University of Virginia Library

2. CHAPTER II.

Twelfth Night.

The sleep of the weary is sweet. Of all the party that
lay thus buried in sleep, on the verge of the Great Desert,
exposed at any moment to an assault from its ruthless and
predatory occupants, but one bethought him of the danger;
though he was, in truth, so little exposed as to have rendered
it of less moment to himself than to most of the others, had
he not been the possessor of a fancy that served oftener to
lead him astray than for any purposes that were useful or
pleasing. This person was in one of the boats, and as they
lay at a reasonable distance from the land, and the barbarians
would not probably have known how to use any craft
had they even possessed one, he was consequently safe from
everything but a discharge from their long muskets. But
this remote risk sufficed to keep him awake, it being very
different things to foster malice, circulate gossip, write scurrilous
paragraphs, and cant about the people, and to face a
volley of fire-arms. For the one employment, nature, tradition,
education, and habit, had expressly fitted Mr. Dodge;
while for the other, he had not the smallest vocation. Although
Mr. Leach, in setting his look-outs on board the
boats, had entirely overlooked the editor of the Active
Inquirer, never before had that vigilant person's inquiries
been more active than they were throughout the whole of
that long night, and twenty times would he have aroused the
party on false alarms, but for the cool indifference of the
phlegmatic seamen, to whom the duty more properly belonged.
These brave fellows knew too well the precious
qualities of sleep to allow that of their shipmates to be causelessly
disturbed by the nervous apprehensions of one who
carried with him an everlasting stimulant to fear in the consciousness

of demerit. The night passed away undisturbed,
therefore, nor was the order of the regular watch broken
until the look-outs in the wreck, agreeably to their orders,
awoke Captain Truck and his mates.

It was now precisely at the moment when the first, and
as it might be the fugitive, rays of the sun glide into the
atmosphere, and, to use a quaint expression, “dilute its
darkness.” One no longer saw by starlight, or by moonlight,
though a little of both were still left; but objects, though
indistinct and dusky, had their true outlines, while every
moment rendered their surfaces more obvious.

When Captain Truck appeared on deck, his first glance
was at the ocean; for, were its tranquillity seriously disturbed,
it would be a death-blow to all his hopes. Fortunately,
in this particular, there was no change.

“The winds seem to have put themselves out of breath
in the last gale, Mr. Leach,” he said, “and we are likely
to get the spars round as quietly as if they were so many
saw-logs floating in a mill-pond. Even the ground-swell
has lessened, and the breakers on the bar look like the
ripple of a wash-tub. Turn the people up, sir, and let us
have a drag at these sticks before breakfast, or we may
have to broil an Arab yet.”

Mr. Leach hailed the boats, and ordered them to send
their gang of labourers on shore. He then gave the accustomed
raps on the deck, and called “all hands” in the ship.
In a minute the men began to appear, yawning and stretching
their arms—for no one had thrown aside his clothes—
most of them launching their sea-jokes right and left, with
as much indifference as if they lay quietly in the port to
which they were bound. After some eight or ten minutes
to shake themselves, and to get “aired,” as Mr. Leach
expressed it, the whole party was again mustered on the
deck of the Dane, with the exception of a hand or two in
the launch, and Mr. Dodge. The latter had assumed the
office of sentinel over the jolly-boat, which, as usual, lay at
the rocks, to carry such articles off as might be wanted.

“Send a hand up into the foretop, Mr. Leach,” said the
captain, gaping like a greyhound; “a fellow with sharp
eyes; none of your chaps who read with their noses down

in the cloudy weather of an almanack; and let him take a
look at the desert, in search of Arabs.”

Although the lower rigging was down and safe in the
launch, a girt-line, or as Captain Truck in the true Doric of
his profession pronounced it, a “gunt-line,” was rove at
each mast, and a man was accordingly hauled up forward
as soon as possible. As it was still too dusky to distinguish
far with accuracy, the captain hailed him, and bade him
stay where he was until ordered down, and to keep a sharp
look-out.

“We had a visit from one chap in the night,” he added,
“and as he was a hungry-looking rascal, he is a greater
fool than I think him, or he will be back before long, after
some of the beef and stock-fish of the wreck. Keep a bright
look-out.”

