from the flues of the furnace, part of the paraphernalia of a scene in the lower regions. Our down-easter,' who always had something characteristic to say of everything that fell under his observation, very sagely remarked on one occasion, when nearly suffocated with smoke, that if this warn't h-1 on a small scale, he didn't know what to call it.' " These are the perils and the sufferings that necessarily attend the daily occupations of 20,000 American seamen, who spend their lives upon the trackless ocean, in procuring oil for the use of those who live in comfort on the shore. This business, as a great whole, has not only been neglected by the government in its duty of throwing the protection of the law over the whole, but of providing for the maintenance of the rights of the hardy individuals who form the crews of the fleet. When we consider that the trade has grown up entirely independent of the government, until it not only constantly occupies 10,000 American seamen in the Pacific Ocean, but, by the trade they create at the Sandwich islands, have caused those otherwise insignificant spots on the ocean to become places of great importance, it becomes self-evident that whalers, at least, can live without protection. This, however, does not excuse the culpable neglect of the federal government, which, for 30 years, allowed the Oregon territory, with its only harbor, the mouth of the Columbia, to remain in the occupation of the English, when that was the only spot on a surface of 20,000,000 of square miles, where whalers could touch the soil of their country. It is true, under British protection, there sprung up on the banks of the Columbia a farming interest, which supplied the Sandwich islands with the produce necessary to the support of the American seamen, who resort thither to recruit. It was, however, in spite of the neglect of the government. The harbor of San Francisco, in California, is now in the hands of the United States, and it is the only good harbor on the Pacific coast. It must be the future home of the American whaling interests, communicating through the newly discovered "south pass" with the valleys of the Arkansas and Rio Grande. The presence of a navy is also necessary, not only to overawe the islanders and natives, where whalemen resort, but to chastise the lawless aggressions of British freebooters. Lieut. Wilkes, in his account, acts of piracy committed by the Enggives an instance of the not unfrequent lish, in places under British authority; acts which, unnoticed by the British government, require the action of the United States. It is not alone, however, in the general protection of the whaling interest from foreign aggression, that the federal government is called upon by circumstances to act. It is required, also, that the arm of the law should be interposed between owners and captains, and the 20,000 laboring seamen who, in embarking in their perilous enterprise of whaling, seem to be thrown without the protection of the law, and to be abandoned to a species of tyranny revolting to humanity under any circumstances. The manner of fitting out ships for a voyage is, in the last degree, oppressive to those who are to go. A law passed in 1837, fixes the quantity of rations to be allowed, but the quality is not specified. Penurious and unscrupulous owners put on board provisions tota.ly unfit for human consumption, and the seaman, who can have no prior knowledge of the food he is to eat, finds, when at sea, that he is embarked for two years, or more, provided with provisions that human beings cannot eat for a length of time and retain their health. The consequence is frequently the most frightful mortality from scurvy, a disease very prevalent among those unfortunate beings; and if they survive, there is no redress. They have no remedy against those who have sacrificed the lives of some, and the health of all, from the most sordid motives. The seamen are usually shipped, not on monthly wages, but for a certain proportion of the oil obtained on the voyage. It, however, is seldom the case that a seaman returns home not in debt to the ship. The practice is to issue slops to the seamen, instead of money; and the profits on these are the master's perquisites, whose charge is at least 100 per cent. profits. Lieut. Wilkes states, that these profits will amount, on a crew of 30 men, to $1800, and sometimes $3000. This is done, not by what the seaman himself wears, but when at the Sandwich islands, or elsewhere, he can get no money to pro cure necessaries on shore, he must take slops from the captain, and dispose of them probably at one-fourth the amount with which he is charged for them. Thus, whatever may be the quantity of oil taken, the seamen get nothing but the trifles they obtain from the natives for the slops they are compelled to barter away. To the starvation and robbery thus too frequently practised, is superadded the remorseless