ts a hundred years ago
had some justification, at least, in the cruelties, as well as the
hardships, to which the sailors of that period were exposed.

Pigot was rough in speech, vehement in temper, cursed with a
semi-lunatic delight in cruelty, and he tormented his men to the verge
of desperation. On this fatal night, Pigot, standing at the break of
his quarter-deck, stormed at the men aloft, and swore with many oaths
he would flog the last man off the mizzentop yard; and the men knew how
well he would keep his word. The most active sailor, as the men lay
out on the yard, naturally takes the earing, and is, of course, the
last man off, as well as on, the yard. Pigot's method, that is, would
punish not the worst sailors, but the best! The two outermost men on
the mizzen-top yard of the _Hermione_ that night, determined to escape
the threatened flogging. They made a desperate spring to get over
their comrades crowding into the ratlines, missed their foothold, fell
on the quarter-deck beside their furious captain, and were instantly
killed. The captain's epitaph on the unfortunate sailors was, "Throw
the lubbers overboard!"

All the next day a sullen gloom lay on the ship. Mutiny was breeding.
It began, as night fell, in a childish fashion, by the men throwing
double-headed shot about the deck. The noise brought down the first
lieutenant to restore order. He was knocked down. In the jostle of
fierce tempers, murder awoke; knives gleamed. A sailor, as he bent
over the fallen officer, saw the naked undefended throat, and thrust
his knife into it. The sight kindled the men's passions to flame. The
unfortunate lieutenant was killed with a dozen stabs, and his body
thrown overboard. The men had now tasted blood. In the flame of
murderous temper suddenly let loose, all the bonds of discipline were
in a moment consumed. A wild rush was made for the officers' cabins.
The captain tried to break his way out, was wounded, and driven back;
the men swept in, and, to quote the realistic official account, "seated
in his cabin the captain was stabbed by his own coxswain and three
other mutineers, and, forced out of the cabin windows, was heard to
speak as he went astern." With mutiny comes anarchy. The men made no
distinction between their officers, cruel or gentle; not only the
captain, but the three lieutenants, the purser, the surgeon, the
lieutenant of marines, the boatswain, the captain's clerk were
murdered, and