_Didon_, which was a beautiful and fast-sailing
frigate, was purchased for the navy, but, without ever having been sent
to sea, was unaccountably broken up in 1811.

Humane and brave as British officers have almost always proved
themselves, tyrannical captains, who in most instances have been also
deficient in courage and seamanlike qualities, have occasionally been
found in the service. Among men of this class the Honourable Captain
Lake, commanding the sloop of war _Recruit_, must be ranked. While at
Plymouth he had pressed a young seaman, Robert Jeffrey by name,
belonging to Polperro in Cornwall, out of a privateer. Shortly
afterwards the _Recruit_ sailed for the West Indies. While in those
seas, the ship having run short of water, Jeffrey was accused of
stealing, on the 10th December, a bottle of rum, and some spruce beer
out of a cask. He was accordingly put in the black-list. Two or three
days afterwards the _Recruit_ came in sight of the desert island of
Sombrero, eighty miles to the south-west of Saint Christopher. Captain
Lake on seeing it suddenly took it into his head to maroon Jeffrey on
the island. Accordingly, that very evening, he was conveyed on shore in
a boat, commanded by the second lieutenant, who had with him a
midshipman and four seamen. Even the buccaneers, when they thus treated
a culprit, had the humanity to leave him arms, and food, and clothing;
but Captain Lake ordered the unfortunate youth to be left on this
uninhabited spot with no other clothing than that he wore, without a
particle of food. The lieutenant, observing that his bare feet were cut
by the sharp stones, obtained a pair of shoes from one of the men, and
gave him a knife and a couple of handkerchiefs, contributed by himself
and the midshipman. The lieutenant advising him to keep a bright
look-out for passing vessels, then, according to his orders, leaving the
poor fellow, pulled back to his ship. Soon after the arrival of the
_Recruit_ at the Leeward Islands, Sir Alexander Cochrane, the
commander-in-chief, hearing what had occurred, sent her back to bring
off the man, in case he should have survived. The officers on landing
searched the island over, but could discover no traces of the marooned
seaman. Jeffrey, however, was not dead. For eight days he had
subsisted on such limpets as he could find among the rocks, and the rain
water which he discovered in their crevices. He was growing weaker and
weaker, for thoug