The men, though accustomed to their commander's manner,
looked at each other more seriously, glanced around at
their arms, and then the information produced precisely the
effect that had been intended, that of inducing them to apply
to their work with threefold vigour.

“Let the boys chew upon that, instead of their tobacco,”
observed the captain to Mr. Leach, as he hunted for a good
coal in the galley to light his cigar with. “I'll warrant you
the sheers go up none the slower for the information, desperate
philosophers as some of these gentry are!”

This prognostic was true enough, for instead of gaping
and stretching themselves about the deck, as had been the
case with most of them a minute before, the men now commenced
their duty in good earnest, calling to each other to
come to the falls and the capstan-bars, and to stand by the
heels of the sheers.

“Heave away!” cried the mate, smiling to see how
quick the captain's hint had been taken; “heave round
with a will, men, and let us set these legs on end, that they
may walk.”

As the order was obeyed to the letter, the day had not
fairly opened when the sheers were in their places and
secured. Every man was all activity, and as their work
was directed by those whose knowledge was never at fault,
a landsman would have been surprised at the readiness
with which the crew next raised a spar as heavy as the

mainmast, and had it suspended, top and all, in the air,
high enough to be borne over the side. The lowering was
a trifling affair, and the massive stick was soon lying at its
length on the sands. Captain Truck well knew the great
importance of this particular spar, for he might make out
with the part of the foremast that remained in the packet,
whereas, without this mast he could not possibly rig anything
of much available use aft. He called out to the men,
therefore, as he sprang upon the staging, to follow him and
to launch the spar into the water before they breakfasted.

“Let us make sure of this fellow, men,” he added, “for
it is our mainstay. With this stick fairly in our raft, we
may yet make a passage; no one must think of his teeth
till it is out of all risk. This stick we must have, if we
make war on the Emperor of Morocco for its possession.”

The people knew the necessity for exertion, and they
worked accordingly. The top was knocked off, and carried
down to the water; the spar was then cut round, and
rolled after it, not without trouble, however, as the trestle
trees were left on; but the descent of the sands favoured
the labour. When on the margin of the sea, by the aid of
hand-spikes, the head was got afloat, or so nearly so, as to
require but little force to move it, when a line from the
boats was fastened to the outer end, and the top was
secured alongside.

“Now, clap your hand-spikes under it, boys, and heave
away!” cried the captain. “Heave together and keep the
stick straight—heave, and his head is afloat!—Haul, haul
away in the boat!—heave all at once, and as if you were
giants!—you gained three feet that tug, my hearties—try
him again, gentlemen, as you are—and move together, like
girls in a cotillion—Away with it!—What the devil are
you staring at, in the fore-top there? Have you nothing
better to do than to amuse yourself in seeing us heave our
insides out?”

The intense interest attached to the securing of this spar
had extended to the look-out in the top, and instead of
keeping his eye on the desert, as ordered, he was looking
down at the party on the beach, and betraying his sympathy
in their efforts by bending his body, and appearing to
heave in common with his messmates. Admonished of

his neglect by this sharp rebuke, he turned round quickly
towards the desert, and gave the fearful alarm of “The
Arabs!”

Every man ceased his work, and the whole were on the
point of rushing in a body towards their arms, when the
greater steadiness of Captain Truck prevented it.

“Whereaway?” he demanded sternly.

“On the most distant hillock of sand, may be a mile and
a half inland.”

“How do they head?”

“Dead down upon us, sir.”

“How do they travel?”

“They have camels, and horses: all are mounted, sir.”

“What is their number?”

The man paused, as if to count, and then he called out,

“They are strong-handed, sir; quite a hundred I think.
They have brought up, sir, and seem to be sounding about
them for an anchorage.”

Captain Truck hesitated, and he looked wistfully at the
mast.

“Boys!” said he, shaking his hand over the bit of massive
wood, with energy, “this spar is of more importance to
us than our mother's milk in infancy. It is our victuals and
drink, life and hopes. Let us swear we will have it in spite
of a thousand Arabs. Stoop to your hand-spikes, and heave
at the word—heave as if you had a world to move,—heave,
men, heave!”

