sure, was the oldest, and at the same time the most ignorant, man
in the ship; but I consented to have him called. The cook stated
the matter to him, and John, as I anticipated, sided with the cook,
and said that he himself had been in a ship where they had a head
wind for a fortnight, and the captain found out at last that one
of the men, whom he had had some hard words with a short time before,
was a Fin, and immediately told him if he didn't stop the head wind
he would shut him down in the fore peak, and would not give him
anything to eat. The Fin held out for a day and a half, when he
could not stand it any longer, and did something or other which
brought the wind round again, and they let him up.

"There," said the cook, "what do you think o' dat?"

I told him I had no doubt it was true, and that it would have been
odd if the wind had not changed in fifteen days, Fin or no Fin.

"Oh," says he, "go 'way! You think, 'cause you been to college,
you know better than anybody. You know better than them as 'as
seen it with their own eyes. You wait till you've been to sea as
long as I have, and you'll know."




CHAPTER VII
JUAN FERNANDEZ--THE PACIFIC


We continued sailing along with a fair wind and fine weather until