commanders cherished
as little respect for the revenue laws, or any other mandates of the
United States government, as Captain Turner. A protest, carefully
worded, and signed and sworn to by the mate and two seamen, and a
survey of the vessel made by persons JUDICIOUSLY selected, acted as a
protecting shield against any subsequent troublesome interference on the
part of the American authorities.

The wisdom of the "Long Embargo," and the "Non-intercourse Act" is
greatly doubted by the statesmen of the present day. Besides crippling
our own resources, and paralyzing the whole commercial interest of the
United States, a craven spirit was thus manifested on the part of our
rulers, which exposed us to insults and outrages from the belligerent
powers. And if the policy of these extraordinary measures can be
defended, it must be admitted that they were the direct cause of more
roguery than would compensate for an immense amount of good.

Having arrived at Martinico in distress, we were precluded from
proceeding to any other port in search of a better market. The cargo
was sold at prices that would hardly pay the expenses of the voyage. In
delivering the lumber, however, an opportunity offered in making up in
QUANTITY the deficiency in price, of which our honest captain, following
the example, I regret to say, of many of the West India captains OF
THOSE DAYS, eagerly availed himself.

The lumber was taken to the shore on large rafts, and hauled up on the
beach by men belonging to the brig. The mark on every separate board or
plank was called out in a clear voice by the man who dragged it from
the raft to the beach, and was noted down by the mate of the brig and a
clerk of the mercantile house that purchased the lumber. Those parties
were comfortably seated beneath the shade of a tamarind tree, at some
distance, smoking cigars and pleasantly conversing. They compared notes
from time to time, and there was no difference in their accounts. Every
thing on our part was apparently conducted on the strictest principles
of honesty. But each sailor having received a hint from the mate, who
had been posted by the captain, and a promise of other indulgences,
often added from fifteen to twenty per cent, to the mark which had been
actually scored by the surveyor on every board or plank. Thus, if a
board was MARKED twelve feet, the amount given was fifteen feet; a board
that measured only eighteen or twenty feet, would be represented as