tyranny of a ferocious captain, in whose hands the law has committed the power to flog human beings as if they were brutes. In regard to this latter, we may take a chapter from Mr. Browne: Not a word!' said the captain, whose blood was boiling with passion. Take that! and that! and that! Do you feel it? Will you fight again?' "Poor Bully groaned and writhed with agony. Each stripe of the ratlin raised a blood-red mark on his back. 66 6 I'll show you how to fight!' roared the captain, swinging the ratlin over his shoulder, and raising the stripes with every blow. I'll make an example of you! Take warning, all of you. You see what you get for fighting. If that ain't enough, I'll lay it on heavier next time. I'll skin your back worse than that! Cut him down now! See if he'll behave himself!' "Jack's turn came next. At the first stroke he yelled with all his might. "Oh Lord, captain! Oh, for God's sake! Oh, don't flog me! I'll never fight again.' I'll take care you won't. If you do, I'll lay you up for a month. Your back's been itching for a flogging. Now take it! Take that! take that! Yes, you feel it, don't you? Cut him down, Mr. D "The mate having cut both the men down, gave them a hint to go forward, which they did, limping along the decks, scarcely able to walk. "That's what you'll all get,' said the captain, addressing the crew, if there's any more quarrelling. I told you so in the beginning. Any of you that fight, I'll flog. Go forward now, where you be long.' mor. "I was much astonished, upon going forward, after being relieved at the helm, to find Jack sitting on the windlass eating his breakfast with the utmost good hu,' said he, looking up and laughing, I've got a licking, but I'm used to it. I don't care a tinker's d-n about lickin's now. I served my apprenticeship to 'em in a man-o'-war.'' "Well B "Not so with Bully, who for several days was gloomy and silent. The Portuguese, with a heartlessness and want of delicacy, so unlike the generous regard which the true American sailor has for another's feelings under such circumstances, continually ridiculed and taunted him, mocking his groans, and crying out every time he went below to his meals, 'Oh, capitan, for God's sake, no flog so hard!' Jack took their ridicule with perfect indifference; but it cut Bully to the quick. There was something diabolical and fiendish in this conduct of the Portuguese. Bully was so completely crest-fallen that he could not retort upon them; from the day he received the flogging his spirit was broken." This, it will be remembered, was not only an American, but a New-England ship. The man Jack was an English "man-of-war's man," the other a NewYorker. These starved, cheated, flogged and ill-used seamen have no redress at home, and to save their lives, they sometimes desert a ship, with the United States flag flying, to seek protection from an American captain's brutality, at the hands of the savages of the islands. This was the case with a shipmate of Mr. Browne, a young man from Maine. He was, however, overtaken and confined seven months in the "run" of the vessel, and kept alive with bread and water. The run is a small, submerged locker, under the floor of the cabin, and no man can sit upright therein. This man, on his arrival, lodged a complaint against the captain, who was held to bail in $800, on a charge of cruel and unusual treatment. Mr. Browne gives numerous instances of the barbarities exercis ed upon these poor seamen with impunity by the captains. Mr. Wilkes says, in the course of his inquiries "While visiting the ports for the purpose of recruiting, the crews of whale ships are often found in a state of lax dis case. cipline; both captains and crew take this opportunity to lay their complaints before the consuls, who are much troubled with them, and frequently at a loss to understand and pass upon the merits of the The crews usually complain of bad provisions, short allowance, and bad usage; in some cases, I have heard them assert that they felt their lives in danger from the outrageous conduct of the captain; and in one instance even the officers joined in the complaint. The captain, on the other hand, believed that there was a conspiracy on foot to poison him. "Many Americans are found on the dif ferent islands, who have been turned ashore from whale ships, or left because they have broken their liberty a single time, near the end of the voyage. Such treatment leaves too much ground to be lieve they are purposely left, in order to increase the profits of the shipmasters or owners. Several of these men were re ceived, in a perfectly destitute condition, on board the Vincennes; others were ta ken out of prison, and all related many of the difficulties and troubles they had to encounter on board the ships to which they were attached; although I am not generally disposed to place much reliance on their statements, yet it cannot but happen that out of so many cases