Poor Thompson, notwithstanding all my exertions in his favour, was exposed to much ill-treatment on board the vessel, on account of his firm and unshaken loyalty.  He seldom complained to me, but sometimes vindicated himself by a gentle hint from one of his ample fists on the nose or eye of the offender, and here the matter usually ended, for his character was so simple and inoffensive, that all the best men in the vessel loved him.  One night, a man fell overboard—­the weather was fine, and the brig had but little way; they were lowering down the jolly-boat from the stern, when one of the hooks by which she hung by the stern, broke, and four men were precipitated with violence into the water.  Two of them could not swim, and all screamed loudly for help as soon as they came up from their dive.  Thompson, seeing this, darted from the stern like a Newfoundland dog, swam to the weakest, supported him to the rudder chains, and, leaving him, went to another, bringing him to the stern of the vessel, and making a rope fast under his arms.  In this way he succeeded in saving the whole of these poor fellows.  Two of the five would certainly have sank but for his timely assistance, for they were some time before another boat could be got ready; and the other three owned that they much doubted whether they could have reached the vessel without help.

This conduct of Thompson was much applauded by all on board, and some asked him why he ventured his life for people who had used him so ill:  he answered, that his mither and his Bible taught him to do all the good he could:  and as God had given him a strong arm, he hoped he should always use it for the benefit of his brother in need.

It might have been supposed that an act like this would have prevented the recurrence of any further insult; but the more the Americans perceived Thompson’s value, the more eager were they to have him as their own.  The second mate, whom I have already described as a rough and brutal fellow, one day proposed to him to belong to their vessel, certain, he added, that he would make his fortune by the capture of two, if not three, extra Indiamen, which they had information of on their passage.

Thompson looked the man fully in the face, and said, “Did ye no hear what I telled the captain the ither day?”

“Yes,” said the man, “I knew that, but that’s what we call in our country ‘all my eye.’”

“But they do not call it so in my country,” said the Caledonian, at the same time planting his fist so full and plump in the left eye of the mate, that he fell like the “humi bos,” covering a very large part of the deck with his huge carcase.