In relating to my friends various passages of my sea-goings, I have at
times had occasion to allude to that singular people the ’Gees,
sometimes as casual acquaintances, sometimes as shipmates. Such
allusions have been quite natural and easy. For instance, I have said
_The two ’Gees_, just as another would say _The two Dutchmen_, or _The
two Indians_. In fact, being myself so familiar with ’Gees, it seemed as
if all the rest of the world must be. But not so. My auditors have
opened their eyes as much as to say, ‘What under the sun is a ’Gee?’ To
enlighten them I have repeatedly had to interrupt myself, and not
without detriment to my stories. To remedy which inconvenience, a friend
hinted the advisability of writing out some account of the ’Gees, and
having it published. Such as they are, the following memoranda spring
from that happy suggestion.
The word _’Gee_ (g hard) is an abbreviation, by seamen, of _Portugee_,
the corrupt form of _Portuguese_. As the name is a curtailment, so the
race is a residuum. Some three centuries ago certain Portuguese convicts
were sent as a colony to Fogo, one of the Cape de Verds, off the
north-west coast of Africa, an island previously stocked with an
aboriginal race of negroes, ranking pretty high in incivility, but
rather low in stature and morals. In course of time, from the
amalgamated generation all the likelier sort were drafted off as food
for powder, and the ancestors of the since called ’Gees were left as the
_caput mortuum_, or melancholy remainder.
Of all men seamen have strong prejudices, particularly in the matter of
race. They are bigots here. But when a creature of inferior race lives
among them, an inferior tar, there seems no bound to their disdain. Now,
as ere long will be hinted, the ’Gee, though of an aquatic nature, does
not, as regards higher qualifications, make the best of sailors. In
short, by seamen the abbreviation ’Gee was hit upon in pure contumely;
the degree of which may be partially inferred from this, that with them
the primitive word Portugee itself is a reproach; so that ’Gee, being a
subtle distillation from that word, stands, in point of relative
intensity to it, as attar of roses does to rose-water. At times, when
some crusty old sea-dog has his spleen more than usually excited against
some luckless blunderer of Fogo, his shipmate, it is marvellous the
prolongation of taunt into which he will spin out the one little
exclamatory monosyllable Ge-e-e-e-e!
The Isle of Fogo, that is ‘Fire Isle,’ was so called from its volcano,
which, after throwing up an infinite deal of stones and ashes, finally
threw up business altogether, from its broadcast bounteousness having
become bankrupt. But thanks to the volcano’s prodigality in its time,
the soil of Fogo is such as may be found of a dusty day on a road newly
macadamised. Cut off from farms and gardens, the staple food of the
inhabitants is fish, at catching which they are expert. But none the
less do they relish ship biscuit, which, indeed, by most islanders,
barbarous or semi-barbarous, is held a sort of lozenge.
In his best estate the ’Gee is rather small (he admits it), but, with
some exceptions, hardy; capable of enduring extreme hard work, hard
fare, or hard usage, as the case may be. In fact, upon a scientific
view, there would seem a natural adaptability in the ’Gee to hard times
generally. A theory not uncorroborated by his experiences; and
furthermore, that kindly care of Nature in fitting him for them,
something as for his hard rubs with a hardened world Fox the Quaker
fitted himself, namely, in a tough leather suit from top to toe. In
other words, the ’Gee is by no means of that exquisitely delicate
sensibility expressed by the figurative adjective thin-skinned. His
physicals and spirituals are in singular contrast. The ’Gee has a great
appetite, but little imagination; a large eyeball, but small insight.
Biscuit he crunches, but sentiment he eschews.
His complexion is hybrid; his hair ditto; his mouth disproportionally
large, as compared with his stomach; his neck short; but his head round,
compact, and betokening a solid understanding.
Like the negro, the ’Gee has a peculiar savour, but a different one--a
sort of wild, marine, gamey savour, as in the sea-bird called haglet.
Like venison, his flesh is firm but lean.
His teeth are what are called butter-teeth, strong, durable, square, and
yellow. Among captains at a loss for better discourse during dull, rainy
weather in the horse-latitudes, much debate has been had whether his
teeth are intended for carnivorous or herbivorous purposes, or both
conjoined. But as on his isle the ’Gee eats neither flesh nor grass,
this inquiry would seem superfluous.
