o quintals on board, which they offered for about
fifteen shillings, and would probably have sold for half the money. The
fresh fish, which was bought for about nineteen shillings and sixpence,
served the whole ship's company; the salt was not wanted.

The sea-provision of these fishermen consisted of nothing more than a
cask of water, and a bag of Cassada flour, which they called Farinha de
Pao, or wooden flour, which indeed is a name which very well suits its
taste and appearance. Their water-cask was large, as wide as their boat,
and exactly fitted a place that was made for it in the ballast; it was
impossible therefore to draw out any of its contents by a tap, the sides
being, from the bottom to the top, wholly inaccessible; neither could
any be taken out by dipping a vessel in at the head, for an opening
sufficiently wide for that purpose would have endangered the loss of
great part of it by the rolling of the vessel: Their expedient to get at
their water, so situated, was curious; when one of them wanted to drink,
he applied to his neighbour, who accompanied him to the water-cask with
a hollow cane about three feet long, which was open at both ends; this
he thrust into the cask through a small hole in the top, and then,
stopping the upper end with the palm of his hand, drew it out; the
pressure of the air against the other end keeping in the water which it
contained; to this end the person who wanted to drink applied his mouth,
and the assistant then taking his hand from the other, and admitting the
air above, the cane immediately parted with its contents, which the
drinker drew off till he was satisfied.[71]

[Footnote 71: It seems pretty obvious that the form and position of the
water-cask, were accommodated to this known practicability of getting
conveniently at its contents. But how such a method should have become
familiar to these fishermen, it is difficult to conjecture. Some
accidental observation of a reed or similar body containing water when
one of its ends was pressed close, had, in all probability, furnished
them or their ancestors with the hint. Man, when necessitated to
exertion, is essentially a philosopher; but when his natural wants are
by any means supplied, he dwindles into a fool. Hence his discoveries
are often invaluable in their consequences, whilst his reasonings in
explanation of them are absurd and childish. A contrasted collection of
both would be a most amusing, and at the same time a