of a boy, a complete original, hit off with uncommon felicity. Nothing
is told us of his early life. Typee takes him up on board the Julia,
shakes hands with him in the last page of the book, and informs us that
he has never since seen or heard of him. So we become acquainted with
but a small section of the doctor's life; his subsequent adventures are
unknown, and, save a chance hint or two, his previous career is a
mystery, unfathomable as the Tahitian coast, where, within a biscuit's
toss of the coral shore, soundings there are none. Now and then he would
obscurely refer to days more palmy and prosperous than those spent on
board the Julia. But however great the contrast between his former
fortunes and his then lowly position, he exhibited much calm philosophy
and cheerful resignation. He was even merry and facetious, a practical
wag of the very first order, and as such a great favourite with the
whole ship's company, the captain excepted. He had arrived at Sydney in
an emigrant ship, had expended his resources, and entered as doctor on
board the Julia. All British whalers are bound to carry a medico, who is
treated as a gentleman, so long as he behaves as such, and has nothing
to do but to drug the men and play drafts with the captain. At first
Long-Ghost and Captain Guy hit it off very well; until, in an unlucky
hour, a dispute about politics destroyed their harmonious association.
The captain got a thrashing; the mutinous doctor was put in confinement
and on bread and water, ran away from the ship, was pursued, captured,
and again imprisoned. Released at last, he resigned his office, refused
to do duty, and went forward amongst the men. This was more magnanimous
than wise. Long-Ghost was a sort of medical Tom Coffin, a raw-boned
giant, upwards of two yards high, one of those men to whom the
between-decks of a small craft is a residence little less afflicting
than one of Cardinal Balue's iron cages. And to one who "had certainly,
at some time or other, spent money, drunk Burgundy, and associated with
gentlemen," the Julia's forecastle must have contained a host of
disagreeables, irrespective of rats and cockroaches, of its low roof,
evil odours, damp timbers, and dungeon-like aspect. The captain's table,
if less luxurious than that of a royal yacht or New York liner, surely
offered something better than the biscuits, hard as gun-flints and
thoroughly honeycombed, and the shot-soup, "great round peas polishing
themselves like pebbles by rolling about in tepid water," on which the
restive man of medicine was fain to exercise his grinders during his
abode forward. As regarded society, he lost little by relinquishing that
of Guy the Cockney, since he obtained in exchange the intimacy of
Melville the Yankee, who, to judge from his book, must be exceeding good
company, and to whom he was a great resource. The doctor was a man of
learning and accomplishments, who had made the most of his time whilst
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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