The people obeyed, and the mast advanced more than
half the necessary distance into the water. But the man
now called out that the Arabs were advancing swiftly towards
the ship.

“One more effort, men,” said Captain Truck, reddening
in the face with anxiety, and throwing down his hat to set
the example in person,—“heave!”

The men hove, and the spar floated.

“Now to your arms, boys, and you, sir, in the top, keep
yourself hid behind the head of the mast. We must be
ready to show these gentry we are not afraid of them.” A
sign of the hand told the men in the launch to haul away,
and the all-important spar floated slowly across the bar, to
join the raft.

The men now hurried up to the ship, a post that Captain
Truck declared he could maintain against a whole tribe,
while Mr. Dodge began incontinently to scull the jolly-boat,
in the best manner he could, off to the launch. All remonstrance
was useless, as he had got as far as the bar before
he was perceived. Both Sir George Templemore and
Mr. Monday loudly denounced him for deserting the party
on the shore in this scandalous manner, but quite without
effect. Mr. Dodge's skill, unfortunately for his success, did
not quite equal his zeal; and finding, when he got on the
bar, that he was unable to keep the boat's head to the sea,
or indeed to manage it at all, he fairly jumped into the
water and swam lustily towards the launch. As he was expert
at this exercise, he arrived safely, cursing in his heart
all travelling, the desert, the Arabs, and mankind in general,
wishing himself quietly back in Dodgeopolis again, among
his beloved people. The boat drove upon the sands, of
course, and was eventually taken care of by two of the
Montauk's crew.

As soon as Captain Truck found himself on the deck of
the Dane, the arms were distributed among the people. It
was clearly his policy not to commence the war, for he had
nothing, in an affirmative sense, to gain by it, though, without
making any professions, his mind was fully made up
not to be taken alive, as long as there was a possibility of
averting such a disaster. The man aloft gave constant notice
of the movements of the Arabs, and he soon announced
that they had halted at a pistol's shot from the bank, where
they were securing their camels, and that his first estimate
of their force was true.

In the mean time, Captain Truck was far from satisfied
with his position. The bank was higher than the deck of
the ship, and so near it as to render the bulwarks of little
use, had those of the Dane been of any available thickness,
which they were not. Then, the position of the ship, lying
a little on one side, with her bows towards the land, exposed
her to being swept by a raking fire; a cunning enemy
having it in his power, by making a cover of the bank, to
pick off his men, with little or no exposure to himself. The
odds were too great to sally upon the plain, and although

the rocks offered a tolerable cover towards the land, they
had none towards the ship. Divide his force he dared not
do,—and by abandoning the ship, he would allow the Arabs
to seize her, thus commanding the other position, besides the
remainder of the stores, which he was desirous of securing.

Men think fast in trying circumstances, and although the
captain was in a situation so perfectly novel, his practical
knowledge and great coolness rendered him an invaluable
commander to those under his orders.

“I do not know, gentlemen,” he said, addressing his passengers
and mates, “that Vattel has laid down any rule to
govern this case. These Arabs, no doubt, are the lawful
owners of the country, in one sense; but it is a desert—and
a desert, like a sea, is common property for the time being,
to all who find themselves in it. There are no wreck-masters
in Africa, and probably no law concerning wrecks,
but the law of the strongest. We have been driven in here,
moreover, by stress of weather—and this is a category on
which Vattel has been very explicit. We have a right to
the hospitality of these Arabs, and if it be not freely
accorded, d—n me, gentlemen, but I feel disposed to take
just as much of it as I find I shall have occasion for! Mr.
Monday, I should like to hear your sentiments on this
subject.”

“Why, sir,” returned Mr. Monday, “I have the greatest
confidence in your knowledge, Captain Truck, and am
equally ready for peace or war, although my calling is for
the first. I should try negotiation to begin with, sir, if it be
practicable, and you will allow me to express an opinion;
after which I would offer war.”

“I am quite of the same mind, sir; but in what way are
we to negotiate with a people we cannot make understand a
word we say? It is true, if they were versed in the science
of signs, one might do something with them; but I have
reason to know that they are as stupid as boobies on all such
subjects. We shall get ourselves into a category at the first
protocol, as the writers say.”

