, darted from the stern
like a Newfoundland dog, swam to the weakest, supported him to the
rudder chains, and, leaving him, went to another, bringing him to the
stern of the vessel, and making a rope fast under his arms. In this way
he succeeded in saving the whole of these poor fellows. Two of the five
would certainly have sunk but for his timely assistance, for it was some
time before another boat could be got ready; and the other three owned
that they much doubted whether they could have reached the vessel
without help.

This conduct of Thompson was much applauded by all on board, and some
asked him why he ventured his life for people who had used him so ill;
he answered, that his "mither" and his Bible taught him to do all the
good he could: and as God had given him a strong arm, he hoped he should
always use it for the benefit of his brother in need.

It might have been supposed that an act like this would have prevented
the recurrence of any further insult; but the more the Americans
perceived Thompson's value, the more eager were they to have him as
their own. The second mate, whom I have already described as a rough
and brutal fellow, one day proposed to him to belong to their vessel,
certain, he added, that he would make his fortune by the capture of two,
if not three, extra Indiamen, which they had information of on their
passage.

Thompson looked the man fully in the face, and said, "Did ye no hear
what I telled the captain the ither day?"

"Yes," said the man, "I knew that, but that's what we call in our
country `all my eye.'"

"But they do not call it so in my country," said the Caledonian, at the
same time planting his fist so full and plump in the left eye of the
mate, that he fell like the "_humi bos_," covering a very large part of
the deck with his huge carcass.

The man got up, found his face bleeding plentifully, and his eye closed;
but instead of resenting the insult himself, went off and complained to
the captain. Many of the Americans, either from hatred or jealousy,
went along with him, and clamorously demanded that the Englishman should
be punished for striking an officer. When the story, however, came to
be fairly explained, the captain said he was bound to confess that the
second mate was the aggressor, inasmuch as he had acknowledged that he
knew the penalty of the transgression before he committed the act; that
he (the captain) had told Thompson, when he made the declaration, tha