The Placer herald., 1855-11-17
For the Placer Herald.
SALT WATER BUBBLE NO. g.
by DICK BE-LAY-THAT.

III was on Il me moonlight nlght IN the
month of August, in the year ls-, that the
ship Cohota of B, was about four de-
grees to the southard of the line, bound to
the East Indies. She was tanning along
about four knots an hour, everything was set
and drawing, the lookout was placed, and
the mate was lazily smoking his cigar and
once in awhile looking at the horizon, when
sail, oh. was cried by the lookout.
'Where away2"
"Starboard bow sir"
All the Jacks were upon their feet in
moment Down she came, flying light, a
snug and trim built brigantine She passed
taken of her until she was Just on our beam,
when BRIG ahoy halloa! where are you
bound?"
''Blackbird hunting" was the answer-and
it was enough.
II say Dick that was rum way of an
swerng hail, was it not?" said one of the
Jacks to me as we walked forward.
AYE Bill, and a rum man that answered;
she is a SLAYER"
81 thought it by his trim; was you ever in
SLAYER"
81 was, one passage"
"Well Just coil away here and get your
Jaw tackles aboard and spin the yarn, there is
plenty of time as the jawing bell has just
struck"
"Well boys, here is for it: shipped once
at old G-s shipping office, on Peck Slip,
New York"
"Avast there, go on with the yarn and not
have SO much ahead of it."
"Well, l was in the ship Colchis, on ira
ding voyage to the coast of Africa. We car
ried out five Missionaries in the cabin and
rum and tobacco in the hold. We had gone
to Menscrado, landed our Missionaries, sold
old Pedro Blanco, at Galenus, some rum,
and 'old man had dined with the old scamp
Captain Candt. At Cape Mount we had
shipped an Interpreter, and was running down
the coast. We had traded little at Cape
Coast Castle and other ports, the three
"Acrass" and all, and came down to what is
called the wild coast We rounded a kind
of point about sixty miles from AGRA, when
the 'old man passed the word-"stand by to
come to-" We clewed up and furled, let go
our starboard bower, paid out chain, and
stood by for trade. No one came off, so
the 'old man sent the interpreter ashore
with the regular present of bottle of rum
and three heads of leaf tobacco to the king,
to come and trade and palaver. The old
ship had eighteen men before the mast, and
Jolly set we were-the oldest one in the
crowd was but twenty-five years old. Well,
the next day we heard ID of a racket
ashore, and off they came, five canoes, pull
ing each about one hundred paddles, the old
king standing in the stem of the head canoe.
He had on long claw-hammer blue coat
trimmed with yellow tape, French huzzar
cap on his head, and if you ever saw dar-
key he was one--coal tar would have made
a white mark on him. All of us were sta
toned: one in the cabin, to measure cloth;
one by the rum cask, on deck; one in the
magazine, to hand the powder; the rest to
watch the negroes, as they would sell a
chicken and then catch it and sell it again,
if not stopped. sc
"The old man sat on settee under the
awning with bale of leaf tobacco by him,
and the negroes walked up one by one with
their chickens or woodland the 'old man
sung out POWDER or 'cloth' as it was called
for. So we passed the day trading; and as
the sun went down we let our dogs loose,
1--WE had four bull dogs), and they cleared the