d, and the anchor short-stay apeak. Some of the other vessels of
the fleet were under weigh and standing out. The weather was fine and
the water smooth? and the bustle and novelty of the scene were cheering
to his spirits. The captain, Mynheer Kloots, was standing on the poop
with a small telescope, made of pasteboard, to his eye, anxiously
looking towards the town. Mynheer Kloots, as usual, had his pipe in his
mouth, and the smoke which he puffed from it for time obscured the
lenses of his telescope. Philip went up the poop ladder and saluted
him.

Mynheer Kloots was a person of no moderate dimensions, and the quantity
of garments which he wore added no little to his apparent bulk. The
outer garments exposed to view were, a rough fox-skin cap upon his head,
from under which appeared the edge of a red worsted nightcap; a red
plush waistcoat, with large metal buttons; a jacket of green cloth, over
which he wore another of larger dimensions of coarse blue cloth, which
came down as low as what would be called a spencer. Below he had black
plush breeches, light-blue worsted stockings, shoes, and broad silver
buckles; round his waist was girded, with a broad belt, a canvas apron,
which descended in thick folds nearly to his knee. In his belt was a
large broad-bladed knife in a sheath of shark's skin. Such was the
attire of Mynheer Kloots, captain of the Ter Schilling.

He was as tall as he was corpulent. His face was oval, and his features
small in proportion to the size of his frame. His grizzly hair
fluttered in the breeze, and his nose (although quite straight) was, at
the tip, fiery red from frequent application to his bottle of schnapps,
and the heat of a small pipe which seldom left his lips, except for
_him_ to give an order, or for _it_ to be replenished.

"Good morning, my son," said the captain, taking his pipe out of his
mouth for a moment. "We are detained by the supercargo, who appears not
over-willing to come on board; the boat has been on shore this hour
waiting for him, and we shall be last of the fleet under weigh. I wish
the Company would let us sail without these _gentlemen_, who are (_in my
opinion_) a great hinderance to business; but they think otherwise on
shore."

"What is their duty on board?" replied Philip.

"Their duty is to look after the cargo and the traffic, and if they kept
to that it would not be so bad; but they interfere with everything else
and everybody, studying little