I asked Dixon, how the captain came to treat the surgeon’s mate in particular so ill.  He said he had treated them all much alike.  A person of the name of Bulpin, he believed, was the only one who had escaped bad usage in the ship.  With respect to himself, he had been cruelly used so early as in the outward bound passage, which had occasioned him to jump overboard.  When taken up he was put into irons, and kept in these for a considerable time.  He was afterwards ill used at different times, and even so late as within three or four days of his return to port.  For just before the Alfred made the island of Lundy, he was struck by the captain, who cut his under lip into two.  He said that it had bled so much, that the captain expressed himself as if much alarmed; and having the expectation of arriving soon at Bristol, he had promised to make him amends, if he would hold his peace.  This he said he had hitherto done, but he had received no recompense.  In confirmation of his own usage, he desired me to examine his lip, which I had no occasion to do, having already perceived it, for the wound was apparently almost fresh.

I asked Dixon, if there was any person in Bristol, besides himself, who could confirm to me this his own treatment, as well as that of the other unfortunate man who was now dead.  He referred me to a seaman of the name of Matthew Pyke.  This person, when brought to me, not only related readily the particulars of the usage in both cases, as I have now stated them, but that which he received himself.  He said that his own arm had been broken by the chief mate in Black River, Jamaica, and that he had also by the captain’s orders, though contrary to the practice in merchant vessels, been severely flogged.  His arm appeared to be then in pain.  And I had a proof of the punishment by an inspection of his back.

I asked Matthew Pyke, if the crew in general had been treated in a cruel manner.  He replied, they had, except James Bulpin.  I then asked where James Bulpin was to be found.  He told me where he had lodged, but feared he had gone home to his friends in Somersetshire, I think, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Bridgewater.

I thought it prudent to institute an inquiry into the characters of Thomas, Dixon, and Matthew Pyke, before I went further.  The two former I found were strangers in Bristol, and I could collect nothing about them.  The latter was a native of the place, had served his time as a seaman from the port, and was reputed of fair character.

My next business was to see James Bulpin.  I found him just setting off for the country.  He stopped, however, to converse with me.  He was a young man of very respectable appearance and of mild manners.  His appearance, indeed, gave me reason to hope that I might depend upon his statements; but I was most of all influenced by the consideration, that, never having been ill-used himself, he could have no inducement to go beyond the bounds of truth on this occasion.