twenty-five; and sometimes a large, portly-looking board, measuring
thirty or thirty-five feet, not only received an addition of eight or
ten feet, but was suddenly transformed into a PLANK, which was counted
as containing DOUBLE the measurement of a board of the same superficial
dimensions. Thus a board actually measuring only thirty feet was passed
off upon the unsophisticated clerk of the purchaser as a piece of lumber
measuring seventy feet. In this way Captain Turner managed, in what he
contended was the usual and proper manner among the Yankees, to make a
cargo of lumber "hold out!" Another attempt which this gentleman made
to realize a profit on merchandise greater than could be obtained by a
system of fair trading was not attended with so favorable a result.

A portion of the cargo of the Dolphin consisted of barrels of salted
provisions. This part of the cargo was not enumerated among the articles
in the manifest. Captain Turner intended to dispose of it to the
shipping in the harbor, and thus avoid the payment of the regular
duties. He accordingly sold some ten or a dozen barrels of beef
and pork, at a high price, to the captain of an English ship. The
transaction, by some unknown means, was discovered by the government
officials, who, in a very grave and imposing manner, visited the brig
with a formidable posse. They found in the hold a considerable quantity
of the salted provisions on which no duty had been paid; this they
conveyed on shore and confiscated to the use of His Majesty the King of
Great Britain. The brig also was seized, but was subsequently released
on payment of a heavy fine.

The merchant vessels lying in St. Pierre are generally moored head and
stern, one of the anchors being carried ashore, and embedded in the
ground on the beach. A few days after we were thus moored, a large
Spanish schooner from the Main hauled in and moored alongside, at the
distance of only a few fathoms. Besides the captain, there were several
well-dressed personages on board, who appeared to take an interest in
the cargo, and lived in the cabin. But harmony did not characterize
their intercourse with each other. At times violent altercations
occurred, which, being carried on in the Spanish language, were to us
neither edifying nor amusing.

One Sunday morning, after the Spanish schooner had been about a week in
port, and was nearly ready for sea, a fierce quarrel took place on the
quarter-deck of the vessel, which,