e seemed to indicate that he had started to his feet in a
paroxysm of fury which he was ineffectually struggling to suppress.
"How dare you," he continued--"how dare anyone or all of you presume to
call in question my conduct, or dictate to me the line of policy which I
shall pursue with regard to my crew--a lazy, skulking, cowardly set of
vagabonds, three-fourths of whom are foreigners? Why, man, if it had
not been for the severe discipline of which you complain they would have
had the ship away from us ere now. I know the class of men I have to
deal with, aboard here, and I also know how to deal with them; and you
may take my word for it that I will never rest satisfied until I have
made them the smartest crew in the service. As to the difficulty you
profess to experience in carrying on the duty of the ship, I must
confess I have not observed it, the rascals have always appeared active
and willing enough whenever I have been on deck--thanks to that
wholesome fear of the cat with which I have imbued them; and if the
difficulty _really_ exists, I cannot but think, gentlemen, the fault
must be with yourselves, and it can easily be cured by a somewhat firmer
maintenance, rather than a relaxation, of that rigid discipline which
you deprecate. And I will take this opportunity of mentioning, whilst
we are upon the subject, my very strong disapproval of the manifest
tendency which I have observed in the officers of this ship to overlook
and condone what I suppose _they_ would term _trifling_ infractions of
duty. In so doing, gentlemen, you have made a most grievous mistake,
which, however, I will do my best to remedy in the immediate future.
There is nothing like plenty of flogging if you wish to keep such curs
in proper order."

During the progress of this speech the skipper had gradually recovered
the control of his temper; the tremulous tones of anger in his voice
were succeeded by those of bitter sarcasm; and the manifest sneer with
which he concluded made my blood boil.

There was a momentary pause, then I heard the first lieutenant say:

"With all submission, sir, permit me to say that I believe--nay, that I
am _convinced_--you wholly misunderstand the character and disposition
of the crew. Some of them--far too many of them, indeed--_are_
foreigners, who have neither the strength nor the spirit to perform
their duties as efficiently as Englishmen would, but I believe that, for
the most part, they honestly do th