ration was very expeditious from long practice. He
decided, at once, that I formed a new class by myself; of which, of
course, I was No. 1. The captain and his two mates formed another, Nos.
1, 2, and 3. Bob had a class also to himself, and the honors of No. 1;
and the crew formed a fresh class, being numbered according to height,
as the register deemed their merits to be altogether physical. Next came
the important point of color, on which depended the quality of the class
or caste, the numbers merely indicating our respective stations in
the particular divisions. After a good deal of deliberation, and many
interrogatories, I was enregistered as No. 1, flesh-color. Noah as No.
1, sea-water color, and his mates 2 and 3, accordingly. Bob as No. 1,
smut-color, and the crew as Nos. 1, 2, 3, etc., tar-color. The
officer now called upon an assistant to come forth with a sort of
knitting-needle heated red-hot, in order to affix the official stamp to
each in succession. Luckily for us all, Noah happened to be the first to
whom the agent of the stamp-office applied, to uncase and to prepare
for the operation. The result was one of those bursts of eloquent and
logical vituperation, and of remonstrating outcries, to which any
new personal exaction never failed to give birth in the sealer. His
discourse on this occasion might be divided into the several following
heads, all of which were very ingeniously embellished by the usual
expletives and imagery:--"He was not a beast to be branded like a horse,
nor a slave to be treated like a Congo nigger; he saw no use in applying
the marks to men, who were sufficiently distinguished from monkeys
already; Sir John had a handle before his name, and if he liked it, he
might carry his name behind his body, by way of counterpoise, but for
his part, he wanted no outriggers of the sort, being satisfied with
plain Noah Poke; he was a republican, and it was anti-republican for a
man to carry about with him graven images; he thought it might be even
flying in the face of the Scriptures, or what was worse, turning his
back on them; he said that the Walrus had her name, in good legible
characters on her starn, and that might answer for both of them; he
protested, d--n his eyes, that he wouldn't be branded like a thief;
he incontinently wished the keeper of the privy seal to the d---l; he
insisted there was no use in the practice, unless one threw all aback,
and went starn foremost into society, a ruden