nces to him. Sometimes this authority is but a poor tribunal to
appeal to when real discrimination is to be determined. On this
occasion the seamen were fortunate in getting a sympathetic verdict,
and the captain got what he deserved--a good trouncing for his
treatment of them. They were willing to sign off the articles, and he
was plainly told that they must either be paid their wages in full, or
he undertake to carry out the conditions of engagement in a proper
manner. "And I must warn you," said the irate official of the British
Government, "if you drive these men out of your ship, you may expect
no assistance from me in collecting another crew. The men are right,
and you are wrong."

The captain was in a state of sullen passion at the turn things had
taken against him. He said that he would decide the following day
whether the proper course for him to take, now that his authority had
been broken, was to pay the men off or not. On the morrow he
intimated his decision to pay them off. Poor creature, it would have
been well for him and all connected with this doomed vessel had he
swallowed his pride and resolved to behave in a rational way to his
crew. The places of respectable men were filled with human reptiles of
various nationalities--criminals, every one of them. He must have
persuaded himself that his despotism would have fuller play with these
foreigners, whose savage vengeance was destined to shock the whole
civilized world with their awful butchery. The apprentices and
officers did not take kindly to the changed condition of things. They
instinctively felt that they were to become associated with a gang of
-, and hoped that something would transpire to prevent this
happening. An opportunity was given the oldest apprentice in an
unexpected way. The captain had ordered his gig to be ashore to take
him aboard at a certain time at night. The boat was there before the
captain, and as he was so long in coming the boat's crew went for a
walk ashore. The great man came down and had to wait a few minutes for
his men. This caused him to become abusive, which the oldest
apprentice, James Leigh, resented by using some longshore adjectives.
The master seized the foothold of the stroke oar and threw it at the
lad, and when they got aboard the captain again attempted to strike
him, but the lad let fly, and did considerable damage in a rough and
tumble way to the bully, who was now like a wild beast. James was
ultimately ove