there must be some in which the seamen are in the right." It is to be supposed that there are some generous owners, and many gentlemanly and urbane captains, but the rule appears to be the other way. It is no doubt alleged on their side with some degree of truth, that the seamen in the whaling business are for the most part of a worthless character. This appears from the testimony of Mr. Browne; but is it not the case that the bad character of the seamen is the result of a long course of dishonesty and barbarity on the part of the owners and captains? With the treatment that it is admitted on all sides these unfortunate seamen experience, will any one go twice? Surely not; and this fact leads to the practising of those arts to entrap landsmen into the voyage so well described by our author. In fact, when on their way to embark, the young gentlemen were cautioned by all unprejudiced persons of the error they were about to commit, an experienced whaleman told them that "If they had any regard for themselves, they should turn their backs upon New Bedford, for it was a sink hole of iniquity; that the fitters were all blood-suckers, the own- "The chief, after carefully examining me, to ascertain if I had any tobacco, put his hand in my pocket and drew out my flute, which I joined together. He attempted to play on it, but was unable to produce a sound. Nettled at his failure, he handed it to me rather impatiently, and by a motion expressed his desire to hear me play. him into a very good humor. He enjoyI did so, and had the good fortune to throw ed the music as well as I could wish; and, when I had done playing, expressed his satisfaction by clapping his hands three times. I thought this was intended for applause; but I soon discovered that the applause was of a more substantial nature. A slave quickly made his appearance.The chief spoke a few words to him, and he went back into the house. Presently he returned, bearing in his hands a round table with pewter plates upon it, containing oranges, bananas, dates, mangoes and other tropical delicacies; also, glasses containing sherbet and lemonade. I ate and drank heartily of what was set before me; but the Arabs would not join me. However, I cared little about that; the refreshassisted me. I played several more tunes ments tasted quite as well as if they had before I left; laughed, talked and danced for the amusement of the chief, and, altogether, made myself quite at home. On parting, I shook hands with the crowd all round. Jezzarine pinched me several times when he thought I was going a-head rather too unceremoniously; but I paid no attention to his hints. After we had turned a corner, and when entirely out of the zarine stopped, and, with horror and conhearing of the chief and his followers, Jezsternation depicted in his looks, whispered, "You savey who dat?' 'No,' said I; who is it?' "What!' he exclaimed, in utter amazement, you no savey who you play for?' No, I never saw him before." 46 4 dance, you laugh all de same he me! He "Oh, you do bad ting; you play, you berry mad. Suppose ship no here, he kill you!' But who is he?' "Who? What for you no savey His 464 Highness Syed Mohammed, Grand Big are attacks upon whaling vessels when Sultan ?'" "Rajapoot, a native, who had agreed to furnish us with wood, brought a large canoe alongside in the evening, containing about a whale-boat load, which was what he contracted to furnish. After we got it on board, the captain refused to pay the sum agreed upon. Rajapoot argued that he had fulfilled his contract, and was entitled to be honestly paid for his wood; but if the captain wished he would take it back again, he would do so. The captain would neither give it up, nor pay for it. Rajapoot went off in high dudgeon, swearing he would raise men enough ashore to take the vessel. As soon as he was gone, we were set to work clearing away the casks in the blubber-room, and stowing away the wood under hatches, it being the design to pay all dues with the fore-top sail.' We were ordered to go to work very silently, in order that we might not alarm the natives with any symptoms of preparation to put to That they might suspect nothing unusual, I was told to go out on the jib-boom and blaze away' on my flute. I thought it rather a hard case to be obliged to participate in cheating poor Rajapoot, light as the duty assigned me was; but this was not a matter of taste. The American portion of the crew all grumbled at the meanness of this trickery; and the mate said, if he could raise three dollars, he'd pay for the wood himself, sooner than such an act of low, stealthy. contemptible meanness should be attributed to a vessel bearing the flag of the United States.' We held a private consultation about raising a subscription to pay the bill; but, upon examining our effects, we were not able to scrape up even two dollars' worth of property; all our clothing, consisting of a few miserable