<h2><SPAN name="chap25"></SPAN>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
<p class="letter">
The behaviour of Mr. Morgan—his pride, displeasure, and
generosity—the economy of our mess described—Thomson’s
further friendship—the nature of my duty explained—the situation of
the sick</p>
<p>While he was thus discoursing to me, we heard a voice on the cockpit ladder
pronounce with great vehemence, in a strange dialect, “The devil and his
dam blow me from the top of Monchdenny, if I go to him before there is
something in my pelly. Let his nose be as yellow as saffron, or as plue as a
pell (look you), or as green as a leek, ’tis all one.” To this
declaration somebody answered, “So it seems my poor messmate must part
his cable for want of a little assistance. His foretopsail is loose already;
and besides the doctor ordered you to overhaul him; but I see you don’t
mind what your master says.” Here he was interrupted with,
“Splutter and cons! you lousy tog, who do you call my master? Get you
gone to the doctor, and tell him my birth, and education, and my abilities; and
moreover, my behaviour is as good as his, or any shentleman’s (no
disparagement to him,) in the whole world. Cot pless my soul I does he think,
or conceive, or imagine, that I am a horse, or an ass, or a goat, to trudge
backwards and forwards, and upwards and downwards, and by sea and by land; at
his will and pleasure? Go your ways, you rapscallion, and tell Doctor Atkins
that I desire and request that he will give a look upon the tying man, and
order something for him, if he be dead or alive, and I will see him take it by
and by, when my craving stomach is satisfied, look you.” At this, the
other went away, saying, “that if they should serve him so when he was
dying, by God he would be foul of them in the other world.” Here Mr.
Thompson let me know, that the person we heard was Mr. Morgan, the first mate,
who was just come on board from the hospital, whither he had attended some of
the sick in the morning; at the same time I saw him come into the berth. He was
a short thick man, with a face garnished with pimples, a snub nose turned up at
the end, an excessive wide mouth, and little fiery eyes, surrounded with skin
puckered up in innumerable wrinkles. My friend immediately made him acquainted
with my case; when he regarded me with a very lofty look, but without speaking,
set down a bundle he had in his hand, and approached the cupboard, which, when
he had opened, he exclaimed in a great passion, “Cot is my life, all the
pork is gone, as I am a Christian!” Thompson then gave him to understand,
that, as I had been brought on board half famished, he could do no less than to
entertain me with what was in the locker, and the rather as he had bid the
steward enter me in the mess. Whether this disappointment made Mr. Morgan more
peevish than usual, or he really thought himself too little regarded by his
fellow mate, I know not, but after some pause, he went on in this manner:
“Mr. Thompson, perhaps you do not use me with all the good manners, and
complaisance, and respect (look you,) that becomes you, because you have not
vouchsafed to advise with me in this affair. I have in my time (look you,) been
a man of some weight, and substance, and consideration, and have kept house and
home, and paid scot and lot, and the king’s taxes; ay, and maintained a
family to boot. And moreover, also, I am your senior, and your older, and your
petter, Mr. Thompson.” “My elder, I’ll allow you to be, but
not my better!” cried Thompson, with some heat. “Cot is my Saviour,
and witness too,” said Morgan, with great vehemence, “that I am
more elder, and therefore more petter by many years than you.” Fearing
this dispute might be attended with some bad consequence, I interposed, and
told Mr. Morgan I was very sorry for having been the occasion of any difference
between him and the second mate; and that, rather than cause the least breach
in their good understanding, I would eat my allowance to myself, or seek
admission into some other company. But Thompson, with more spirit than
discretion (as I thought), insisted upon my remaining where he had appointed
me; and observed that no man, possessed of generosity and compassion, would
have any objection to it, considering my birth and talents, and the misfortunes
I had of late so unjustly undergone.</p>
<p>This was touching Mr. Morgan on the right key, who protested with great
earnestness, that he had no objection to my being received in the mess; but
only complained that the ceremony of asking his consent was not observed.
