of ships,--motioned to the young man to take the rush-chair on the
other side of the small round table. That done, the captain put his hand
in the deep breast-pocket of his long-skirted blue coat, and took out of
it a strong square case-bottle,--not a large bottle, but such as may be
seen in any ordinary ship's medicine-chest. Setting this bottle on the
table without removing his hand from it, Captain Jorgan then spake as
follows:--

"In my last voyage homeward-bound," said the captain, "and that's the
voyage off of which I now come straight, I encountered such weather off
the Horn as is not very often met with, even there. I have rounded that
stormy Cape pretty often, and I believe I first beat about there in the
identical storms that blew the Devil's horns and tail off, and led to the
horns being worked up into tooth-picks for the plantation overseers in my
country, who may be seen (if you travel down South, or away West, fur
enough) picking their teeth with 'em, while the whips, made of the tail,
flog hard. In this last voyage, homeward-bound for Liverpool from South
America, I say to you, my young friend, it blew. Whole measures! No
half measures, nor making believe to blow; it blew! Now I warn't blown
clean out of the water into the sky,--though I expected to be even
that,--but I was blown clean out of my course; and when at last it fell
calm, it fell dead calm, and a strong current set one way, day and night,
night and day, and I drifted--drifted--drifted--out of all the ordinary
tracks and courses of ships, and drifted yet, and yet drifted. It
behooves a man who takes charge of fellow-critturs' lives, never to rest
from making himself master of his calling. I never did rest, and
consequently I knew pretty well ('specially looking over the side in the
dead calm of that strong current) what dangers to expect, and what
precautions to take against 'em. In short, we were driving head on to an
island. There was no island in the chart, and, therefore, you may say it
was ill-manners in the island to be there; I don't dispute its bad
breeding, but there it was. Thanks be to Heaven, I was as ready for the
island as the island was ready for me. I made it out myself from the
masthead, and I got enough way upon her in good time to keep her off. I
ordered a boat to be lowered and manned, and went in that boat myself to
explore the island. There was a reef outside it, and, floating in a
corner of the smooth water