Now, This Man Was Settled For Life, Perfectly Satisfied With His
Circumstances, And Feeling No Desire To Return To His Friends.
"Friends," indeed, he had none.
He told me his history. Thrown upon
the world a foundling, his paternal origin was as much a mystery to
him as the genealogy of Odin; and, scorned by everybody, he fled the
parish workhouse when a boy, and launched upon the sea. He had
followed it for several years, a dog before the mast, and now he had
thrown it up for ever.
And for the most part, it is just this sort of men - so many of whom
are found among sailors - uncared for by a single soul, without ties,
reckless, and impatient of the restraints of civilization, who are
occasionally found quite at home upon the savage islands of the
Pacific. And, glancing at their hard lot in their own country, what
marvel at their choice?
According to the renegado, there was no other white man on the island;
and as the captain could have no reason to suppose that Hardy
intended to deceive us, he concluded that the Frenchmen were in some
way or other mistaken in what they had told us. However, when our
errand was made known to the rest of our visitors, one of them, a
fine, stalwart fellow, his face all eyes and expression, volunteered
for a cruise. All the wages he asked was a red shirt, a pair of
trousers, and a hat, which were to be put on there and then; besides
a plug of tobacco and a pipe. The bargain was struck directly; but
Wymontoo afterward came in with a codicil, to the effect that a
friend of his, who had come along with him, should be given ten whole
sea-biscuits, without crack or flaw, twenty perfectly new and
symmetrically straight nails, and one jack-knife. This being agreed
to, the articles were at once handed over; the native receiving them
with great avidity, and in the absence of clothing, using his mouth as
a pocket to put the nails in. Two of them, however, were first made
to take the place of a pair of ear-ornaments, curiously fashioned out
of bits of whitened wood.
It now began breezing strongly from seaward, and no time was to be
lost in getting away from the land; so after an affecting rubbing of
noses between our new shipmate and his countrymen, we sailed away
with him.
To our surprise, the farewell shouts from the canoe, as we dashed
along under bellied royals, were heard unmoved by our islander; but
it was not long thus. That very evening, when the dark blue of his
native hills sunk in the horizon, the poor savage leaned over the
bulwarks, dropped his head upon his chest, and gave way to
irrepressible emotions. The ship was plunging hard, and Wymontoo, sad
to tell, in addition to his other pangs, was terribly sea-sick.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE TATTOOERS OF LA DOMINICA
FOR a while leaving Little Jule to sail away by herself, I will here
put down some curious information obtained from Hardy.
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