The Boy Fortune Hunters in the South Seas by L. Frank Baum

Our report seemed to satisfy my uncle and my father when we returned to the Radley Arms at ten o'clock the next morning. At twelve Señor de Jiminez appeared in his checked vest and diamonds and signed the contract, paying us nine thousand dollars in gold and giving us a draft on his own bank in Bogota for six thousand. We also secured papers granting us the right to repurchase the _Seagull_ by returning the notes we accepted for the sale price, which notes we believed not worth the paper they were written on. Then, all business details being completed and the ship formally turned over to its new owner, the early afternoon saw us all aboard the _Seagull_ engaged in stowing the cases of arms and ammunition which had already begun to arrive. De Jiminez did not intend to waste any time, that was certain, and one dray after another brought our freight to the lighter, which transferred it to the ship.

The boxes were of all sizes and shapes, being labeled in big black letters "Machinery. " They were consigned to the coffee plantation of De Jiminez. There were a lot of them and they were tremendously heavy things; but we stowed them in the hold as rapidly as they arrived and two days sufficed to get the entire cargo aboard.

On the evening of the second day our passengers boarded us. There were five of them including the elder De Jiminez, his mother and son, and Madam de Alcantara and her daughter. They were accompanied by trunks and bandboxes galore; enough to make my father grunt disdainfully and Uncle Naboth look glum. I think none of us -- except perhaps our erratic second mate, Joe -- was greatly delighted at the prospect of female passengers on a long voyage; but we had made our bargain and must abide by it.

De Jiminez had bustled around all day getting the ship's papers in shape and preparing for the voyage, while young Alfonso, whom Uncle Naboth had promptly dubbed "Little Jim," attended to the loading of the boxes with the coolness and care of a veteran. They couldn't wait a moment after the last case of arms was aboard. Bill Brace, the engineer, had steam up long ahead of time; so at dusk we hoisted anchor and slowly steamed out of Port Phillip into the calm blue waters of the South Pacific. If any government spies watched De Jiminez depart he was indifferent to them, and they were now powerless to interfere with his plans.

The comfort of our passengers depended wholly upon two men of our crew whom I have not yet had the opportunity of introducing to you. Our own personal comfort had depended upon them for years, so I am justified in making the above statement. They were gigantic blacks; not negroes of the African type, but straight-haired ebony fellows who were natives of some island in these very seas where we were now sailing. Their names were Nux and Bryonia, and one was our steward and the other our cook -- fairly entitled, indeed, to be called our "chef."

Concerning these curious names there is a serio-comic story which I will briefly relate.

A number of years ago, while Uncle Naboth Perkins was sailing an old tub he and my father jointly owned on a voyage from New Zealand to San Francisco, he encountered somewhere in the South Seas a native canoe drifting upon the waves. It seemed at first to be vacant, but as it passed close to the lee of the slow-going sailing vessel the seamen noticed something lying flat in the bottom of the dugout. They threw a grappling hook and drew the little boat alongside, when they discovered two black men lying bound hand and foot and senseless from lack of food and water. How many days they had drifted about in that condition no one could tell, least of all the poor victims. Being hoisted aboard the bodies were laid side by side upon the deck and Uncle Naboth, who was the only excuse for a physician there was aboard, examined them and found that both were still alive. But the condition of the poor fellows was exceedingly precarious. Had they not possessed such stalwart frames and splendid constitutions they would have been dead long before.

So Uncle Naboth brought out the ship's medicine chest and found it rather shy of restoratives. Aside from calomel and quinine, neither of which seemed appropriate for the case, the only remedies the chest contained were two bottles of homeopathic pills -- one of nux vomica and the other of bryonia.

My uncle pondered a time between these unknown medicines and decided to give one black the nux and the other the bryonia, hoping thus to save at least one of the disabled castaways. So a course of treatment began. Both were liberally fed brandy and water and one was given six pills of nux vomica and the other six pills of bryonia, the doses being administered every hour. Mr. Perkins became intensely interested in the results, and that no mistake might be made he labeled one black boy "Nux" and the other "Bryonia. " "Nux" regained consciousness first, and while the amateur physician was regretting that he had not fed them both the same dope "Bryonia" opened his eyes to the world again.

I have always suspected the brandy and water really did the job, but Uncle Naboth was so proud of his medical skill that he will never admit that possibility.

"It's a doctor's duty to guess," he has said more than once referring to this occasion, "an' I managed to guess right because I only had two medicines an' both of 'em was recommended to kill or cure. The dog-gone little sugar pills must 'a' had extract o' magic in 'em; that's what I think."

Anyhow, Nux and Bryonia got well and regained their strength, and more grateful fellows never lived. Neither could understand a word of English, while their own language was a puzzle to all the crew; but they were quick to observe and ready to undertake any work that lay at hand.