to my traders, who were going to New-York with me. The St.
Blas Indians have a peculiar custom about talking: when an old man is
speaking, all the company are silent, not one lisp is heard from any
other person, except at the end of every sentence, when each listener
says, "Ah!" When one old man has ended his story another commences
without any interruption. I laid down to sleep at eleven o'clock and
slept till five in the morning, when I awoke and found them talking.
Some time after, I called one of the Indians aft who spoke English, and
asked him why this talk had continued all night: he answered me by
saying, "The old men had told Campbell and Billy that they would be the
first of their tribe whoever visited my country; that they must keep
sober and honest, and conduct themselves like gentlemen."

Having all things ready for sea, I took leave of the old patriarchs by a
hearty shake of the hand, and proceeded on my voyage.

Nothing material occurred until we got into the latitude of 24 deg., when
our main-mast was carried away and we rigged a temporary jury-mast:
having a long fore-sail, we were enabled to keep the schooner on her
way; and being a sharp Baltimore clipper, she made pretty good headway
under her fore-sail. Three days after, while laying too in a gale of
wind, we lost one of our seamen, named William Latch, overboard. After a
passage of thirty-five days we arrived in New-York. My Indians knew not
what cold meant, and having some flannel on board, I made them some
shirts on the passage, and gave them some old cast-off woollen clothing
to protect them from the wintry weather of our coast. When we approached
the cold latitudes we had a warm south-east wind, which brought us into
the harbor of New-York without experiencing much of the severity of the
weather. The first night after our arrival I went to my boarding house,
where I tarried until early next morning, when I went to visit the
schooner. As I approached the wharf where she lay, I saw Campbell
looking at his fingers, turning his hands over and viewing them very
closely. I accosted him in his accustomed manner of speaking, saying,
"Campbell, what de matter?" he replied, "My God! captain, somet'ing bite
me and I can't see 'im." His own country being infested with
musquittoes, sand-flies, fire-ants, and sundry insects, which he could
see, this invisible sting of cold he could not account for. I took them
to a clothing store and rigged them with winter