Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/230

 about a week for New Bedford, and that the money could be sent by her. I had now fully made up my mind to re-enter, and so, with others, wrote my name  in full, and felt as big and grand as though I were an  officer.

The next day the purser gave me a paper on which was written the following:

When I re-entered, and signed the ship’s articles, I was paid three months’ wages and twelve dollars grog  money. During the day all the foreign consuls, missionaries, and many of the residents visited the ship. A young English naturalist wanted to match a beautiful  orange-colored cowry shell. I had its mate, and he gave me ten dollars for it, and twenty dollars for a head of  tortoise-shell.