- end_line
- 2635
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 2604
- text
- chest-lids, and cymbaling of tin pans; the few invalids, who, as yet,
had not been actively engaged with the rest, now taking part in the
applause, creaking their bunk-boards and swinging their hammocks. Cries
also were heard, of “Handspikes and a shindy!” “Out stun-sails!”
“Hurrah!”
Several now ran on deck, and, for the moment, I thought it was all over
with us; but we finally succeeded in restoring some degree of quiet.
At last, by way of diverting their thoughts, I proposed that a “Round
Robin” should be prepared and sent ashore to the consul by Baltimore,
the cook. The idea took mightily, and I was told to set about it at
once. On turning to the doctor for the requisite materials, he told me
he had none; there was not a fly-leaf, even in any of his books. So,
after great search, a damp, musty volume, entitled “A History of the
most Atrocious and Bloody Piracies,” was produced, and its two
remaining blank leaves being torn out, were by help of a little pitch
lengthened into one sheet. For ink, some of the soot over the lamp was
then mixed with water, by a fellow of a literary turn; and an immense
quill, plucked from a distended albatross’ wing, which, nailed against
the bowsprit bitts, had long formed an ornament of the forecastle,
supplied a pen.
Making use of the stationery thus provided, I indited, upon a
chest-lid, a concise statement of our grievances; concluding with the
earnest hope that the consul would at once come off, and see how
matters stood for himself. Eight beneath the note was described the
circle about which the names were to be written; the great object of a
Round Robin being to arrange the signatures in such a way that,
although they are all found in a ring, no man can be picked out as the
leader of it.
- title
- Chunk 5