Formidable Confederacy they
had laid hold of, and to prevent those Dangerous Men from ever again
making Head together. But my whole Life was but a kind of Shifting and
uncertain Vision, and I took little note of the personages with whom I
came in contact, till looking around me, in a dull listlessness about
the Hoy, I found myself, cheek by jowl, with a motley crew, seemingly
picked up hap-hazard from all the gaols in England. But 'twas all one to
me, and I did not much care. Such a Stupor of Misery came over me, that
for a time I almost forgot my good Quaker Friends, and the lessons they
had taught me; that I felt myself once more drifting into being a
dangerous little brute; and that seeing the Master of the Hoy, a
thirsty-looking man, lifting a great stone-bottle to his lips, I longed
to serve him as I had served Corporal Foss with the demijohn of Brandy
in the upper chamber of the Stag o' Tyne.

We landed not at Gravesend, but were forthwith removed to a bark called
_The Humane Hopwood_, in compliment, I suppose, to Sir Basil, and which,
after lying three days in the Downs, put into Deal to complete her
complement of Unfortunate Persons. And I remember that, before making
Deal, we saw a stranded Brig on the Goodwins, which was said to be a
Leghorner, very rich with oils and silks; round which were
gathered--just as you may see obscene Birds of Prey gathered round a
dead carcass, and picking the Flesh from its bones--at least a score of
luggers belonging to the Deal Boatmen. These worthies had knocked holes
in the hull of the wreck, and were busily hauling out packages and casks
into their craft, coming to blows sometimes with axes and marlin-spikes
as to who should have the Biggest Booty. And it was said on Board that
they would not unfrequently decoy by false signals, or positively haul,
a vessel in distress on to those same Goodwins,--in whose fatal depths
so many tall Ships lie Engulfed,--in order to have the Plunder of her,
which was more profitable than the Salvage, that being in the long-run
mostly swallowed up by the Crimps and Longshore Lawyers of Deal and
other Ports, who were wont to buy the Boatmen's rights at a Ruinous
Discount. Salvage Men, indeed, these Boatmen might well be called; for
when I was young it was their manner to act with an extreme of Savage
Barbarity, thinking far less of saving Human Life than of clutching at
the waifs and strays of a Rich Cargo. And then up would sheer a
Custom-House c