Now, Mr. Monday thought there was a language that any
man might understand, and he was strongly disposed to
profit by it. In rummaging the wreck, he had discovered a

case of liquor, besides a cask of Hollands, and he thought
an offering of these might have the effect to put the Arabs
in good humour at least.

“I have known men, who, treated with dry, in matters
of trade, were as obstinate as mules, become reasonable and
pliable, sir, over a bottle,” he said, after explaining where
the liquor was to be found; “and I think, if we offer the
Arabs this, after they have been in possession a short time,
we shall find them better disposed towards us. If it should
not prove so, I confess, for one, I should feel less reluctance
in shooting them than before.”

“I have somewhere heard that the Mussulmans never
drink,” observed Sir George; “in which case we shall find
our offering despised. Then there is the difficulty of a first
possession; for, if these people are the same as those that
were here before, they may not thank us for giving them so
small a part of that, of which they may lay claim to all.
I'm very sure, were any one to offer me my patent pistols,
as a motive for letting him carry away my patent razors, or
the East India dressing-case, or any thing else I own, I
should not feel particularly obliged to him.”

“Capitally put, Sir George, and I should be quite of your
way of thinking, if I did not believe these Arabs might really
be mollified by a little drink. If I had a proper ambassador
to send with the offering, I would resort to the plan at once.”

Mr. Monday, after a moment's hesitation, spiritedly offered
to be one of two, to go to the Arabs with the proposal, for
he had sufficient penetration to perceive that there was little
danger of his being seized, while an armed party of so
much strength remained to be overcome—and he had sufficient
nerve to encounter the risk. All he asked was a companion,
and Captain Truck was so much struck with the
spirit of the volunteer, that he made up his mind to accompany
him himself. To this plan, however, both the mates
and all the crew, stoutly but respectfully objected. They
felt his importance too much to consent to this exposure, and
neither of the mates, even, would be allowed to go on an
expedition of so much hazard, without a sufficient motive.
They might fight, if they pleased, but they should not run
into the mouth of the lion unarmed and unresisting.

“It is of no moment,” said Mr. Monday; “I could have

liked a gentlemen for my companion; but no one of the
brave fellows will have any objection to passing an hour in
company with an Arab Sheik over a bottle. What say you,
my lads, will any one of you volunteer?”

“Ay, ay, sir!” cried a dozen in a breath.

“This will never do,” interrupted the captain; “I have
need of the men, for my heart is still set on these two sticks
that remain, and we have a head-sea and a stiff breeze to
struggle with in getting back to the ship. By George, I
have it! What do you say to Mr. Dodge for a companion,
Mr. Monday? He is used to committees, and likes the service:
and then he has need of some stimulant, after the
ducking he has received. Mr. Leach, take a couple of hands,
and go off in the jolly-boat and bring Mr. Dodge on shore.
My compliments to him, and tell him he has been unanimously
chosen to a most honourable and lucrative—ay, and
a popular employment.”

As this was an order, the mate did not scruple about
obeying it. He was soon afloat, and on his way towards
the launch. Captain Truck now hailed the top, and inquired
what the Arabs were about. The answer was satisfactory,
as they were still busy with their camels and in
pitching their tents. This did not look much like an immediate
war, and bidding the man aloft to give timely notice
of their approach, Mr. Truck fancied he might still have
time to shift his sheers, and to whip out the mizzen-mast, and
he accordingly set about it without further delay.

As every one worked, as it might be for life, in fifteen
minutes this light spar was suspended in the falls. In ten
more its heel was clear of the bulwarks, and it was lowered
on the sands almost by the run. To knock off the top and
roll it down to the water took but a few minutes longer, and
then the people were called to their breakfast; the sentinel
aloft reporting that the Arabs were employed in the same
manner, and in milking their camels. This was a fortunate
relief, and every body ate in peace, and in the full assurance
that those whom they so much distrusted were equally engaged
in the same pacific manner.

