“Who is your father?” asked one fellow.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“Who is your mother?” inquired another.
I gave the same answer, whereon there was a general laugh.
“Have you many brothers and sisters?”
“I don’t know,” I again said.
“Where were you born?”
“That’s more than I can tell you,” I answered, quite quietly, and so I went on.
“I don’t think you have got much out of me,” I said, at last. “And now I want to know who among you can box the compass? Can any of you put a ship about? Can some one describe the Marquesas? or tell me where Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands are to be found?”
To none of these or similar questions did I receive any replies.