will please to recollect, that on all public expeditions of this nature,
there must be no peculation or private journal kept. Did you see any
stock-fish?"

"Sir, I should deem this ship disgraced by the admission into her pantry
of such an article, sir. We have tongues and sounds in plenty, Captain
Truck, and no gentleman that has such diet, need ambition a stock-fish!"

"I am not quite of your way of thinking; but the earth is not made of
stock-fish. Did you happen to fall in with any butter?"

"Some, sir, that is scarcely fit to slush a mast with, and I do think, one
of the most atrocious cheeses, sir, it was ever my bad fortune to meet
with. I do not wonder the Africans left the wreck."

"You followed their example, of course, Mr. Saunders, and left the
cheese."

"I followed my own judgment, sir, for I would not stay in a ship with such
a cheese, Captain Truck, sir, even to have the honour of serving under so
great a commander as yourself. I think it no wonder that vessel was
wrecked! Even the sharks would abandon her. The very thoughts of her
impurities, sir, make me feel unsettled in the stomach."

The captain nodded his head in approbation of this sentiment, called for a
coal, and then ordered breakfast. The meal was silent, thoughtful, and
even sad; every one was thinking of the poor Danes and their sad fate,
while they who had been on the plain had the additional subject of the
murdered man for their contemplation.