Account of a voyage of discovery to the west coast of Corea, and the great Loo-Choo IslandHall, Basil
History
Account of a voyage of discovery to the west coast of Corea, and the great Loo-Choo Island
Hall, Basil
Korea -- Description and travel; Ryukyu Islands -- Description and travel
The Chief had now recourse to signs, which he used ever afterwards. He
was in great spirits, and seemed entertained with the efforts which were
made to please him. He asked to look at a mirror which had caught his
attention; when it was put into his hands, he seemed very well satisfied
with the figure which it presented, and continued for some time pulling
his beard from side to side with an air of perfect complacency. One of
the attendants thought there could be no harm in looking at the mirror
likewise, but the Chief was of a different opinion, and no sooner
observed what he was doing, than he very angrily made him put down the
glass and leave the cabin. The secretary too fell under his displeasure,
and was reprimanded with much acrimony for overlooking our paper when we
were writing. Scarcely five minutes elapsed, in short, during his stay,
without his finding some cause of complaint against his people; but we
could not determine whether this arose from mere captiousness, or was
done to give us a higher notion of his consequence, because, in the
intervals, he was all cheerfulness and good humour. He was offered tea
and cherry brandy, which he took along with us, and appeared at his ease
in every respect. We thought that he made signs, implying a wish for us
to visit him on shore; to this we cheerfully assented, and an
arrangement for landing in the morning was made accordingly by means of
similar signs, with which the Chief appeared much pleased, and rose to
go away.
He had not got much beyond the cabin-door, however, before the serenity
of his temper was once more overturned. On passing the gun-room
sky-light, he heard the voices of some of his people whom the officers
had taken below, and who were enjoying themselves very merrily amongst
their new acquaintance. The old Chief looked down, and observing them
drinking and making a noise, he called to them in a loud passionate
voice, which made them leave their glasses, and run up the ladder in
great terror. From thence the alarm spread along the lower deck, to the
midshipmen's berth, where another party was carousing. The grog and wine
with which they had been entertained was too potent for this party, as
they did not seem to care much for the old Chief, who, posting himself
at the hatchway, ascertained, by personal examination, who the offenders
were. On this occasion, his little rod of office was of much use; he
pushed the people about with it to make them speak, and used it to turn
them round, in order to discover their faces. One man watching his
opportunity when the Chief was punching away at somebody who had just
come up, slipped past and ran off; but the quick eye of the old man was
not so easily deceived, and he set off in chase of him round the
quarter deck. The man had an apron full of biscuit, which had been
given to him by the midshipmen; this impeded his running, so that the
Chief, notwithstanding his robes, at last came up with him; but while he
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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