dog star. I suppose
you think nobody can make, a pun or a pill, in the ship, but yourself?"

"If my pills were no better than your puns," muttered the doctor, "we
should all be in a bad way."

The captain then directed the carpenter not to allow any nails to the
doctor, or the use of any of his tools; he even told the poor surgeon
that he did not know how to make a pill, and that "he was as useless as
the Navy Board." He accused him of ignorance in other parts of his
profession; and, ordering all the sick men on deck, rope-ended them to
increase their circulation, and put a little life into them.

Many a poor sick creature have I seen receive a most unmerciful beating.
My wonder was that the men did not throw him overboard; and I do really
believe that if it had not been for respect and love to the officers,
they would have done so. No sooner had we got into blue water, as he
called it--that is out of soundings--than he began his pranks, which
never ceased till we reached Carlisle Bay. Officers and men were all
treated alike, and there was no redress, for no one among us dared to
bring him to a court-martial. His constant maxim was--"Keep sailors at
work, and you keep the devil out of their minds--all hands all
day-watch, and watch all night."

"No man," said Jacky (the name we gave him) "eats the bread of idleness
on board of my ship: work keeps the scurvy out of their bones, the lazy
rascals."

The officers and men, for the first three weeks, never had a watch below
during the day. They were harassed and worn to death, and the most
mutinous and discontented spirit prevailed throughout the ship. One of
the best seamen said, in the captain's hearing, that, "since the ship
had been at sea, he had only had three watches below."

"And if I had known it," said the captain, "you should not have had
that;" and turning the hands up, he gave him four dozen.

Whenever he flogged the men, which he was constantly doing, he never
failed to upbraid them with ingratitude, and the indulgences which they
received from him.

"By God, there is no man-of-war in the service that has so much
indulgence. All you have to do, is to keep the ship clean, square the
yards, hoist in your provisions, eat them, hoist your grog in, drink it,
and strike the empty casks over the side; but heaven itself would not
please such a set of damned fat, discontented rascals."

His language to the officers was beyond anything I ever could have