“As for a sheltenman in distress,” said he, shaking me by the hand,
“I lofe him as I lofe my own powels: for, Cot help me! I have had
vexations enough upon my own pack.” And as I afterwards learned, in so
saying, he spoke no more than what was true; for he had been once settled in a
very good situation in Glamorganshire, and was ruined by being security for an
acquaintance. All differences being composed, he untied his bundle, which
consisted of three bunches of onions, and a great lump of Cheshire cheese,
wrapped up in a handkerchief: and, taking some biscuit from the cupboard, fell
to with a keen appetite, inviting us to share of the repast. When he had fed
heartily on his homely fare, he filled a large cup, made of a cocoa-nut shell,
with brandy, and, drinking it off, told us, “Prandy was the best
menstruum for onions and sheese.” His hunger being appeased, he began to
be in better humour; and, being inquisitive about my birth, no sooner
understood that I was descended of a good family, than he discovered a
particular good-will to me on that account, deducing his own pedigree in a
direct line from the famous Caractacus, king of the Britons, who was first the
prisoner, and afterwards the friend of Claudius Caesar. Perceiving how much I
was reduced in point of linen, he made me a present of two good ruffled shirts,
which, with two more of check which I received from Mr. Thompson, enabled me to
appear with decency.</p>
<p>Meanwhile the sailor, whom Mr. Morgan had sent to the doctor, brought a
prescription for his messmate, which when the Welshman had read, he got up to
prepare it, and asked, “if the man was dead or alive.”
“Dead!” replied Jack; “if he was dead, he would have no
occasion for doctor’s stuff. No, thank God, death han’t as yet
boarded him. But they have been yard-arm and yard-arm these three
glasses.” “Are his eyes open,” continued the mate. “His
starboard eye,” said the sailor, “is open, but fast jammed in his
head: and the haulyards of his under jaw have given way.” “Passion
of my heart!” cried Morgan, “the man is as pad as one would desire
to be! Did you feel his pulses!” To this the other replied with
“Anan!” Upon which this Cambro Briton, with great earnestness and
humanity, ordered the tar to run to his messmate, and keep him alive till he
should come with the medicine, “and then,” said he, “you
shall peradventure pehold what you shall see.”</p>
<p>The poor fellow, with great simplicity, ran to the place where the sick man
lay, but in less than a minute returned with a woful countenance, and told us
his comrade had struck. Morgan, hearing this, exclaimed, “Mercy upon my
salvation! why did you not stop him till I came?” “Stop him!”
said the other; “I hailed him several times, but he was too far on his
way, and the enemy had got possession of his close quarters; so that he did not
mind me.” “Well, well,” said he, “we all owe heaven a
teath. Go your ways, you ragamuffin, and take an example and a warning, look
you, and repent of your misteets.” So saying, he pushed the seaman out of
the berth.</p>
<p>While we entertained us with reflections suitable to this event, we heard the
boatswain pipe to dinner; and immediately the boy belonging to our mess ran to
the locker, from whence he carried off a large wooden platter, and, in a few
minutes, returned with it full of boiled peas, crying “Scaldings”
all the way as he came. The cloth, consisting of a piece of an old sail, was
instantly laid, covered with three plates, which by the colour I could with
difficulty discern to be metal, and as many spoons of the same composition, two
of which were curtailed in the handles, and the other abridged in the lip. Mr.
Morgan himself enriched this mess with a lump of salt butter scooped from an
old gallipot, and a handful of onions shorn, with some pounded pepper. I was
not very much tempted with the appearance of this dish, of which, nevertheless,
my messmates ate heartily, advising me to follow their example, as it was
banyan day and we could have no meat till next noon. But I had already laid in
sufficient for the occasion, and therefore desired to be excused: expressing a
curiosity to know the meaning of banyan day. They told me, that, on Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays, the ship’s company had no allowance of meat, and
that these meagre days were called banyan days, the reason of which they did
not know; but I have since learned they take their denomination from a sect of
devotees in some parts of the East Indies, who never taste flesh.</p>
<p>After dinner Thompson led me round the ship, showed me the different parts,
described their uses, and, as far as he could, made me acquainted with the
particulars of the discipline and economy practised on board. He then demanded
of the boatswain a hammock for me, which was slung in a very neat manner by my
friend Jack Rattlin; and, as I had no bed-clothes, procured credit for me with
the purser, for a mattress and two blankets. At seven o’clock in the
evening Morgan visited the sick, and, having ordered what was proper for each,
I assisted Thompson in making up his prescriptions: but when I followed him
with the medicines into the sick berth, or hospital, and observed the situation
of the patients, I was much less surprised that people should die on board,
than that a sick person should recover. Here I saw about fifty miserable
distempered wretches, suspended in rows, so huddled one upon another, that not
more than fourteen inches space was allotted for each with his bed and bedding;
and deprived of the light of the day, as well as of fresh air; breathing
nothing but a noisome atmosphere of the morbid steams exhaling from their own
excrements and diseased bodies, devoured with vermin hatched in the filth that
surrounded them, and destitute of every convenience necessary for people in
that helpless condition.</p>
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