made it clear to me that the
proper course to pursue was to run down our easting until 100 degrees
east longitude should be reached, and then, still availing ourselves to
the utmost of such westerly wind as might be met with, haul gradually up
to the northward in the West Australian current, which has a northerly
set. Accordingly, I kept the ship's bowsprit pointing steadily to the
eastward, despite the violent remonstrances which Wilde addressed to the
boatswain and the carpenter--he had never spoken to me since I had
ordered him off the poop and turned him out of the cabin. For the first
few days I was rather afraid that I was going to have a little trouble
with these two men, for whenever Wilde complained to them that I was
unnecessarily prolonging the voyage by steering east instead of north-
east--which, according to his crude notions, I ought to have done--they
came to me, reiterating the man's complaints, and evincing so much
curiosity and suspicion that it was perfectly evident they did not trust
me. But I quickly arrived at the conviction that, let my relations with
Wilde be what they might, it was absolutely necessary that I should
possess the full confidence of the boatswain and the carpenter--and,
through them, of the whole crew. I therefore took considerable pains to
make them clearly understand my reasons for acting as I did, after which
I had no further trouble with them.

I very soon had reason to congratulate myself upon the adoption of this
policy; for while my relations with the crew daily grew more
satisfactory--so that had it not been for the ridiculous hopes of a life
of perfect liberty, equality, and immunity from hard work with which
Wilde had addled their brains, I might easily have won their consent to
take the ship to her legitimate destination--Wilde was devoting his
entire energies to the task of stirring up and fomenting a spirit of
lawlessness and insubordination among his fellow emigrants, chiefly--as
it seemed to me--with the object of causing me as much annoyance and
trouble as possible.

At length, however, matters came to such a pass that I perceived it
would be absolutely necessary for me to seize the first opportunity that
offered to assert myself and put an end to a state of affairs that was
fast becoming utterly unendurable; and that opportunity was not long in
coming.

It arose in this wise. There was among the passengers a girl named
Grace Hartley, about twenty-three yea