as we were now scarcely able to combat a brisk gale, much less those
mountains of ice which lay in the higher latitudes.

The captain has since often expressed a dissatisfaction that he had
no share in the honours of that day, which he emphatically called
_bear-skin day_. He has also been very desirous of knowing by what art
I destroyed so many thousands, without fatigue or danger to myself;
indeed, he is so ambitious of dividing the glory with me, that we have
actually quarrelled about it, and we are not now upon speaking terms.
He boldly asserts I had no merit in deceiving the bears, because I was
covered with one of their skins; nay, he declares there is not, in his
opinion, in Europe, so complete a bear naturally as himself among the
human species.

He is now a noble peer, and I am too well acquainted with good manners
to dispute so delicate a point with his lordship.



CHAPTER XIV

_Our Baron excels Baron Tott beyond all comparison, yet fails in part of
his attempt--Gets into disgrace with the Grand Seignior, who orders his
head to be cut off--Escapes, and gets on board a vessel, in which he is
carried to Venice--Baron Tott's origin, with some account of that
great man's parents--Pope Ganganelli's amour--His Holiness fond of
shell-fish._

Baron de Tott, in his Memoirs, makes as great a parade of a single
act as many travellers whose whole lives have been spent in seeing the