rags, for which we felt much indebted to the outfitter. sea. "It is treatment like this that renders the natives treacherous and hostile. There has been more done to destroy the friendly feelings of the inhabitants of the islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, toward Americans, by the meanness and rascality of whaling captains, than all the missionaries and embassies from the United States can ever atone for. Pay them with the fore-top-sail!' is a mode of cheating the natives, as common in practice as in theory. Such examples will invariably be followed; for where the vices of civilized life are sown, there they will grow." The consequence of these villanies occasion offers, resulting not unfrequently in the murder of the whole crew. The cold-blooded ruffian that can so deliberately rouse the hostility of natives against innocent and defenceless crews that may come after him, deserves the greatest punishment. It is an act which results in war rightfully on the part of those poor savages as far as their means will permit them to carry it on against their aggressors. The Journal of the Exploring Expedition states: "A knowledge among the whaling fleet that their interests were watched over, even if they made no calls for aid, would give security and protect them from impositions, as well as prevent them from practising fraud, or committing aggressions on the natives of the islands they visit. Such aggressions invariably lead to retaliations on the part of the chiefs, which they inflict upon the first unsus pecting vessel that anchors in their ports. The capture of vessels and the massacre of their whole crews, have been frequently owing to this cause." These are national evils, that require the prompt interposition of Congress. The masters of vessels should be made rigidly responsible for the abuse of his power. The ancient idea, that flogging and ill-usage is necessary to preserve discipline, is nearly obsolete. If men are well used at sea, knowing their own rights to be protected by, and their responsibilities to, the law, they will be as easily governed as our journeymen on land. But they must have rights recognised by law, in order that they may duly appreciate their own responsibilities. The owners of vessels, in the short-sighted parsimony that leads them to cheat the sailors of their food and raiment, and to employ an ignorant, brutal and tyrannical man as captain, because he is as servile and cringing in the presence of his employers as he is domineering at sea, and because he will sail cheap, do more to injure their own interests than they suppose. The incompetency of the captain is a bar to success, and the time spent by him in port, wrangling and cheating his men, to compensate for want of oil, appear to be the usual causes of a "clean ship," after a long cruise. THE INFELICITIES OF INTELLECTUAL MEN. PITY that the awards of fame should come so laggardly to her true votaries; but so it is. In how many cases has it been proven that the only requitals of transcendent genius have been poverty, dishonor, and sometimes an inglorious end; leaving it to after times to repair the injustice of lordly ignoranee and superstitious intolerance.Roger Bacon, the parent of more original discoveries than any of his day, committed this treason against his cotemporaries, and in consequence enlisted their persecution for his crime, having been twice imprisoned, once for the long period of ten years: but to say nothing of his claims to numerous works on the exploded science of alchemy, posterity have allowed his title to the discovery of gunpowder and the telescope. We might readily refer to other instances of the kind, even down to the times of Fulton. But where to limit our rambling pen, in dilating upon the misfortunes of authors, is no easy task, the instances that occur are so manifold and marvellous. What shall we say of the cruel and heartless ingratitude shown to the intellectual, magnanimous and humane Bentivoglio, who, when reduced to the extremest distress, caused by his own prodigal munificence, was actually refused admission into the very hospital himself had erected. "Thus birds for others build the downy nest; Thus sheep for others bear the fleecy vest; Thus bees collect for others honey'd food; Thus ploughs the patient ox for others' good." Numerous as have been the institutions designed for the relief of the indigent poor, but one is only known to have been erected for the especial benefit of the hapless author; and this, established by Pope Urban VIII., bore the strangely significant name of the "Retreat of the Incurables," as if implying that its devotees were deemed irreclaimable alike from the crime of poverty and authorship. To glance down the stream of time for a moment, may mention many memorable we VOL. XIX.-NO. CII. cases of the pecuniary discomfiture of "When Butler, needy wretch, was yet alive, Presented with a monumental bust! |