CHAPTER XVII.
_Voyage eastward--The Baron introduces a friend who never deceived him: wins a hundred guineas by pinning his faith upon that friend's nose--Game started at sea--Some other circumstances which will, it is hoped, afford the reader no small degree of amusement._ In a voyage which I made to the East Indies with Captain Hamilton, I took a favourite pointer with me; he was, to use a common phrase, worth his weight in gold, for he never deceived me.

One day when we were, by the best observations we could make, at least three hundred leagues from land, my dog pointed; I observed him for near an hour with astonishment, and mentioned the circumstance to the captain and every officer on board, asserting that we must be near land, for my dog smelt game.

This occasioned a general laugh; but that did not alter in the least the good opinion I had of my dog.

After much conversation pro and con, I boldly told the captain I placed more confidence in Tray's nose than I did in the eyes of every seaman on board, and therefore proposed laying the sum I had agreed to pay for my passage (viz., one hundred guineas) that we should find game within half an hour.

The captain (a good, hearty fellow) laughed again, desired Mr.Crowford the surgeon, who was prepared, to feel my pulse; he did so, and reported me in perfect health.