Newman found it for us. I
never met with men so contented and happy as we all became; and this I
could only account for by supposing that we were interested in our
various occupations.

Newman was also the great peacemaker on board. Whenever a dispute
arose, he always inquired the point at issue, and, without allowing time
for the temper of either party to become irritated, he generally
contrived to settle the matter. If he could not manage that, he used to
try and raise a laugh by some absurd observation, or would place the
position assumed by one man or the other in so ridiculous a light, that
he seldom failed to show him that he was wrong.

One thing I remarked about Newman was, that he never alluded to any
religious subject. I never saw him pray. He had no Bible or
Prayer-book with him. I never heard him give utterance to a sentiment
of piety, or of trust in God's mercy or fear of his anger. I did, on
the contrary, frequently hear him praise the Greek and Roman
philosophers of old, and he often spoke of the stoicism and heroism of
the heathens. Still he neither blasphemed, nor cursed, nor swore, nor
did he ever attempt to instil any infidel notions into the minds of any
of us. However, I fear that he was, to all intents and purposes, a
heathen. I doubt, indeed, whether he ever had any religion. I suspect
that he was brought up without any; and that at no time, during the
period he was gaining his education, did he meet with anyone to instruct
him. I could not even then help contrasting the confiding piety and
true religion of my old shipmates, Peter Poplar and Captain Gale, with
the entire want of it which he displayed.

Indeed, Captain Carr, though a kind and worthy man, and a good sailor,
was sadly unenlightened as to the truth; and all the years I served with
him we neither had prayers nor any religious observance whatever on
board. On a Sunday, if the weather was fine, and no whales were in
sight, we put on clean clothes, mended and washed our old ones, and had
an additional glass of grog served out, with less work than usual given
us to do. On board most South-Seamen every day in the week was much the
same. It was a fact, I fear, and one painful to contemplate, that
Newman, with all his great and varied talents, lived on as if there were
no God in the world. I do not mention this without a purpose. It seems
strange that it was from such a man I received the instruction which
enabled me ulti