g Highlander who on occasion could spring to
the shrouds like a cat; the old bos'un who had been for years a castaway
on Tierra del Fuego; the wizened chantey-man with his melodeon, who
could put new vigor into tired backs, with his long-drag chanteys, like
"Blow the Man Down," and "Dead Horse," and "Whisky Johnnie," and
short-drags like "Paddy Doyle" and "Haul the Bowline," and capstans like
"Homeward Bound" and "Wide Missouri," and pumping chanteys like "Storm
Along"; the keen men at the wheel and the hawk-eyed lookout; the sailor
swinging the lead in the bows, with a wrist and forearm of steel--all
these were only men, following the sea because they knew no better. And
the mate who would wade into a mob of twenty with swinging fists, and
the navigator who could calculate to a hair's-breadth where they were by
observing the unimaginable stars--they were not of the craft of Noah,
they were men who knew their job ... just men ... as a ticket-clerk on a
railroad is a man....

To him, for a long time now, ports were ports, only places whither one
went to get or deliver cargo. Baltimore, like some sweet old lady; Para,
heavy, sinister with rain; Rio, like some sparkling jewel; Belfast,
dour, efficient, sincere; Hamburg, dignified, _gemuetlich_; Lisbon, quiet
as a cathedral--they were not entities, they were just collections of
houses covering men and women. And men were either fools or crooks, and
women were either ugly bores or pretty--bitches.... Men and women, they
were born crudely, as a calf is born of a cow, they lived foolishly or
meanly, and they died.... And they were hustled out of the house
quickly.... They thought themselves so important, and they lacked the
faithfulness of the dog, the cleanliness of wild animals, the strength
of horses, the beauty of tropic birds, the mathematical science of the
spider, the swiftness of fishes.... And they grew old abominably, the
women's breasts falling, the men getting pot-bellies.... How the devil
had they ever arrogated to themselves the lordship of created things?

To him, for a long time now, the world had been, was, one mean
street....

Section 2

Of all cities, none was better calculated to foster this mood of his
than the one to which his business now brought him--Buenos Aires on the
Plate. Leaving Liverpool with steel and cotton, there was an immensity
of ocean to be traversed, until one came to the river mouth. Then fifty
leagues of hard sailing to the abomin