were given that there were to be no
afternoon watches below, and all hands were to be kept at work until 6
p.m. In addition to this petty tyranny, the crew were put on their
bare whack of everything, including water; and so the dreary days and
nights passed on until Cape Horn was reached. They had long realized
that the burden of their song should be "Good-day, bad day, God send
Sunday." The weather was stormy off the Horn, and nearly a month was
spent in fruitless attempts to get round. The spirit had been knocked
out of the officers and crew by senseless bullying and wicked
persecution. They had no heart left to put into their work, otherwise
the vessel would have got past this boisterous region in half the
time. At last she arrived at Iquique, and, like all ill-conditioned
creatures who have been born wrong and have polecat natures, the
captain blamed the hapless officers and crew for the long passage, and
in order to punish the poor innocent fellows, he refused to them both
money and liberty to go ashore. Treatment of such a character could
only have one ending--and that was mutiny, if not murder; and yet this
senseless fellow, in defiance of all human law, kept on goading them
to it. He was warned by a catspaw (whom even despised bullies can have
in their pay) that the forecastle was a hotbed of murderous intent,
and that for his own safety he should give the men liberty to go
ashore, and advance them what money they required.

"Let them revolt!" said he. "I will soon have them where they deserve
to be, the rascals. Let them, if they dare, disturb me in my cabin,
and I'll riddle them with lead. If they want to go ashore, let them go
without liberty; but if they do, their wages will be forfeited, and I
will have them put in prison."

A policy of this kind was the more remarkable, as even if the men were
driven to desertion it was impossible to fill their places at anything
like the same wages, or with the same material. The available hands
were either not sailors at all, or if they were, they belonged to the
criminal class that feared neither God nor man, and knew no law or
pity except that which was unto themselves. On the other hand, this
vessel was manned with the cream of British seamen, who would have
dared anything for their captain and owners had they been treated as
was their right. He had run the length of human forbearance. The crew
struck. They demanded to see the British Consul, and submit their
grieva