It may even seem strange that I should have stood by and suffered his excesses to proceed.

But I was not quite such a chicken as to interfere in public; for I would rather have a man or two mishandled than one half of us butchered in a mutiny and the rest suffer on the gallows.

And in private, I was unceasing in my protests.
"Captain," I once said to him, appealing to his patriotism, which was of a hardy quality, "this is no way to treat American seamen.

You don't call it American to treat men like dogs ?" "Americans ?" he said grimly.

"Do you call these Dutchmen and Scattermouches [1] Americans?
I've been fourteen years to sea, all but one trip under American colours, and I've never laid eye on an American foremast hand.