on board, excites zeal and alacrity, and blends the severity of discipline with the pleasures of recreation; in a word, it is possible to turn out the hands to dance and sing, to reef or to make sail, and inspire the glow of happy feeling by one and the same impulse. Let it not be supposed that the stern advocates for order and regularity are opposed to harmony. God forbid!

I wish I could continue to look at the bright side of the subject only. But there are gathering clouds the sun sinks 'mid a reddening sky, which, though it illumines the distant horizon, portends approaching danger: all appears tranquil; but, to the skilful eye, these signs are the precursors of a storm. The tempest gathers,-" it comes, resistless, o'er the foaming deep :" the once clear spot upon my canvas must now be filled with rocks, shoals, quicksands, upturned by the great and terrible convulsion, which, as a faithful artist, I must delineate in their true and undisguised colours.

It is painful to have to relate that two horrible cases have lately occurred in homeward ships, and within the port of London. The one, under my own eye, in which a body of ruffians were actually forcing a cabin, armed with handspikes and crowbars, with the most barbarous intentions against the person of the third mate. By the great firmness of the chief mate and officers, gunner, and carpenter, they were repulsed, and the ringleader

put

in irons. Another ship, lately arrived, was the scene of an attempt still more horrible: the grind

stone was ready to lash to their victim, who they intended first to mutilate and then throw overboard; but, fortunately, he escaped their diabolical revenge, was lowered from a stern window, and sought refuge in the country for some time.* This disgraceful affair was reported to the Court of Directors, and why such a crime as this, or those which are too frequently committed on board the Company's ships escape with impunity, is truly unaccountable. The trials of temper officers have to encounter almost exceeds belief, and it is a matter of astonishment how discipline has been maintained at all, or the safety of lives or property been upheld, under the abuse that has been lavished on those in command, on all occasions, without producing some dreadful crisis that must have compelled the consideration of such a plan as would be most likely to defend the rights of the seaman on the one hand, and maintain the just authority of those in command on the other. We may console ourselves that no lives have been lost in the struggle made by the advocates for good order; but, unless a remedy is speedily applied, the consequences of present insecurity may be more

It is due to both the officers I have alluded to, to remark that no just cause existed for such daring violence: an impulse merely of brutal outrage which sought the first object on whom they could inflict the revenge they had determined.

terrible than all the mutinics and piracies which have ever yet disgraced human nature. Those who have seen the muster of an Indiaman's ship's company, after pay-day, below Gravesend, have felt astonished how it was possible to navigate a ship of such burthen with such a medley crew; and, so far from the Company's service deserving the character of tyranny or undue severity, the paucity of proof is the surest test that a skilful union of judgement and discipline has alone preserved, for so many years, the ships, in the employ of the Honourable East-India Company, in a state of efficiency and good order, fit for any service, in peace or in war: that this is the fact I need only appeal to many officers in His Majesty's army and navy, who have had frequent opportunities of judging of the merits

of the service.

Scarcely an Indiaman arrives in the port of London but some disgraceful scene ensues, the crew imagining the sight of the British shore to be the herald for revolt. The influence of inflamed passions, excited by Jew crimps, land-sharks, and pettifogging lawyers, who crowd alongside, and, at times, steal on board, the moment a ship is at anchor, or within the port of London, produces this dreadful effect. I appeal to the pilots and Company's clerical officers, who must be unbiassed spectators, not having been the voyage, for the truth of this statement; and, in fact, Mr.

Clippendale, the pilot of the Princess Charlotte of Wales, was present when a spirit of this daring kind was evinced by some of the crew, though quelled by the ringleader being seized and put in irons. These practices, within the reach of the civil power, are more serious than many persons are aware of;* which, if not checked by a salutary control, will lead to bloodshed; for, is it to be endured that commanders and officers, entitled to respect, and who, for a long voyage, have piloted the ship through every difficulty and danger, are to be insulted and assailed with impunity, by men, who, if they have real grievances to complain of, are within the reach of the law and justice of their country? When revenge, brutal outrage, and every other lawless vengeance has been lately increasing, there can be but one opinion that the gratitude and noble spirit of emulation which once adorned the character of British seamen, are fast sinking, I fear, for ever.

During my first voyage in the service, on board the Royal George, our crew were, with very few exceptions, veteran seamen. I remember, during severe weather in the Channel, in January, 1803,

*The river-pilots can bear witness to the prevalence of this serious evil, which may be followed by fatal consequences, if not subdued by the ship-owners, whose duty it is to protect their officers. I have been put to greater trials of forbearance in the river than through a whole voyage.

one of the main-top men was found skulking on the middle watch. The watch was no sooner relieved than, with the sanction of the officer in charge, the culprit was seized and punished, by cobbing, a summary mode of punishment formerly in practice, to prevent petty crimes, which were then rare. This very ship's company were actuated by the same generous regard to their own character, which, on two remarkable occasions during that voyage, they nobly upheld; the one during a hurricane, the other the defeat of a superior enemy. One instance I will relate, viz. during the day and night we lay at our quarters, the following disgraceful circumstance occurred: a locker in the third officer's cabin was plundered of a few bottles of cherrybrandy, which, by the way, he ought to have taken better care of: the thief was detected. We had no sooner tacked, after several hours' chase of the French admiral, than a request was made by the crew to punish the offender; he was seized for the purpose, and, but for the kind interference of the officers, would have received a severe punishment. Of late years, I have rarely witnessed such honourable feelings among seamen, as these men were actuated by, from a sense of honour and dread of degradation; most of them are still fresh in my mind's eye; they formed, in my estimation, that intrepid, fearless character which was at once the pride of their country and the terror of their foes, as thus admirably portrayed by