The native dress of the ’Gee is, like his name, compendious. His head
being by nature well thatched, he wears no hat. Wont to wade much in the
surf, he wears no shoes. He has a serviceably hard heel, a kick from
which is by the judicious held almost as dangerous as one from a wild
zebra.
Though for a long time back no stranger to the seafaring people of
Portugal, the ’Gee, until a comparatively recent period, remained almost
undreamed of by seafaring Americans. It is now some forty years since he
first became known to certain masters of our Nantucket ships, who
commenced the practice of touching at Fogo, on the outward passage,
there to fill up vacancies among their crews arising from the short
supply of men at home. By degrees the custom became pretty general, till
now the ’Gee is found aboard of almost one whaler out of three. One
reason why they are in request is this: An unsophisticated ’Gee coming
on board a foreign ship never asks for wages. He comes for biscuit. He
does not know what other wages mean, unless cuffs and buffets be wages,
of which sort he receives a liberal allowance, paid with great
punctuality, besides perquisites of punches thrown in now and then. But
for all this, some persons there are, and not unduly biased by
partiality to him either, who still insist that the ’Gee never gets his
due.
His docile services being thus cheaply to be had, some captains will go
the length of maintaining that ’Gee sailors are preferable, indeed every
way, physically and intellectually, superior to American sailors--such
captains complaining, and justly, that American sailors, if not decently
treated, are apt to give serious trouble.
But even by their most ardent admirers it is not deemed prudent to sail
a ship with none but ’Gees, at least, if they chance to be all green
hands, a green ’Gee being of all green things the greenest. Besides,
owing to the clumsiness of their feet ere improved by practice in the
rigging, green ’Gees are wont, in no inconsiderable numbers, to fall
overboard the first dark, squally night; insomuch that when unreasonable
owners insist with a captain against his will upon a green ’Gee crew
fore and aft, he will ship twice as many ’Gees as he would have shipped
of Americans, so as to provide for all contingencies.
The ’Gees are always ready to be shipped. Any day one may go to their
isle, and on the showing of a coin of biscuit over the rail, may load
down to the water’s edge with them.
But though any number of ’Gees are ever ready to be shipped, still it is
by no means well to take them as they come. There is a choice even in
’Gees.
Of course the ’Gee has his private nature as well as his public coat. To
know ’Gees--to be a sound judge of ’Gees--one must study them, just as
to know and be a judge of horses one must study horses. Simple as for
the most part are both horse and ’Gee, in neither case can knowledge of
the creature come by intuition. How unwise, then, in those ignorant
young captains who, on their first voyage, will go and ship their ’Gees
at Fogo without any preparatory information, or even so much as taking
convenient advice from a ’Gee jockey. By a ’Gee jockey is meant a man
well versed in ’Gees. Many a young captain has been thrown and badly
hurt by a ’Gee of his own choosing. For notwithstanding the general
docility of the ’Gee when green, it may be otherwise with him when ripe.
Discreet captains won’t have such a ’Gee. ‘Away with that ripe ’Gee!’
they cry; ‘that smart ’Gee; that knowing ’Gee! Green ’Gees for me!’
For the benefit of inexperienced captains about to visit Fogo, the
following may be given as the best way to test a ’Gee: Get square before
him, at say three paces, so that the eye, like a shot, may rake the ’Gee
fore and aft, at one glance taking in his whole make and build--how he
looks about the head, whether he carry it well; his ears, are they
over-lengthy? How fares it in the withers? His legs, does the ’Gee stand
strongly on them? His knees, any Belshazzar symptoms there? How stands
it in the region of the brisket? etc. etc.
Thus far for bone and bottom. For the rest, draw close to, and put the
centre of the pupil of your eye--put it, as it were, right into the
’Gee’s eye; even as an eye-stone, gently, but firmly slip it in there,
and then note what speck or beam of viciousness, if any, will be floated
out.
All this and much more must be done; and yet after all, the best judge
may be deceived. But on no account should the skipper negotiate for his
’Gee with any middleman, himself a ’Gee. Because such an one must be a
knowing ’Gee, who will be sure to advise the green ’Gee what things to
hide and what to display, to hit the skipper’s fancy; which, of course,
the knowing ’Gee supposes to lean toward as much physical and moral
excellence as possible. The rashness of trusting to one of these
middlemen was forcibly shown in the case of the ’Gee who by his
countrymen was recommended to a New Bedford captain as one of the most
agile ’Gees in Fogo. There he stood, straight and stout, in a flowing
pair of man-of-war’s man’s trowsers, uncommonly well filled out. True,
he did not step around much at the time. But that was diffidence. Good.
