hree or four years. I was so overjoyed and
withal curious that I forgot all about the time, and flourishing the
chopper made the round of the lazarette, sampling its freight by
individual instances, so that by the time I was tired I had enlarged the
list I have given, by discoveries of brandy, beer, oatmeal, oil, lemons,
tongues, vinegar, rum, and eight or ten other matters, all stowed very
bunglingly, and in so many different kinds of casks, cases, jars, and
other vessels as disposed me to believe that several piratical
rummagings must have gone to the creation of this handsome and
plentiful stock of good things.

Well, thought I, even if there be no more coal in the ship than what
lies in the cook-house, enough fuel is here in the shape of casks,
boxes, and the like to thaw me provisions for six months, besides what I
may come across in the hold, along with the hammocks, bedding, boxes,
and so forth in the forecastle, all which would be good to feed my fire
with. This was a most comforting reflection, and I recollect springing
out through the lazarette hatch with as spirited a caper as ever I had
cut at any time in my life.

I replaced the hatch-cover, and having resolved upon the aftmost of the
four cabins as my bedroom, entered it to see what kind of accommodation
it would yield me. I hung up the lanthorn and looked into the cot, that
was slung athwartships, and spied a couple of rugs, or blankets, which I
pulled out, having no fancy to lie under them. The deck was like an old
clothes' shop, or the wardrobe of a travelling troop of actors. From the
confusion in this and the ajoining cabins, I concluded that there had
been a rush at the last, a wild overhauling and flinging about of
clothes for articles of more value hidden amongst them. But just as
likely as not the disorder merely indicated the slovenly indifference of
plunderers to the fruits of a pillage that had overstocked them.

The first garment I picked up was a cloak of a sort of silk material,
richly furred and lined; all the buttons but one had been cut off, and
that which remained was silver. I spread it in the cot, as it was a
soft thing to lie upon. Then I picked up a coat of the fashion you will
see in Hogarth's engravings; the coat collar a broad fold, and the cuffs
to the elbow. This was as good as a rug, and I put it into the cot with
the other. I inspected others of the articles on the deck, and among
them recollect a gold-laced waistcoat of gre