mother must have mentioned it to him. I only stayed a few days in
the wonderful metropolis of Egypt; its noises, its cosmopolitanism,
its crowds--these, and many other considerations, drove me from the
city, and I set out for Singapore.

I had not been many days in that place when, chancing to make
inquiries at a store kept by a Mr. Shakespeare, I was casually
introduced to a Dutch pearl-fisher named Peter Jensen. Although I
describe him as a Dutch pearler I am somewhat uncertain as to his
exact nationality. I am under the impression that he told me he
came from Copenhagen, but in those days the phrase "Dutchman" had a
very wide application. If a man hailed from Holland, Sweden,
Norway, or any neighbouring country, he was always referred to as a
Dutchman. This was in 1863. We grew quite friendly, Jensen and I,
and he told me he had a small forty-ton schooner at Batavia, in
which sturdy little craft he used to go on his pearling
expeditions.

"I am now," he said, "about to organise a trip to some untouched
pearling grounds off the south of New Guinea, but have not
sufficient capital to defray the preliminary expenses."

This hint I took, and I offered to join him. He once agreed, and
we commenced our preparations without delay--in Batavia. Now when
a pearler engaged a crew of native divers there in those days, he
had to deposit beforehand with the Dutch Government a certain sum
for each man entering his service, this money being a guarantee
that the man would get his wages. Well, I placed all the money
that I had with me at Captain Jensen's disposal, provided he gave
me a share in the venture we were about to undertake. "We will