I then ordered the fellow to me, and he told me, with a composed look, that it had always been his way of thinking, that what he saw another do he could do himself, and could not rest till he had tried. "And, sir," says he, "if this gun, as you call it, does not hurt you, why should it hurt me? And if you can make it hit that rock, why should not I, when you have told me how you manage it?"--"Are not you the man that first helped me up with the large fish yesterday?" says I. He told me he was.
I was prodigiously pleased with the fellow's spirit, "And," says I, "my friend, if you will, and I live, you will hit it before you have done." I then showed him the sight of the gun, and how to hold it; and being perfect in that, "Now," says I, "shut your left eye, and observe with your right, till this knob and that notch are exactly even with each other and the middle of that mark; and when they are so, pull this bit with your fore-finger, holding the gun tight to your shoulder." He so exactly pursued my directions that he hit the very middle of the mud; and then, without any emotion, walked up with the gun in his hand, as I had done before; and turning to me very gravely, "Sir," says he, "it is hit." I told him the best marksman on earth could not be sure of coming so near his mark. He stroked his chin, and giving me the gun again, was walking to his place; but I stopped him, and seeing something so modest and sincere in his countenance and behaviour, and so generous in his spirit, I asked him to which colamb he belonged. He told me to colamb Pendlehamby.--"To my father?" says I; "then sure I shall not be denied."
I took him with me to my father, who was not yet come up to the rock. "Sir," says I, "there is a favour I would beg of you."--"Son," says he, "what is it you can ask that I can refuse you?" Says I, "'This man belongs to your guards; now there is something so noble and daring in his spirit, and yet so meek and deserving in his deportment, that if you will load me with obligation, it is to make him an officer; he is not deserving of so ill a station as a private man."
My father looking at me, "Son," says he, "there is something to be done before he can be qualified for what you require." This, thinks I, is a put-off. "Pray, sir," says I, "what can a man of courage, sense, and a cool temper, want to qualify him for what I ask?"--"'Something," says he, "which none but myself can give; and that, at your desire, I will supply him with." Then, my father calling him, "Lask Nasgig, bonyoe," says he; that is, Slave Nasgig, lie down. Nasgig (for that was his name) immediately fell on his face, with his arms and hands straight by his sides; when my father, setting his left foot on Nasgig's neck, pronounced these words: "Lask, I give thee life, thou art a filgay!" Then Nasgig, raising himself on his knees, made obeisance to my father, and standing up, stroked his chin; and my father taking him by the hand in token of equality, the ceremony ceased.