A Bid for Fortune

First and foremost, my name, age, description, and occupation, as they say in the Police Gazette . Richard Hatteras, at your service, commonly called Dick, of Thursday Island, North Queensland, pearler, copra merchant, bêchedemer and tortoiseshell dealer, and South Sea trader generally. Eightandtwenty years of age, neither particularly goodlooking nor, if some people are to be believed, particularly amiable, six feet two in my stockings, and fortysix inches round the chest; strong as a Hakodate wrestler, and perfectly willing at any moment to pay ten pounds sterling to the man who can put me on my back.