thing they all had in common, tobacco chewing but as nearly
every male I met with in America did that, it was not much to be
noticed. I had hardly done reckoning them up when two or three
bustling men came out and shepherded us all energetically into a
long, low room, where some form of agreement was read out to us.
Sailors are naturally and usually careless about the nature of
the "articles" they sign, their chief anxiety being to get to
sea, and under somebody's charge. But had I been ever so
anxious to know what I was going to sign this time, I could not,
for the language might as well have been Chinese for all I
understood of it. However, I signed and passed on, engaged to
go I knew not where, in some ship I did not know even the name
of, in which I was to receive I did not know how much, or how
little, for my labour, nor how long I was going to be away.
"What a young fool!" I hear somebody say. I quite agree, but
there were a good many more in that ship, as in most ships that
I have ever sailed in.
From the time we signed the articles, we were never left to
ourselves. Truculent-looking men accompanied us to our several
boarding-houses, paid our debts for us, finally bringing us by
boat to a ship lying out in the bay. As we passed under her
stern, I read the name CACHALOT, of New Bedford; but as soon as
we ranged alongside, I realized that I was booked for the
sailor's horror--a cruise in a whaler. Badly as I wanted to get
to sea, I had not bargained for this, and would have run some
risks to get ashore again; but they took no chances, so we were
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