text:  When I embarked on board of the large ship with the three masts which had for name the Walter Scott--after a great general who conquered a province called Scotland and was presented with a blue button as a reward for his magnanimity--I was entirely ignorant of the language spoken by the mariners with the exception of the short form of prayer which they constantly use when speaking of each others' eyes and a few phrases not easily translatable into our refined tongue; and I accordingly experienced great difficulty in making myself understood