As the Proserpine fanned slowly along the land, this personage took a position between the knight-heads, on the bowsprit, where he could overlook the scene, and at the same time hear the dialogue of the forecastle; and both with suitable decorum.  Strand was as much of a monarch forward as Cuffe was aft; though the appearance of a lieutenant, or of the master, now and then, a little dimmed the lustre of his reign.  Still, Strand succumbed completely to only two of the officers—­the captain and the first lieutenant; and not always to these, in what he conceived to be purely matters of sentiment.  In the way of duty, he understood himself too well ever to hesitate about obeying an order; but when it came to opinions, he was a man who could maintain his own, even in the presence of Nelson.

The first captain of the forecastle was an old seaman of the name of Catfall.  At the precise moment when Strand occupied the position named, between the knight-heads, this personage was holding a discourse with three or four of the forecastle-men, who stood on the heel of the bowsprit, inboard—­the etiquette of the ship not permitting these worthies to show their heads above the nettings.  Each of the party had his arms folded; each chewed tobacco; each had his hair in a queue; and each occasionally hitched up his trousers, in a way to prove that he did not require the aid of suspenders in keeping his nether garments in their proper place.  It may be mentioned, indeed, that the point of division between the jacket and the trousers was marked in each by a bellying line of a clean white shirt, that served to relieve the blue of the dress, as a species of marine facing.  As was due to his greater experience and his rank, Catfall was the principal speaker among those who lined the heel of the bowsprit.

“This here coast is moun_tain_ious, as one may own,” observed the captain of the forecastle; “but what I say is, that it’s not as moun_tain_ious as some I’ve seen.  Now, when I went round the ’arth with Captain Cook, we fell in with islands that were so topped off with rocks, and the like o’ that, that these here affairs alongside on ’em wouldn’t pass for anything more than a sort of jury mountains.”

“There you’re right, Catfall,” said Strand, in a patronizing way; “as anybody knows as has been round the Horn.  I didn’t sail with Captain Cook, seeing that I was then the boatswain of the Hussar, and she couldn’t have made one of Cook’s squadron, being a post-ship, and commanded by a full-built captain; but I was in them seas when a younker, and can back Catfall’s account of the matter by my largest anchor, in the way of history.  D—­e, if I think these hillocks would be called even jury mountains, in that quarter of the world.  They tell me there’s several noblemen’s and gentlemen’s parks near Lunnun, where they make mountains just to look at; that must be much of a muchness with these here chaps.  I never drift far from Wappin’, when I’m at home, and so I can’t say I’ve seen these artifice hills, as they calls them, myself; but there’s one Joseph Shirk, that lives near St. Katharine’s Lane, that makes trips regularly into the neighborhood, who gives quite a particular account of the matter.”