They shipped him. But at the first taking in of sail the ’Gee hung fire.
Come to look, both trowser-legs were full of elephantiasis. It was a
long sperm-whaling voyage. Useless as so much lumber, at every port
prohibited from being dumped ashore, that elephantine ’Gee, ever
crunching biscuit, for three weary years was trundled round the globe.
Grown wise by several similar experiences, old Captain Hosea Kean, of
Nantucket, in shipping a ’Gee, at present manages matters thus: He lands
at Fogo in the night; by secret means gains information where the
likeliest ’Gee wanting to ship lodges; whereupon with a strong party he
surprises all the friends and acquaintances of that ’Gee; putting them
under guard with pistols at their heads; then creeps cautiously toward
the ’Gee, now lying wholly at unawares in his hut, quite relaxed from
all possibility of displaying aught deceptive in his appearance. Thus
silently, thus suddenly, thus unannounced, Captain Kean bursts upon his
’Gee, so to speak, in the very bosom of his family. By this means, more
than once, unexpected revelations have been made. A ’Gee, noised abroad
for a Hercules in strength and an Apollo Belvidere for beauty, of a
sudden is discovered all in a wretched heap; forlornly adroop as upon
crutches, his legs looking as if broken at the cart-wheel. Solitude is
the house of candour, according to Captain Kean. In the stall, not the
street, he says, resides the real nag.
The innate disdain of regularly bred seamen toward ’Gees receives an
added edge from this. The ’Gees undersell them, working for biscuit
where the sailors demand dollars. Hence, anything said by sailors to the
prejudice of ’Gees should be received with caution. Especially that jeer
of theirs, that monkey-jacket was originally so called from the
circumstance that that rude sort of shaggy garment was first known in
Fogo. They often call a monkey-jacket a ’Gee-jacket. However this may
be, there is no call to which the ’Gee will with more alacrity respond
than the word ‘Man!’
Is there any hard work to be done, and the ’Gees stand round in sulks?
‘Here, my men!’ cries the mate. How they jump. But ten to one when the
work is done, it is plain ’Gee again. ‘Here, ’Gee! you ’Ge-e-e-e!’ In
fact, it is not unsurmised, that only when extraordinary stimulus is
needed, only when an extra strain is to be got out of them, are these
hapless ’Gees ennobled with the human name.
As yet, the intellect of the ’Gee has been little cultivated. No
well-attested educational experiment has been tried upon him. It is
said, however, that in the last century a young ’Gee was by a visionary
Portuguese naval officer sent to Salamanca University. Also, among the
Quakers of Nantucket, there has been talk of sending five comely ’Gees,
aged sixteen, to Dartmouth College; that venerable institution, as is
well known, having been originally founded partly with the object of
finishing off wild Indians in the classics and higher mathematics. Two
qualities of the ’Gee which, with his docility, may be justly regarded
as furnishing a hopeful basis for his intellectual training, are his
excellent memory, and still more excellent credulity.
The above account may, perhaps, among the ethnologists, raise some
curiosity to see a ’Gee. But to see a ’Gee there is no need to go all
the way to Fogo, no more than to see a Chinaman to go all the way to
China. ’Gees are occasionally to be encountered in our seaports, but
more particularly in Nantucket and New Bedford. But these ’Gees are not
the ’Gees of Fogo. That is, they are no longer green ’Gees. They are
sophisticated ’Gees, and hence liable to be taken for naturalised
citizens badly sunburnt. Many a Chinaman, in new coat and pantaloons,
his long queue coiled out of sight in one of Genin’s hats, has
promenaded Broadway, and been taken merely for an eccentric Georgia
planter. The same with ’Gees; a stranger need have a sharp eye to know a
’Gee, even if he see him.
Thus much for a general sketchy view of the ’Gee. For further and fuller
information apply to any sharp-witted American whaling-captain, but more
especially to the before-mentioned old Captain Hosea Kean, of Nantucket,
whose address at present is ‘Pacific Ocean.’
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