Page 15

3rd Reader, and I edify them with a chapter in Dutch.
Vary the exercises by telling each other we do “first
rate.” I, Cornelius B. Gold, without the request,
suggestion or knowledge of any other human being,
do here record as follows. Of my own free will and
enlightened conscience, I have taken to “spun yarn
and sinnett,” and now and then, to the yard-arm [1];
having learned through experience, that the only
way to profit in health by this voyage, is, when
with the sailors, to do as the sailors do. That there is
no gain without some small risk. That there is
a God aloft as well as alow. Already I reap
reward in a slight increase of sinew. I write this,
to shield from blame, (should any harm happen to
me) the officers of the Oriental. Who have only given
me liberty and kindness. Lat 38°20’s. Long 72°E [2].
Friday March 21. Fine. 1 P.M. I lead the 2d mate in
a race up the fore-mast, and have a jolly těte-à-těte [3] with
him on the top gallant-yard, looking out for Amsterdam
supposed to be sixty miles ahead. But a little before 5 P.M.
it appeared, looming faintly through the mist about
ten miles a-beam. The haze was too thick for a clear
outline, and at sunset it was invisible, wrapped in