{"id":"01KG6G873HSQ5QV6FGBK1AB4EN","cid":"bafkreib752zubnpzesxiycejnvk7grrozhj4ktl37wpjx3nkdwmka7pczm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8641,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":8589,"text":"                               THE ’GEES\r\n\r\n\r\nIn relating to my friends various passages of my sea-goings, I have at\r\ntimes had occasion to allude to that singular people the ’Gees,\r\nsometimes as casual acquaintances, sometimes as shipmates. Such\r\nallusions have been quite natural and easy. For instance, I have said\r\n_The two ’Gees_, just as another would say _The two Dutchmen_, or _The\r\ntwo Indians_. In fact, being myself so familiar with ’Gees, it seemed as\r\nif all the rest of the world must be. But not so. My auditors have\r\nopened their eyes as much as to say, ‘What under the sun is a ’Gee?’ To\r\nenlighten them I have repeatedly had to interrupt myself, and not\r\nwithout detriment to my stories. To remedy which inconvenience, a friend\r\nhinted the advisability of writing out some account of the ’Gees, and\r\nhaving it published. Such as they are, the following memoranda spring\r\nfrom that happy suggestion.\r\n\r\nThe word _’Gee_ (g hard) is an abbreviation, by seamen, of _Portugee_,\r\nthe corrupt form of _Portuguese_. As the name is a curtailment, so the\r\nrace is a residuum. Some three centuries ago certain Portuguese convicts\r\nwere sent as a colony to Fogo, one of the Cape de Verds, off the\r\nnorth-west coast of Africa, an island previously stocked with an\r\naboriginal race of negroes, ranking pretty high in incivility, but\r\nrather low in stature and morals. In course of time, from the\r\namalgamated generation all the likelier sort were drafted off as food\r\nfor powder, and the ancestors of the since called ’Gees were left as the\r\n_caput mortuum_, or melancholy remainder.\r\n\r\nOf all men seamen have strong prejudices, particularly in the matter of\r\nrace. They are bigots here. But when a creature of inferior race lives\r\namong them, an inferior tar, there seems no bound to their disdain. Now,\r\nas ere long will be hinted, the ’Gee, though of an aquatic nature, does\r\nnot, as regards higher qualifications, make the best of sailors. In\r\nshort, by seamen the abbreviation ’Gee was hit upon in pure contumely;\r\nthe degree of which may be partially inferred from this, that with them\r\nthe primitive word Portugee itself is a reproach; so that ’Gee, being a\r\nsubtle distillation from that word, stands, in point of relative\r\nintensity to it, as attar of roses does to rose-water. At times, when\r\nsome crusty old sea-dog has his spleen more than usually excited against\r\nsome luckless blunderer of Fogo, his shipmate, it is marvellous the\r\nprolongation of taunt into which he will spin out the one little\r\nexclamatory monosyllable Ge-e-e-e-e!\r\n\r\nThe Isle of Fogo, that is ‘Fire Isle,’ was so called from its volcano,\r\nwhich, after throwing up an infinite deal of stones and ashes, finally\r\nthrew up business altogether, from its broadcast bounteousness having\r\nbecome bankrupt. But thanks to the volcano’s prodigality in its time,\r\nthe soil of Fogo is such as may be found of a dusty day on a road newly\r\nmacadamised. Cut off from farms and gardens, the staple food of the\r\ninhabitants is fish, at catching which they are expert. But none the\r\nless do they relish ship biscuit, which, indeed, by most islanders,\r\nbarbarous or semi-barbarous, is held a sort of lozenge.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6QRH4WD1K126VRPK89H8","peer_type":"article","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G873KSQDD36WEPKHYJCFV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:19.185Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:29.864Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}