ny a
futile attempt was made. Poor devils of sailors! Many a
voyage they made without receiving a penny for it, every
cent of their wages being confiscated in fines and
forfeitures. How many may have lost their lives during the
progress of such passages, ostensibly by accidentally
falling overboard, will never be known. I have heard old
salts talk of these vessels never being hove to to pick up
any of the unfortunate riff-raff who may have made a false
step into the ocean. This may or may not be true; but from
what I know of the desperate character of those commanders
and officers, I am inclined to give credence to a good deal
of what is said to have occurred.

The really first-class seamen on these vessels (both
American and British) were treated not only with fairness,
but very often with indulgence. It was not unusual, however,
for them to have to fight their way to having proper respect
paid to them. The expert seaman, who could box as well as he
could handle a marline spike or use a sail-needle, appealed
to the sympathies of the captain and officers. It must not
be supposed that either the officers or men who were thought
good enough to sail in these vessels were in any degree
representative of the great bulk of British captains,
officers, or men. At the same time, I do not mean to suggest
that the rest of the mercantile marine was, or ever could
be, composed of Puritans. But the men I have been trying to
describe were the very antithesis of the typical British
tar. Many of them were, constitutionally, criminals, who had
spent years compulsorily on the Spanish main, when not
undergoing punishment in prison. Having been shipmate with
some of them I am able to speak of their character with some
claim to authority. They were big bullies, and consequently
abject cowards. The tales I have heard them relate before
and during their sojourn on the Spanish main reeked with a
villainous odour. They always commenced their bullying
tactics as soon as they came aboard, especially if the
vessel had apparently a quiet set of officers and a peaceful
captain. They did not always gauge aright the pugilistic
capacity of some of their forecastle brethren, and so it
came to pass that once one of these six-feet-four rampaging
creatures was threatening annihilation to a little
forecastle colony, and, indeed, to the after-end colonists
also, when there was heard, amid a flow of sulphurous
curses, a quiet, defiant word of disapprova