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- 4305
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
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- 4235
- text
- English. Having acquired what he knew of it in the forecastle, he
talked little else than sailor phrases, which sounded whimsically
enough.
I asked him one day how old he was. “Olee?” he exclaimed, looking very
profound in consequence of thoroughly understanding so subtile a
question—“Oh! very olee—’tousand ’ear—more—big man when Capin Tootee
(Captain Cook) heavey in sight.” (In sea parlance, came into view.)
This was a thing impossible; but adapting my discourse to the man, I
rejoined—“Ah! you see Capin Tootee—well, how you like him?”
“Oh! he maitai: (good) friend of me, and know my wife.”
On my assuring him strongly that he could not have been born at the
time, he explained himself by saying that he was speaking of his
father, all the while. This, indeed, might very well have been.
It is a curious fact that all these people, young and old, will tell
you that they have enjoyed the honour of a personal acquaintance with
the great navigator; and if you listen to them, they will go on and
tell anecdotes without end. This springs from nothing but their great
desire to please; well knowing that a more agreeable topic for a white
man could not be selected. As for the anachronism of the thing, they
seem to have no idea of it: days and years are all the same to them.
After our sunrise bath, Bob once more placed us in the stocks, almost
moved to tears at subjecting us to so great a hardship; but he could
not treat us otherwise, he said, on pain of the consul’s displeasure.
How long we were to be confined, he did not know; nor what was to be
done with us in the end.
As noon advanced, and no signs of a meal were visible, someone inquired
whether we were to be boarded, as well as lodged, at the Hotel de
Calabooza?
“Vast heavey” (avast heaving, or wait a bit)—said Bob—“kow-kow” (food)
“come ship by by.”
And, sure enough, along comes Rope Tarn with a wooden bucket of the
Julia’s villainous biscuit. With a grin, he said it was a present from
Wilson: it was all we were to get that day. A great cry was now raised;
and well was it for the land-lubber that lie had a pair of legs, and
the men could not use theirs. One and all, we resolved not to touch the
bread, come what come might; and so we told the natives.
Being extravagantly fond of ship-biscuit—the harder the better—they
were quite overjoyed; and offered to give us, every day, a small
quantity of baked bread-fruit and Indian turnip in exchange for the
bread. This we agreed to; and every morning afterward, when the bucket
came, its contents were at once handed over to Bob and his friends, who
never ceased munching until nightfall.
Our exceedingly frugal meal of bread-fruit over, Captain Bob waddled up
to us with a couple of long poles hooked at one end, and several large
baskets of woven cocoa-nut branches.
Not far off was an extensive grove of orange-trees in full bearing; and
myself and another were selected to go with him, and gather a supply
for the party. When we went in among the trees, the sumptuousness of
the orchard was unlike anything I had ever seen; while the fragrance
shaken from the gently waving boughs regaled our senses most
delightfully.
In many places the trees formed a dense shade, spreading overhead a
dark, rustling vault, groined with boughs, and studded here and there
with the ripened spheres, like gilded balls. In several places, the
overladen branches were borne to the earth, hiding the trunk in a tent
of foliage. Once fairly in the grove, we could see nothing else; it was
oranges all round.
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