next day I learned that one of the seamen, named James Smith,
belonging to Wiscasset, in Maine, was unable, from illness, to do his
duty. I found that Smith was not a favorite with the crew, being a lazy
fellow, who would act the part of an "old soldier" when an opportunity
offered. As he did not seem very sick, and some thought he was feigning
illness to avoid work, no alarm was excited in consequence.

There was a man on board the Betsey whose name was Gaskell; a tall,
stalwart fellow, belonging to Greenbush, New York. He showed in his
words and actions that he was unprincipled, a thorough reprobate, whose
soul had been case-hardened in crime. This man ridiculed the illness of
Smith; tried to rouse him from his berth in the half-deck; declared that
he was "shamming Abraham," and threatened him with a rope's end
unless he gave over skulking. Gaskell spoke of the mortality among the
Frenchmen in Martinico, and this furnished him with an inexhaustible
source of amusement. Indeed, human suffering, lingering death by
shipwreck or disease, always moved him to mirth and laughter. And yet he
was not deficient in intellect and education; but had used them for evil
purposes. He was coarse, sensual, intemperate, and terribly profane.
He boldly avowed a disbelief in a God, and sneered at the idea of
punishment for crime in the future. He loved to talk of the yellow
fever; he set that fearful disease at defiance, and said he never
enjoyed himself so gloriously as he had done the year previously at
Savannah, when the yellow fever was sweeping off the crews of the
shipping in that port by hundreds, and he found employment as a
carpenter, and cleared ten dollars a day by making coffins for the
"Yankee" sailors. I felt from the outset that this Gaskell was a
bad man, and a further knowledge of him confirmed my impression and
increased my disgust.

In the course of the day I visited the half-deck, at the request of
Captain Adams, to examine the condition of Smith. I found him in a
feverish state, languid, his spirits much depressed, and with a slight
headache. At the time I had no suspicion that he was visited with yellow
fever, the disease appeared in so mild a form. Some medicine was given
him, and it was expected that in a day or so he would recover his
health.

The next morning, being the third day after leaving Martinico, I was
awakened soon after daybreak by a succession of groans which came from
the captain's stateroom. I ent