The yacht's
center-board plowed furrows through the mud-banks, which, according to
Mr. Escombe, Spradbrow afterward planted with potatoes. The
_Florence_, however, won races while she tilled the skipper's land.
After our sail on the _Florence_ Mr. Escombe offered to sail the
_Spray_ round the Cape of Good Hope for me, and hinted at his famous
cribbage-board to while away the hours. Spradbrow, in retort, warned
me of it. Said he, "You would be played out of the sloop before you
could round the cape." By others it was not thought probable that the
premier of Natal would play cribbage off the Cape of Good Hope to win
even the _Spray_.
It was a matter of no small pride to me in South Africa to find that
American humor was never at a discount, and one of the best American
stories I ever heard was told by the premier. At Hotel Royal one day,
dining with Colonel Saunderson, M. P., his son, and Lieutenant
Tipping, I met Mr. Stanley. The great explorer was just from Pretoria,
and had already as good as flayed President Kruger with his trenchant
pen. But that did not signify, for everybody has a whack at Oom Paul,
and no one in the world seems to stand the joke better than he, not
even the Sultan of Turkey himself. The colonel introduced me to the
explorer, and I hauled close to the wind, to go slow, for Mr. Stanley
was a nautical man once himself,--on the Nyanza, I think,--and of
course my desire was to appear in the best light before a man of his
experience.
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