, and
handsomely acknowledged.

I had taken the precaution to order imitation-skins to be made of
cotton, which were worn in the low latitudes; and, as we got near the
Falkland Islands, the real skins were resumed, with promptitude, and I
might add, with pleasure.

Noah had, at first, raised some strong objections to the scheme, saying
that he should not feel safe in a ship manned and officered altogether
by wild beasts; but, at last, he came to enjoy the thing as a good joke,
never failing to hail the men, not by their names as formerly, but,
as he expressed it himself, "by their natur's"; calling out "You cat,
scratch this"; "You tiger, jump here"; "You hog, out of that dirt"';
"You dog, scamper there"; "You horse, haul away," and divers other
similar conceits, that singularly tickled his fancy. The men themselves
took up the ball, which they kept rolling, embellished with all sorts of
nautical witticisms; their surname--they had but one, viz. Smith--being
entirely dropped for the new appellations. Thus, the sounds of "Tom
Dog," "Jack Cat," "Bill Tiger," "Sam Hog," and "Dick Horse," were flying
about the deck from morning to night.

Good humor is a great alleviator of bodily privation. From the time the
ship lost sight of Staten Land, we had heavy weather, with hard gales
from the southward and westward; and we had the utmost difficulty in
making our southing. Observations now became a very difficult matter,
the sun being invisible for a week at a time. The marine instinct of
Noah, at this crisis, was of the last importance to all on board. He
gave us the cheering assurance, however, from time to time, that we were
going south, although the mates declared that they knew not where the
ship was, or whither she was running; neither sun, moon, nor star having
now been seen for more than a week.

We had been in this state of anxiety and doubt for about a fortnight,
when Captain Poke suddenly appeared on deck, and called for the
cabin-boy, in his usual stentorian and no-denial voice, by the name of
"You Bob Ape"; for the duty of Robert requiring that he should be much
about the persons of the monikins, I had given him a dress of apes'
skins, as a garb that would be more congenial to their tastes than
that of a pig, or a weasel. Bob Ape was soon forthcoming, and, as he
approached his master, he quietly turned his face from him, receiving,
as a matter of course, three or four smart admonitory hints, by way of
letting him