I was anxious, with the usual gallantry of my cloth, to supply the wants of the ladies first.

The only specimens of the sex that I could see moving about were coloured women, who were so little encumbered with dress that I began to think I was mistaken in the article recommended by my lady friend as being the most required out here.

After waiting some time, and no one coming to bid for my ware, I was meditating putting up on the ship's side a large board with the name of the article of ladies' dress written on it--a pillbox for a crest, and toothbrushes as supporters--when an individual came on board and inquired whether I wished 'to trade.' I greedily seized upon him, took him into my retreat, and made him swallow three glasses of brandy in succession, after which we commenced business.
I will not trouble my reader with the way in which we traded; regarding the corsages, suffice it to say that he bought them all at what seemed to me the enormous price of twelve shillings each, giving me a profit of nearly eleven hundred per cent.
On my asking where the fair wearers of the article he had bought could be seen, he told me that all the ladies had gone into the interior.

I hope they found my importations useful; they certainly were not ornamental.
Elated as I was by my success, I did not forget the Cockles, and gently insinuated to my now somewhat excited friend that we might do a little more trading.

To my disgust he told me that he had never heard of such a thing as Cockle's pills.