"He's the on'y Dutchman I ever had any real respect for," said the crowd each for himself. But of course he was a Finn, and, as every one knows, a Finn triumphs over his disabilities as a Dutchman by virtue of strange gifts. "No, I don't believe none of that jaw about Finns and witchcraft," said old Mackenzie, "but I own there's always somethin' strange about a Finn. Now, all Hans's nature seems to 'ave run to 'ardness. What a saddle 'is skin would make!" For Mac had spent two years in the Australian bush, and was never tired of relating his strange experiences on horseback. And presently the _State of Oregon_ began, as the men said, to smell land. It was off Finisterre that Noyes proved the man from Abo could bleed; for the skipper never forgot that he had been knocked out in one round by knocking down a 'Dutchman.' The thought rankled, and when Hans was at the wheel when the wind was light out of the north-east the skipper's temper, ragged at a contrary wind when he had made a record passage so far, led him a little astray. For, as he often said, "It's all right marking men when one's bound home and when they've time to get well bound to Yewrope, but I like to leave 'em without no visible sign to say you've larrupped 'em when I'm bound East." In the United States there is very little respect for a man who can't take care of himself, but some Europeans have silly notions. It's not uncommon even to find a consul who doesn't understand that sailors are no good unless they are in a state of mutiny or near it. There is no end to the foolishness of some consuls, as Captain Noyes often complained with natural bitterness. So when, after he had cursed Hans twice for his steering, he jammed the brass end of his telescope right between the man's eyes and cut him badly, he was quite sorry for it. You see, he had almost got to believe that the man from Abo couldn't be hurt. But a brass telescope properly applied makes four neat little cuts, one on the forehead, one on the bridge of the nose, and one on each eyebrow, as a little consideration of the human race and the nature of a circle will show. The blood ran down into Hans's eyes, and Bragg had to walk to the break of the poop and bellow: "Relieve the wheel!"