it equally low and very rich, such as in England are almost unattainable except by the rich. Pictures, too, four of them coloured, four feet in length, and one fan, all for one dollar. These Chinese pictures want expression or impress of mind, yet display great ingenuity.
[19] 20th.—Lat. 25°, long. 56°. As to-morrow is Sunday, we this morning kill a fat Canton pig with little head and short legs, a delicious thing at sea. It weighs 100 lbs. (or 40 lbs. Chinese), and is fatted on rice-bran only, food on which an English pig I suppose would starve. Saw a whale almost the length and breadth of the ship.
The owner of the Ruthy, which I quitted, though now a very rich man, the Honourable Wm. Gray, of Boston, who has a ship at almost every port, was once very poor, a little shoemaker.[1] His first mercantile speculation was a shipment of warming-pans to the West Indies, which some wag advised him to send thither; it was, of course, a very successful shipment in so cold a country, but not for the uses intended; the pans were used as ladles for molasses or treacle.
Sunday, 21st.—Saw two sail to England bound, and two whales sporting by our ship. What a glorious transfer I have made, and how timely and unexpected, just at the moment when, on board the Ruthy, all our hopes had perished! How merciful is the God on whom I called! For instead of drowning, starving, or eating each other, I am living on the new and interesting luxuries of the east, and surrounded with many rare curiosities of unseen lands;
- ↑ William Gray (1750-1825), springing from humble origin, rapidly acquired great wealth in the shipping world; at one time he owned sixty square-rigged vessels. In later life he moved from his Salem home to Boston, and in 1810 was chosen lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts on the Democratic ticket. During the War of 1812-15 he greatly assisted the government, and died generally beloved and esteemed.—Ed.