Neither the Arabs nor the seamen, however, lost any
unnecessary time at the meal. The former were soon reported
to be coming and going in parties of fifteen or twenty,

arriving and departing in an eastern direction. Occasionally
a single runner went or came alone, on a fleet dromedary,
as if communications were held with other bodies
which lay deeper in the desert. All this intelligence rendered
Captain Truck very uneasy, and he thought it time
seriously to take some decided measures to bring this
matter to an issue. Still, as time gained was all in his
favour if improved, he first ordered the men to begin to
shift the sheers forward, in hopes of being yet able to
carry off the foremast; a spar that would be exceedingly
useful, as it would save the necessity of fishing a new head
to the one which still stood in the packet. He then went
aside with his two ambassadors, with a view to give his instructions.

Mr. Dodge had no sooner found himself safe in the launch
than he felt his courage revive, and with his courage, his
ingenuity, self-love and assurance. While in the water, a
meeker man there was not on earth; he had even some
doubts as to the truth of all his favourite notions of liberty
and equality, for men think fast in danger, and there was
an instant when he might have been easily persuaded to acknowledge
himself a demagogue and a hypocrite in his ordinary
practices; one whose chief motive was self, and whose
besetting passions were envy, distrust and malice; or, in
other words, very much the creature he was. Shame came
next, and he eagerly sought an excuse for the want of manliness
he had betrayed; but, passing over the language he
had held in the launch, and the means Mr. Leach found to
persuade him to land again, we shall give his apology in his
own words, as he now somewhat hurriedly delivered it, to
Captain Truck, in his own person.

“I must have misunderstood your arrangement, captain,”
he said; “for somehow, though how I do not exactly know
—but somehow the alarm of the Arabs was no sooner given
than I felt as if I ought to be in the launch to be at my post;
but I suppose it was because I knew that the sails and spars
that brought us here are mostly there, and that this was the
spot to be most resolutely defended. I do think, if they
had waded off to us, I should have fought like a tiger!”

“No doubt you would, my dear sir, and like a wild cat
too! We all make mistakes in judgment, in war, and in

politics, and no fact is better known than that the best soldiers
in the end are they who give a little ground at the
first attack. But Mr. Leach has explained to you the plan
of Mr. Monday, and I rely on your spirit and zeal, which
there is now an excellent opportunity to prove, as before it
was only demonstrated.”

“If it were only an opportunity of meeting the Arabs
sword in hand, captain.”

“Pooh! pooh! my dear friend, take two swords if you
choose. One who is full of fight can never get the battle
on his own terms. Fill the Arabs with the schnaps of the
poor Dane, and if they should make the smallest symptom
of moving down towards us, I rely on you to give the
alarm, in order that we may be ready for them. Trust to
us for the overture of the piece, as I trust to you for the
overtures of peace.”

“In what way can we possibly do this, Mr. Monday?
How can we give the alarm in season?

“Why,” interposed the unmoved captain, “you may
just shoot the sheik, and that will be killing two birds with
one stone; you will take your pistols, of course, and blaze
away upon them, starboard and larboard; rely on it, we
shall hear you.”

“Of that I make no doubt, but I rather distrust the prudence
of the step. That is, I declare, Mr. Monday, it looks
awfully like tempting Providence! I begin to have conscientious
scruples. I hope you are quite certain, captain,
there is nothing in all this against the laws of Africa? Good
moral and religious influences are not to be overlooked. My
mind is quite exercised in the premises!”

“You are much too conscientious for a diplomatic man,”
said Mr. Truck, between the puffs at a fresh cigar. “You
need not shoot any of the women, and what more does a
man want? Come, no more words, but to the duty heartily.
Every one expects it of you, since no one can do it half
so well; and if you ever get back to Dodgeopolis, there
will be matter for a paragraph every day of the year for
the next six months. If any thing serious happen to you,
trust to me to do your memory justice.”

“Captain, captain, this trifling with the future is blasphemous!
Men seldom talk of death with impunity, and

it really hurts my feelings to touch on such awful subjects
so lightly. I will go, for I do not well see how the matter
is to be helped; but let us go amicably, and with such presents
as will secure a good reception and a safe return.”

