“I shook Bill by the hand and thanked him, and we were friends ever afterwards.
“Bill told me that the craft I had so curiously found myself aboard was the ‘Catfish,’ and that she was on a voyage round the islands to pick up sandal-wood, cocoa-nut oil, or pearls, which he told me were to be found among some of the low-lying coral islands to the eastward.
”‘I shall like well enough to go after pearls,’ I observed; ‘for I know their value and the price people on shore will give for them.’
”‘That made me ship on board the “Catfish,”’ said Bill. ‘I remember my mother used to wear such things in her hair, and that a small string of them was worth some hundred pounds, and I thought that if I could get a few I should be a rich man, and be able to go back to Old England, for I am pretty well sick of this sort of life, though, mate, as you know, when a man is down in the world it’s a hard job to get up again.’
”‘Then I suppose, Bill, from what you say, you are a gentleman’s son, and you have come out to these parts to make your fortune,’ I remarked.
”‘Yes, I am well born, and might have been very different from what I am,’ he answered with a sigh. ‘But I came away to sea because I was a wild scamp, and no one could make anything of me at home. However, if I can get hold of a few of those pearls, so as to start fair, I intend to turn over a new leaf, and go back to my friends, provided I can do so with a good coat on my back, and not like the ragged beggar I have been of late. I have got a few articles to trade with, and I shipped on condition that I should do what I liked with them.’
”‘I’ll help you, my lad, as far as I can,’ said I, for I had taken a fancy to Bill, who might have been all he said of himself. To my notion he was as brave and warm-hearted a fellow as ever stepped.
“I have already described the various ways the sandal-wood traders manage to obtain their cargoes. Our captain was in no degree more particular than most of them, and played a few odd tricks among the natives to get what he wanted. On one occasion we got a chief on board, and the captain told him that he must make his people cut a dozen boat-loads of sandal-wood, or we would carry him away as a prisoner to Sydney. The chief refused, and declared that the wood was not to be got. On this the captain called two or three of his people on board, and then had him triced up and gave him a dozen, and told him that he should have it every morning if the wood was not forthcoming. Still the savage held out, and he was heard to tell his people not to bring any.
“Next morning some of his people came off, when, as they brought no wood, preparations were made to give him another dozen. On seeing this his courage gave way, and he told his people to go back and get the wood. He got his dozen though, for the captain was a man to keep his word on those sort of matters.