ey had not been favoured by a scratch
of the pen for the last eighteen months. There were next to no stores on
board, not an inch of spare rope or a yard of canvas. The ship had been
run bare, and I foresaw no end of difficulties before I could get her
ready for sea.

As I was young then--not thirty yet--I took myself and my troubles very
seriously. The old mate, who had acted as chief mourner at the captain's
funeral, was not particularly pleased at my coming. But the fact is the
fellow was not legally qualified for command, and the Consul was bound,
if at all possible, to put a properly certificated man on board. As to
the second mate, all I can say his name was Tottersen, or something like
that. His practice was to wear on his head, in that tropical climate, a
mangy fur cap. He was, without exception, the stupidest man I had ever
seen on board ship. And he looked it too. He looked so confoundedly
stupid that it was a matter of surprise for me when he answered to his
name.

I drew no great comfort from their company, to say the least of it;
while the prospect of making a long sea passage with those two fellows
was depressing. And my other thoughts in solitude could not be of a
gay complexion. The crew was sickly, the cargo was coming very slow; I
foresaw I would have lots of trouble with the charterers, and doubted
whether they would advance me enough money for the ship's expenses.
Their attitude towards me was unfriendly. Altogether I was not getting
on. I would discover at odd times (generally about midnight) that I
was totally inexperienced, greatly ignorant of business, and hopelessly
unfit for any sort of command; and when the steward had to be taken to
the hospital ill with choleraic symptoms I felt bereaved of the only
decent person at the after end of the ship. He was fully expected to
recover, but in the meantime had to be replaced by some sort of servant.
And on the recommendation of a certain Schomberg, the proprietor of the
smaller of the two hotels in the place, I engaged a Chinaman. Schomberg,
a brawny, hairy Alsatian, and an awful gossip, assured me that it was
all right. "First-class boy that. Came in the suite of his Excellency
Tseng the Commissioner--you know. His Excellency Tseng lodged with me
here for three weeks."

He mouthed the Chinese Excellency at me with great unction, though
the specimen of the "suite" did not seem very promising. At the time,
however, I did not know what an untrustworth