“Mr. Monday takes the liquor-case of the Dane, and you
are welcome to any thing that is left, but the foremast.
That I shall fight for, even if lions come out of the desert
to help the Arabs.”

Mr. Dodge had many more objections, some of which he
urged openly, and more of which he felt in his inmost spirit.
But for the unfortunate dive into the water, he certainly
would have pleaded his immunities as a passenger, and
plumply refused to be put forward on such an occasion; but
he felt that he was a disgraced man, and that some decided
act of spirit was necessary to redeem his character. The
neutrality observed by the Arabs, moreover, greatly encouraged
him; for he leaned to an opinion Captain Truck
had expressed, that so long as a strong-armed party remained
in the wreck, the sheik, if a man of any moderation
and policy, would not proceed to violence.

“You may tell him, gentlemen,” continued Mr. Truck,
“that as soon as I have whipped the foremast out of the
Dane, I will evacuate, and leave him the wreck, and all it
contains. The stick can do him no good, and I want it in
my heart's core. Put this matter before him plainly, and
there is no doubt we shall part the best friends in the world.
Remember one thing, however, we shall set about lifting the
spar the moment you quit us, and should there be any signs
of an attack, give us notice in season, that we may take to
our arms.”

By this reasoning Mr. Dodge suffered himself to be persuaded
to go on the mission, though his ingenuity and fears
supplied an additional motive that he took very good care
not to betray. Should there be a battle, he knew he would
be expected to fight, if he remained with his own party, and
if with the other, he might plausibly secrete himself until the
affair was over; for, with a man of his temperament,
eventual slavery had less horrors than immediate death.

When Mr. Monday and his co-commissioner ascended the
bank, bearing the case of liquors and a few light offerings,
that the latter had found in the wreck, it was just as the

crew, assured that the Arabs still remained tranquil, had
seriously set about pursuing their great object. On the
margin of the plain, Captain Truck took his leave of the
ambassadors, though he remained some time to reconnoitre
the appearance of things in the wild-looking camp, which
was placed within two hundred yards of the spot on which
he stood. The number of the Arabs had not certainly been
exaggerated, and what gave him the most uneasiness was
the fact that parties appeared to be constantly communicating
with more, who probably lay behind a ridge of sand
that bounded the view less than a mile distant inland, as
they all went and came in that direction. After waiting to
see his two envoyés in the very camp, he stationed a look-out
on the bank, and returned to the wreck, to hurry on the
all-important work.

Mr. Monday was the efficient man of the two commissioners,
so soon as they were fairly embarked in their enterprise.
He was strong of nerves, and without imagination to
fancy dangers where they were not very obvious, and had a
great faith in the pacific virtues of the liquor-case. An
Arab advanced to meet them, when near the tents; and
although conversation was quite out of the question, by pure
force of gesticulations, aided by the single word “sheik,”
they succeeded in obtaining an introduction to that personage.

The inhabitants of the desert have been so often described
that we shall assume they are known to our readers, and
proceed with our narrative the same as if we had to do with
Christians. Much of what has been written of the hospitality
of the Arabs, if true of any portion of them, is hardly
true of those tribes which frequent the Atlantic coast, where
the practice of wrecking would seem to have produced the
same effect on their habits and morals that it is known to
produce elsewhere. But a ship protected by a few weather-worn
and stranded mariners, and a ship defended by a strong
and an armed party, like that headed by Captain Truck,
presented very different objects to the cupidity of these barbarians.
They knew the great advantage they possessed
by being on their own ground, and were content to await
events, in preference to risking a doubtful contest. Several
of the party had been at Mogadore, and other parts, and had
acquired tolerably accurate ideas of the power of vessels;

and as they were confident the men now at work at the
wreck had not the means of carrying away the cargo, their
own principal object, curiosity and caution, connected with
certain plans that were already laid among their leaders,
kept them quiet, for the moment at least.

These people were not so ignorant as to require to be
told that some other vessel was at no great distance, and
their scouts had been out in all directions to ascertain the
fact, previously to taking their ultimate measures; for the
sheik himself had some pretty just notions of the force of a
vessel of war, and of the danger of contending with one.
The result of his policy, therefore, will better appear in the
course of the narrative.

