Here, The Sea Was Alive With Large
Whales, So Tame That All You Had To Do Was To Go Up And Kill Them:
They Were Too Frightened To Resist.
A little to leeward of this was a
small cluster of islands, where we were going to refit, abounding with
delicious fruits, and peopled by a race almost wholly unsophisticated
by intercourse with strangers.
In order, perhaps, to guard against the possibility of anyone finding
out the precise latitude and longitude of the spot we were going to,
Jermin never revealed to us the ship's place at noon, though such is
the custom aboard of most vessels.
Meanwhile, he was very assiduous in his attention to the invalids.
Doctor Long Ghost having given up the keys of the medicine-chest,
they were handed over to him; and, as physician, he discharged his
duties to the satisfaction of all. Pills and powders, in most cases,
were thrown to the fish, and in place thereof, the contents of a
mysterious little quarter cask were produced, diluted with water from
the "butt." His draughts were mixed on the capstan, in cocoa-nut
shells marked with the patients' names. Like shore doctors, he did
not eschew his own medicines, for his professional calls in the
forecastle were sometimes made when he was comfortably tipsy: nor did
he omit keeping his invalids in good-humour, spinning his yarns to
them, by the hour, whenever he went to see them.
Owing to my lameness, from which I soon began to recover, I did no
active duty, except standing an occasional "trick" at the helm.
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