ation, to obtain the bounty for a
present support, and his pay as a future provision for his wife, and an
only child, the fruit of a hasty and unfortunate marriage. He was soon
distinguished as a person of superior attainments; and instead of being
employed, as a landsman usually is, in the afterguard, or waist, of the
ship, he was placed under the orders of the purser and captain's clerk
as an amanuensis. In this capacity he remained two or three years,
approved of and treated with unusual respect by the officers, for his
gentlemanlike appearance and behaviour: but unfortunately a theft had
been committed,--a watch, of trifling value, had been purloined from the
purser's cabin; and, as he was the only person, with the exception of
the servant, who had free ingress and egress, suspicion fell upon him--
the more so as, after every search that could be made had proved
ineffectual, it was supposed that the purloined property had been sent
on shore to be disposed of by his wife, who, with his child, had
frequently been permitted to visit him on board.

Summoned on the quarter-deck--cross-examined, and harshly interrogated--
called a scoundrel by the captain before conviction,--the proud blood
mantled in the cheeks of one who, at that period, was incapable of
crime. The blush of virtuous indignation was construed into presumptive
evidence of guilt. The captain,--a superficial, presuming, pompous, yet
cowardly creature, whose conduct assisted in no small degree to excite
the mutiny on board of his own ship,--declared himself quite convinced
of Peters's guilt, because he blushed at the bare idea of being
suspected; and punishment ensued, with all the degradation allotted to
an offence which is never forgiven on board of a man-of-war.

There is, perhaps, no crime that is attended with such serious
consequences on board a ship as theft. A succession of thefts
undiscovered will disintegrate a ship's company, break up the messes,
destroy all confidence and harmony, and occasion those who have been the
dearest friends to become the greatest enemies: for whom can a person
suspect, when he has lost his property, in so confined a space, but
those who were acquainted with its being in his possession, and with the
place in which it was deposited?--and who are these but his own
messmates, or those in whom he most confided? After positive
conviction, no punishment can be too severe for a crime that produces
such mischief; but to de