The reception of the two envoys of Captain Truck was
masked by that smiling and courteous politeness which
seems to diminish as one travels west, and to increase as
he goes eastward; though it was certainly less elaborate
than would have been found in the palace of an Indian
rajah. The sheik was not properly a sheik, nor was the
party composed of genuine Arabs, though we have thus
styled them from usage. The first, however, was a man in
authority, and he and his followers possessed enough of the
origin and characteristics of the tribes east of the Red Sea,
to be sufficiently described by the appellation we have
adopted.

Mr. Monday and Mr. Dodge were invited by signs to be
seated, and refreshments were offered. As the last were
not particularly inviting, Mr. Monday was not slow in producing
his own offering, and in recommending its quality,
by setting an example of the way in which it ought to be
treated. Although Mussulmans, the hosts did not scruple
about tasting the cup, and ten minutes of pantomime, potations,
and grimaces, brought about a species of intimacy
between the parties.

The man who had been so unceremoniously captured
the previous night by Captain Truck, was now introduced,
and much curiosity was manifested to know whether his
account of the disposition in the strangers to eat their fellow-creatures
was true. The inhabitants of the desert, in the
course of ages, had gleaned certain accounts of mariners
eating their shipmates, from their different captives, and

vague traditions to that effect existed among them, which
the tale of this man had revived. Had the sheik kept a
journal, like Mr. Dodge, the result of these inquiries would
probably have been some entries concerning the customs
and characters of the Americans, that were quite as original
as those of the editor of the Active Inquirer concerning
the different nations he had visited.

Mr. Monday paid great attention to the pantomime of
the Arab, in which that worthy endeavoured to explain the
disposition of Captain Truck to make a barbecue of him:
when it was ended, he gravely informed his companions
that the sheik had invited them to stay for dinner,—a proposition
that he was disposed to accept; but the sensitiveness
of Mr. Dodge viewed the matter otherwise, for, with a
conformity of opinion that really said something in favour
of the science of signs, he arrived at the same conclusion
as the poor Arab himself—with the material difference,
that he fancied that the Arabs were disposed to make a
meal of himself. Mr. Monday, who was a hearty beef and
brandy personage, scouted the idea, and thought the matter
settled, by pointing to two or three young camels and asking
the editor if he thought any man, Turk or Christian,
would think of eating one so lank, meagre, and uninviting,
as himself, when they had so much capital food of another
sort at their elbow. “Take your share of the liquor while
it is passing, man, and set your heart at ease as to the
dinner, which I make no doubt will be substantial and
decent. Had I known of the favour intended us, I should
have brought out the sheik a service of knives and forks
from Birmingham; for he really seems a well-disposed and
gentleman-like man. A very capital fellow, I dare say,
we shall find him, after he has had a few camel's steaks,
and a proper allowance of schnaps. Mr. Sheik, I drink
your health with all my heart.”

The accidents of life could scarcely have brought together,
in circumstances so peculiar, men whose characters
were more completely the converse of each other than Mr.
Monday and Mr. Dodge. They were perfect epitomes of
two large classes in their respective nations, and so diametrically
opposed to each other, that one could hardly recognise
in them scions from a common stock. The first was dull,

obstinate, straight-forward, hearty in his manners, and not
without sincerity, though wily in a bargain, with all his
seeming frankness; the last, distrustful, cunning rather than
quick of comprehension, insincere, fawning when he thought
his interests concerned, and jealous and detracting at all
other times, with a coldness of exterior that had at least the
merit of appearing to avoid deception. Both were violently
prejudiced, though in Mr. Monday, it was the prejudice of
old dogmas, in religion, politics, and morals; and in the
other, it was the vice of provincialism, and an education that
was not entirely free from the fanaticism of the seventeenth
century. One consequence of this discrepancy of character
was a perfectly opposite manner of viewing matters in this
interview. While Mr. Monday was disposed to take things
amicably, Mr. Dodge was all suspicion; and had they then
returned to the wreck, the last would have called to arms,
while the first would have advised Captain Truck to go out
and visit the sheik, in the manner one would visit a respectable
and agreeable neighbour.