board.
The first question he asked was, "Who fired the first shot at the
prize?"

"It was Mr Spears, the first lieutenant of marines," said one of the
men.

"Then Mr Spears must have my allowance of grog for the day," said
Thompson; "for I said it last night, and I never go from my word."

"That I am ready to swear to," said Captain Peters, of the privateer: "I
have known men of good resolutions, and you are one of them; and I have
known men of bad resolutions, and he was one of them whom you sent last
night to his long account and it was fortunate for you that you did; for
as sure as you now stand here, that moan would have compassed your
death, either by dagger, by water, or by poison. I never knew or heard
of the man who had struck or injured Peleg Oswald with impunity. He was
a Kentucky man, of the Ohio, where he had `squatted', as we say; but he
shot two men with his rifle, because they had declined exchanging some
land with him. He had gouged the eye out of the third, for some
trifling difference of opinion. These acts obliged him to quit the
country; for not only were the officers of justice in pursuit of him,
but the man who had lost one eye kept a sharp look-out with the other,
and Peleg would certainly have had a rifle-ball in his ear if he had not
fled eastward, and taken again to the sea, to which he was originally
brought up. I did not know all his history till long after he and I
became shipmates. He would have been tried for his life; but having
made some prize-money, he contrived to buy off his prosecutors. I
should have unshipped him next cruise, if it had pleased God I had got
safe back."

Peters was giving this little history of his departed mate, the
captain's breakfast was announced, and the two American captains were
invited to partake of it. As we went down the ladder under the
half-deck, Peters and Green could not help casting an eye of admiration
at the clean and clear deck, the style of the guns, and perfect union of
the useful and ornamental, so inimitably blended as they are sometimes
found in our ships of war. There was nothing in the captain's repast
beyond cleanliness, plenty, hearty welcome, and cheerfulness.

The conversation turned on the nature, quality and number of men in the
privateer. "They are all seamen," said Peters, "except the ten black
fellows."

"Some of them, I suspect, are English," said I.

"It is not for me to peach," said the wary American. "It is di