"Halloa," answered a shrill voice.
"What is your longitude?"
"We hai'n't got no longitude; we're after fish!"
"How does George's Shoal bear?"
"Nor' West by North."
As we passed the schooner Capt. Streeter discovered that the skipper was his mate of two voyages previous—Mr. Foster, whom he had quarrelled with and discharged from the ship in Mobile. The bearing he gave did not at all agree with the reckoning; the captain had some misgivings as to the skipper's information and decided not to trust to it. The schooner "Emporia" afterwards gave us another bearing and when we sighted Cape Cod we found Foster had deceived us, and given a course that would have wrecked the ship if it had been followed. He evidently did it out of spite to his old commander.
Capt. Streeter was weather-wise, and continually prophesied the changes of the wind. Once when it had been blowing from the north-west for two or three days, it began to moderate and give evidence that this wind had had its day. The captain said in the evening: "This wind is about done now, it will haul around to the eastward, going by the north, or it may die away calm and haul around by the south." At four in the morning I called him and told him there was an easterly breeze.
"Which way did it haul?"
"By the north, sir."
"Didn't I tell you so?" said the captain.