. Like others of his breed, he was a bit of a
cur at the bottom. My character was a trifle beyond him; and he was
ignorant enough to hate and fear what he could not understand. Be this
as it may, he made some rough attempts at a rude kind of politeness
when I went below to get some grog, and condescended to say that when I
had been to sea as long as he, I would know that the most ungrateful
rascals in the world were sailors; that every crew he had sailed with
had always taken care to invent some grievance to growl over: either
the provisions were bad, or the work too heavy, or the ship
unseaworthy; and that long ago he had made up his mind never to pay
attention to their complaints, since no sooner would one wrong be
redressed than another would be coined and shoved under his nose.

I took this opportunity of assuring him that I had never willingly
listened to the complaints of the men, and that I was always annoyed
when they spoke to me about the provisions, as I had nothing whatever
to do with that matter; and that so far from my wishing to stir up the
men into rebellion, my conduct had been uniformly influenced by the
desire to conciliate them and represent their conditions as very
tolerable, so as to repress any tendency to disaffection which they
might foment among themselves.

To this he made no reply, and soon we parted; but all the next day he
was sullen again, and never addressed me save to give an order.

On the evening of the third day the gale broke; the glass had risen
since the morning; but until the first dogwatch the wind did not bate
one iota of its violence, and the horizon still retained its stormy and
threatening aspect. The clouds then broke in the west, and the setting
sun shone forth with deep crimson light upon the wilderness of
mountainous waters. The wind fell quickly, then went round to the west
and blew freshly; but there was a remarkable softness and sweetness in
the feel and taste of it.

A couple of reefs were at once shaken out of the main-topsail, and a
sail made. By midnight the heavy sea had subsided into a deep, long,
rolling swell, still (strangely enough) coming from the south; but the
fresh westerly wind held the ship steady, and for the first time for
nearly a hundred hours we were able to move about the decks with
comparative comfort. Early the next morning the watch were set to wash
down and clear up the decks; and when I left my cabin at eight o'clock,
I found the we