Whether our recent experience had altered the captain’s plans or not I do not know, but much to the dismay of the Portuguese portion of the crew, we did but sight, dimly and afar off, the outline of the Cape Verde Islands before our course was altered, and we bore away for the southward like any other outward-bounder.  That is, as far as our course went; but as to the speed, we still retained the leisurely tactics hitherto pursued, shortening sail every night, and, if the weather was very fine, setting it all again at daybreak.

The morose and sullen temper of the captain had been, if anything, made worse by recent events, and we were worked as hard as if the success of the voyage depended upon our ceaseless toil of scrubbing, scraping, and polishing.  Discipline was indeed maintained at a high pitch of perfection, no man daring to look awry, much less complain of any hardship, however great.  Even this humble submissiveness did not satisfy our tyrant, and at last his cruelty took a more active shape.  One of the long Yankee farmers from Vermont, Abner Cushing by name, with the ingenuity which seems inbred in his ’cute countrymen, must needs try his hand at making a villainous decoction which he called “beer,” the principal ingredients in which were potatoes and molasses.  Now potatoes formed no part of our dietary, so Abner set his wits to work to steal sufficient for his purpose, and succeeded so far that he obtained half a dozen.  I have very little doubt that one of the Portuguese in the forecastle conveyed the information aft for some reason best known to himself, any more than we white men all had that in a similar manner all our sayings and doings, however trivial, became at once known to the officers.  However, the fact that the theft was discovered soon became painfully evident, for we had a visit from the afterguard in force one afternoon, and Abner with his brewage was haled to the quarter-deck.  There, in the presence of all hands, he was arraigned, found guilty of stealing the ship’s stores, and sentence passed upon him.  By means of two small pieces of fishing line he was suspended by his thumbs in the weather rigging, in such a manner that when the ship was upright his toes touched the deck, but when she rolled his whole weight hung from his thumbs.  This of itself one would have thought sufficient torture for almost any offence, but in addition to it he received two dozen lashes with an improvised cat-o’-nine-tails, laid on by the brawny arm of one of the harpooners.  We were all compelled to witness this, and our feelings may be imagined.  When, after what seemed a terribly long time to me (Heaven knows what it must have been to him!), he fainted, although no chicken I nearly fainted too, from conflicting emotions of sympathy and impotent rage.