Chapter 9 - Page 2

adventures by sea and land, and talked
about Gibraltar, and Canton, and Valparaiso, and Bombay, just as you and
I would about Peck Slip and the Bowery. Every man of them almost was a
volume of Voyages and Travels round the World. And what most struck me
was that like books of voyages they often contradicted each other, and
would fall into long and violent disputes about who was keeping the Foul
Anchor tavern in Portsmouth at such a time; or whether the King of
Canton lived or did not live in Persia; or whether the bar-maid of a
particular house in Hamburg had black eyes or blue eyes; with many other
mooted points of that sort.

At last one of them went below and brought up a box of cigars from his
chest, for some sailors always provide little delicacies of that kind,
to break off the first shock of the salt water after laying idle ashore;
and also by way of tapering off, as I mentioned a little while ago. But
I wondered that they never carried any pies and tarts to sea with them,
instead of spirits and cigars.

Ned, for that was the man's name, split open the box with a blow of his
fist, and then handed it round along the windlass, just like a waiter at
a party, every one helping himself. But I was a member of an
Anti-Smoking Society that had been organized in our village by the
Principal of the Sunday School there, in conjunction with the Temperance
Association. So I did not smoke any then, though I did afterward upon
the voyage, I am sorry to say. Notwithstanding I declined; with a good
deal of unnecessary swearing, Ned assured me that the cigars were real
genuine Havannas; for he had been in Havanna, he said, and had them made
there under his own eye. According to his account, he was very
particular about his cigars and other things, and never made any
importations, for they were unsafe; but always made a voyage himself
direct to the place where any foreign thing was to be had that he
wanted. He went to Havre for his woolen shirts, to Panama for his hats,
to China for his silk handkerchiefs, and direct to Calcutta for his
cheroots; and as a great joker in the watch used to say, no doubt he
would at last have occasion to go to Russia for his halter; the wit of
which saying was presumed to be in the fact, that the Russian hemp is
the best; though that is not wit which needs explaining.

By dint of the spirits which, besides stimulating my fainting strength,
united with the cool air of the sea to give me an appetite for our hard
biscuit; and also by dint of walking briskly up and down the deck before
the windlass, I had now recovered in good part from my sickness, and
finding the sailors all very pleasant and sociable, at least among
themselves, and seated smoking together like old cronies, and nothing