rtionably stout. They are capital mimics--the
very parrots or magpies of the genus Man.

"I say, Jack, bear a hand there now," exclaimed one, repeating the words
after a sailor who had just spoken.

"What! do you speak English, old fellow? Give us your flipper then,"
said Knowles, thinking he had found a civilised man in that distant
region.

"What! do you speak English, old fellow? Give us your flipper then,"
repeated the savage with a grin, putting out his hand.

"I should think I did! What other lingo am I likely to speak?" answered
Knowles, shaking the Patagonian's huge paw.

"What other lingo am I likely to speak?" said the savage, with perfect
clearness.

"Why, I should have thought your own native Patagonian, if you are a
Patagonian," exclaimed Knowles, examining the savage's not over-handsome
physiognomy.

"If you are a Patagonian!" said the savage, looking in like manner into
Knowles' face.

"I--I'm an Englishman, I tell you!" cried Tom, somewhat puzzled.

"I'm an Englishman, I tell you!" cried the Patagonian in the same
indignant tone.

"That's just what I want to arrive at," said Tom. "So now just tell me
where we can get some good baccy and a glass of honest grog."

The Patagonian repeated the words.

"But I ask you!" said Tom.

"But I ask you!" said the savage.

"I tell you I'm a stranger here!" exclaimed Tom.

"I tell you I'm a stranger here!" cried the savage.

"Where do you come from then?" asked Tom.

"Where do you come from then?" repeated the savage.

"I tell you I'm an Englishman," cried Knowles, getting angry.

"I tell you I'm an Englishman!" exclaimed the Patagonian in the same
indignant tones.

"That's more than I'll believe; and, to speak my mind plainly, I believe
that you are an arrant, bamboozling hum-bug!" cried Tom. "No offence,
though. You understand me?"

Whether it was Tom's expression of countenance, or the tone of his
voice, I know not, but as he uttered these words, all the savages burst
into loud fits of merry laughter; and as he thought they were laughing
at him, he said that he should have liked to have gone in among them,
and knocked them down right and left with his fists; but they were such
precious big fellows, that he thought he should have got the worst of it
in the scrimmage.

He used with infinite gusto frequently to tell the story for our
amusement.

I am not quite certain, however, whether he was describing the
Patagonians or the inha