asy canvas.
Thenceforward, until Captain Pigot reappeared on deck, we had a pleasant
and comfortable time of it; for although the discipline of the ship was
never for one moment relaxed, there was an utter absence of all that
worry and petty tyranny, and, above all, those daily floggings which the
skipper seemed to consider essential to the maintenance of a proper
degree of subordination and smartness on the part of the crew.

With the reappearance of Captain Pigot on deck, however, this brief
period of rest and quietness came to an end. The pain and irritation of
his wound, together, perhaps, with the reflection that he had been
worsted in an encounter brought about by his own arrogant and
overbearing demeanour, seemed to have chafed his temper almost to the
point of madness. The floggings were resumed with greater severity than
ever; and every time the hands were turned up a boatswain's-mate, armed
with a colt, was stationed at each hatchway, with instructions to
"freshen the way" of the last man on the ladder. And the same with
shortening or making sail, the last man out of the rigging on each mast
received a liberal application of the execrable colt to his shoulders.
It certainly had the effect of making the men smart in a double sense,
but it also made them, perhaps, the most discontented crew in the
service.

Thus matters went on, steadily growing from bad to worse, until the
month of September set in. We had been dodging off and on, carefully
beating over every inch of our cruising ground and looking into every
likely and unlikely spot, in the hope of picking up a prize or two, and
our non-success had been simply phenomenal. It really seemed as though
every craft worth the trouble of capture had deserted our part of the
world altogether. This of course resulted, as was perhaps only natural,
in a further accession of acerbity fore and aft, the brunt of which of
course fell upon the hands forward, who--what with drill of one sort and
another, perpetual making and shortening of sail, shifting of spars and
canvas, overhauling and setting-up of the rigging, lengthy, tedious, and
wholly unnecessary boat expeditions, in addition to the incessant
floggings and coltings already referred to--at length found their lives
a positive burden to them. This kind of treatment could, of course,
produce but one result, and, by the period before-named, the crew had
been wrought up to such a pitch of exasperation and revengefu