ken by the
occasional appearance of one of the larger kind of sea-birds, or by the
distant spouting of a whale. On board, however, the same peace was far
from prevailing. That little nut-shell that crept like a dot across the
limitless expanse of waters was a little floating hell, where every evil
passion raged from morning until night; and it was only by secretly
fomenting discord and divisions among the crew that the officers could
sleep with any sense of security in their berths. As it was, a large
section of them, with the Irishman at their head, had a project on hand
for murdering their officers, and converting the ship into a whaling
vessel. And even Salve, in moments of bitterness and indignation at the
tyranny to which he was subjected by these men, whose lives were at the
mercy of the crew, would sometimes entertain the thought of joining with
the mutineers, who were restrained from carrying out their designs
mainly by the fear which he had inspired, and by the refusal of his
sanction. Many a desperate struggle with himself he went through when
one of his tyrants passed him on deck in the dark, and the temptation to
stick a knife into his back would rise strong within him, and almost
master him. The other's life hung upon a hair, and Salve knew it; but
that hair was stronger than he thought. Elizabeth's face, and the still
unexhausted might of early impressions, made him always shrink from the
thought of having a murder on his conscience, and to that depth he never
fell, deteriorated though his character gradually became, from daily
association with everything that was vile, to that degree that he lost
all power of believing in the existence of good amongst his
fellow-creatures, or in a higher Power.

We need follow no further this dark period of his life. After a year and
a half on board the Stars and Stripes, and many a wild scene of
turbulence and riot, he brought his connection with her to a close at
last at New Orleans, where the accumulation of his wages was handed over
to him.

The life on board the other vessels in which he afterwards served did
not differ greatly from that which he had left; but he had become
accustomed to it, and his sensibilities were blunted by long habit. It
was not until some four years had thus passed that he again began to
feel a longing for Europe--he would not acknowledge to himself that it
was Norway exactly that he wanted to see again;--and after looking out
then for some