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- Is there any hard work to be done, and the 'Gees stand round in sulks?
"Here, my men!" cries the mate. How they jump. But ten to one when the
work is done, it is plain 'Gee again. "Here, 'Gee you 'Ge-e-e-e!" In
fact, it is not unsurmised, that only when extraordinary stimulus is
needed, only when an extra strain is to be got out of them, are these
hapless 'Gees ennobled with the human name.
As yet, the intellect of the 'Gee has been little cultivated. No
well-attested educational experiment has been tried upon him. It is
said, however, that in the last century a young 'Gee was by a visionary
Portuguese naval officer sent to Salamanca University. Also, among the
Quakers of Nantucket, there has been talk of sending five comely 'Gees,
aged sixteen, to Dartmouth College; that venerable institution, as is
well known, having been originally founded partly with the object of
finishing off wild Indians in the classics and higher mathematics. Two
qualities of the 'Gee which, with his docility, may be justly regarded
as furnishing a hopeful basis for his intellectual training, is his
excellent memory, and still more excellent credulity.
The above account may, perhaps, among the ethnologists, raise some
curiosity to see a 'Gee. But to see a 'Gee there is no need to go all
the way to Fogo, no more than to see a Chinaman to go all the way to
China. 'Gees are occasionally to be encountered in our seaports, but
more particularly in Nantucket and New Bedford. But these 'Gees are
not the 'Gees of Fogo. That is, they are no longer green 'Gees. They
are sophisticated 'Gees, and hence liable to be taken for naturalized
citizens badly sunburnt. Many a Chinaman, in a new coat and pantaloons,
his long queue coiled out of sight in one of Genin's hats, has
promenaded Broadway, and been taken merely for an eccentric Georgia
planter. The same with 'Gees; a stranger need have a sharp eye to know
a 'Gee, even if he see him.
Thus much for a general sketchy view of the 'Gee. For further and
fuller information apply to any sharp-witted American whaling captain
but more especially to the before-mentioned old Captain Hosea Kean, of
Nantucket, whose address at present is "Pacific Ocean."
OF THE FIRST EDITION OF THIS BOOK
SIXTEEN HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE COPIES HAVE BEEN
PRINTED AND ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE COPIES
ARE ON FRENCH HAND-MADE PAPER AND NUMBERED
OF WHICH ONE HUNDRED FIFTY ARE FOR SALE
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