ry little doubt that one of the Portuguese in the
forecastle conveyed the information aft for some reason best known to
himself, any more than we white men all had that in a similar manner
all our sayings and doings, however trivial, became at once known to the
officers. However, the fact that the theft was discovered soon became
painfully evident, for we had a visit from the afterguard in force one
afternoon, and Abner with his brewage was haled to the quarter-deck.
There, in the presence of all hands, he was arraigned, found guilty of
stealing the ship's stores, and sentence passed upon him. By means of
two small pieces of fishing line he was suspended by his thumbs in the
weather rigging, in such a manner that when the ship was upright his
toes touched the deck, but when she rolled his whole weight hung from
his thumbs. This of itself one would have thought sufficient torture for
almost any offence, but in addition to it he received two dozen lashes
with an improvised cat-o'-nine-tails, laid on by the brawny arm of
one of the harpooners. We were all compelled to witness this, and our
feelings may be imagined. When, after what seemed a terribly long
time to me (Heaven knows what it must have been to him!), he fainted,
although no chicken I nearly fainted too, from conflicting emotions of
sympathy and impotent rage.

He was then released in leisurely fashion, and we were permitted to take
him forward and revive him. As soon as he was able to stand on his feet,
he was called on deck again, and not allowed to go below till his watch
was over. Meanwhile Captain Slocum improved the occasion by giving us a
short harangue, the burden of which was that we had now seen a LITTLE of
what any of us might expect if we played any "dog's tricks" on him. But
you can get used to anything, I suppose: so after the first shock of the
atrocity was over, things went on again pretty much as usual.

For the first and only time in my experience, we sighted St. Paul's
Rocks, a tiny group of jagged peaks protruding from the Atlantic nearly
on the Equator. Stupendous mountains they must be, rising almost sheer
for about four and a half miles from the ocean bed. Although they appear
quite insignificant specks upon the vast expanse of water, one could not
help thinking how sublime their appearance would be were they visible
from the plateau whence they spring. Their chief interest to us at the
time arose from the fact that, when within about three