scussed by the whole, and decided by a majority of votes. He,
moreover, gave them especial caution as to their conduct on arriving at
their destined port; exhorting them to be careful to make a favorable
impression upon the wild people among whom their lot and the fortunes
of the enterprise would be cast. "If you find them kind," said he, "as
I hope you will, be so to them. If otherwise, act with caution and
forebearance, and convince them that you come as friends."

With the same anxious forethought he wrote a letter of instructions to
Captain Thorn, in which he urged the strictest attention to the health
of himself and his crew, and to the promotion of good-humor and harmony
on board his ship. "To prevent any misunderstanding," added he, "will
require your particular good management." His letter closed with an
injunction of wariness in his intercourse with the natives, a subject on
which Mr. Astor was justly sensible he could not be too earnest. "I must
recommend you," said he, "to be particularly careful on the coast, and
not to rely too much on the friendly disposition of the natives.
All accidents which have as yet happened there arose from too much
confidence in the Indians."

The reader will bear these instructions in mind, as events will
prove their wisdom and importance, and the disasters which ensued in
consequence of the neglect of them.

CHAPTER V.

Sailing of the Tonquin.--A Rigid Commander and a Reckless
Crew.--Landsmen on Shipboard.--Fresh-Water Sailors at Sea.--
Lubber Nests.--Ship Fare.--A Labrador Veteran--Literary
Clerks.-Curious Travellers.--Robinson Crusoe's Island.--
Quarter-Deck Quarrels.--Falkland Islands.--A Wild-Goose
Chase.--Port Egmont.-Epitaph Hunting.--Old Mortality--
Penguin Shooting.--Sportsmen Left in the Lurch.--A Hard
Pull.--Further Altercations.--Arrival at Owyhee.

ON the eighth of September, 1810, the Tonquin put to sea, where she was
soon joined by the frigate Constitution. The wind was fresh and fair
from the southwest, and the ship was soon out of sight of land and free
from the apprehended danger of interruption. The frigate, therefore,
gave her "God speed," and left her to her course.

The harmony so earnestly enjoined by Mr. Astor on this heterogeneous
crew, and which had been so confidently promised in the buoyant moments
of preparation, was doomed to meet with a check at the very outset.

Captain Thorn was an honest, stra