They knew it would take place, and that then they would have my cargo at their own price.  Another vessel brought us home.  Had I not been so treacherously served, I should have had no need to sail this time; and now my gains are small, the Company forbidding all private trading.  But here he comes at last; they have hoisted the ensign on the staff in the boat; there—­they have shoved off.  Mynheer Hillebrant, see the gunners ready with their linstocks to salvo the supercargo.”

“What duty do you wish me to perform?” observed Philip.  “In what can I be useful?”

“At present you can be of little use, except in those heavy gales in which every pair of hands is valuable.  You must look and learn for some time yet; but you can make a fair copy of the journal kept for the inspection of the Company, and may assist me in various ways, as soon as the unpleasant nausea, felt by those who first embark, has subsided.  As a remedy, I should propose that you gird a handkerchief tight round your body so as to compress the stomach, and make frequent application of my bottle of schnapps, which you will find always at your service.  But now to receive the factor of the most puissant Company.  Mynheer Hillebrant, let them discharge the cannon.”

The guns were fired, and soon after the smoke had cleared away, the boat, with its long ensign trailing on the water, was pulled alongside.  Philip watched the appearance of the supercargo, but he remained in the boat until several of the boxes with the initials and arms of the Company were first handed on the deck; at last the supercargo appeared.

He was a small, spare, wizen-faced man, with a three-cornered cocked hat, bound with broad gold lace, upon his head, under which appeared a full-bottomed flowing wig, the curls of which descended low upon his shoulders.  His coat was of crimson velvet, with broad flaps:  his waistcoat of white silk, worked in coloured flowers, and descending half-way down to his knees.  His breeches were of black satin, and his legs were covered with white silk stockings.  Add to this, gold buckles at his knees and in his shoes, lace ruffles to his wrists, and a silver-mounted cane in his hand, and the reader has the entire dress of Mynheer Jacob Janz Von Stroom, the supercargo of the Hon. Company, appointed to the good ship Ter Schilling.

As he looked round him, surrounded at a respectful distance by the captain, officers, and men of the ship, with their caps in their hands, the reader might be reminded of the picture of the “Monkey who had seen the World” surrounded by his tribe.  There was not, however, the least inclination on the part of the seamen to laugh, even at his flowing, full-bottomed wig:  respect was at that period paid to dress; and although Mynheer Von Stroom could not be mistaken for a sailor, he was known to be the supercargo of the Company, and a very great man.  He therefore received all the respect due to so important a personage.