exact nationality. I am
under the impression that he told me he came from Copenhagen, but in
those days the phrase "Dutchman" had a very wide application. If a man
hailed from Holland, Sweden, Norway, or any neighbouring country, he was
always referred to as a Dutchman. This was in 1863. We grew quite
friendly, Jensen and I, and he told me he had a small forty-ton schooner
at Batavia, in which sturdy little craft he used to go on his pearling
expeditions.

"I am now," he said, "about to organise a trip to some untouched pearling
grounds off the south of New Guinea, but have not sufficient capital to
defray the preliminary expenses."

This hint I took, and I offered to join him. He once agreed, and we
commenced our preparations without delay--in Batavia. Now when a pearler
engaged a crew of native divers there in those days, he had to deposit
beforehand with the Dutch Government a certain sum for each man entering
his service, this money being a guarantee that the man would get his
wages. Well, I placed all the money that I had with me at Captain
Jensen's disposal, provided he gave me a share in the venture we were
about to undertake. "We will not," he said to me in Singapore, "draw up
an agreement here, but will do so at Batavia," and forthwith we set sail
for that place. Before leaving Singapore, however, Jensen bought some
nautical instruments he could not get at Batavia--including compasses,
quadrant, chronometer, &c. Strange to say, he did not tell me that his
ship was named the _Veielland_ until we had arrived at Batavia. Here the
contract was duly drawn up, and the vessel fitted out for the voyage. I
fancy this was the first time Jensen had embarked on a pearling
expedition on a craft of the size of the _Veielland_, his previous trips
having been undertaken on much smaller vessels, say of about ten tons.
Although the fitting out of the ship was left entirely in his hands, I
insisted upon having a supply of certain stores for myself put
aboard--things he would never have thought about. These included such
luxuries as tinned and compressed vegetables, condensed milk, &c. Jensen
did not even think of ship's biscuits until I called his attention to the
oversight. He demurred at first about buying them, but I told him I
would not go until we had the biscuits aboard. Jensen was a very bluff,
enigmatic sort of fellow, as I afterwards found out. He was of a sullen,
morose nature, and I could never get m