle of an ox.
To oblige him, therefore, I entered at some length into an explanationof my system. After the general remarks that were necessary to givea stranger an insight into its leading principles, I gave him tounderstand that I had long been looking for one like him, for a purposethat shall now be explained to the reader. I had entertained somenegotiations with Tamahamaah, and had certain investments in the pearland whale fisheries, it is true; but on the whole my relations withall that portion of mankind who inhabit the islands of the Pacific,the northwest coast of America, and the northeast coast of the oldcontinent, were rather loose, and generally in an unsettled and vaguecondition; and it appeared to me that I had been singularly favored inhaving a man so well adapted to their regeneration thrown as it wereby Providence, and in a manner so unusual, directly in my way. I nowfrankly proposed, therefore, to fit out an expedition, that should bepartly of trade and partly of discovery, in order to expand my interestsin this new direction, and to place my new acquaintance at its head. Tenminutes of earnest explanation on my part sufficed to put my companionin possession of the leading features of the plan. When I had ended thisdirect appeal to his love of enterprise, I was answered by the favoriteexclamation of--
"King!"
"I do not wonder, Captain Poke, that your admiration breaks out inthis manner; for I believe few men fairly enter into the beauty of thisbenevolent system who are not struck equally with its grandeur and itssimplicity. May I count on your assistance?"
"This is a new idee, Sir Goldencalf--"
"Sir John Goldencalf, if you please, sir."
"A new idee, Sir John Goldencalf, and it needs circumspection.Circumspection in a bargain is the certain way to steer clear ofmisunderstandings. You wish a navigator to take your craft, let herbe what she will, into unknown seas, and I wish, naturally, to make astraight course for Stunin'tun. You see the bargain is in apogee, fromthe start."
"Money is no consideration with me, Captain Poke."
"Well, this is an idee that has brought many a more difficultcontract at once into perigee, Sir John Goldencalf. Money is always aconsiderable consideration with me, and I may say, also, just now itis rather more so than usual. But when a gentleman clears the way ashandsomely as you have now done, any bargain may be counted as a gooddeal more than half made."
A few explicit explanations disposed of this part of the subject, andCaptain Poke accepted of my terms in the spirit of frankness with whichthey were made. Perhaps his decision was quickened by an offer of twentyNapoleons, which I did not neglect making on the spot. Amicable and insome respects confidential relations were now established between my newacquaintance and myself; and we pursued our walk, discussing the detailsnecessary to the execution of our project. After an hour or two passedin this manner, I invited my companion to go to my hotel, meaning thathe should partake of my board until we could both depart for England,where it was my intention to purchase without delay a vessel for thecontemplated voyage, in which I also had decided to embark in person.
We were obliged to make our way through the throng that usuallyfrequents the lower part of the Champs Elysees during the season of goodweather and towards the close of the day. This task was nearly over whenmy attention was particularly drawn to a group that was just enteringthe place of general resort, apparently with the design of adding to thescene of thoughtlessness and amusement. But as I am now approachingthe most material part of this extraordinary work, it will be proper toreserve the opening for a new chapter.