bullying and wicked persecution.  They had no heart left to put into their work, otherwise the vessel would have got past this boisterous region in half the time.  At last she arrived at Iquique, and, like all ill-conditioned creatures who have been born wrong and have polecat natures, the captain blamed the hapless officers and crew for the long passage, and in order to punish the poor innocent fellows, he refused to them both money and liberty to go ashore.  Treatment of such a character could only have one ending—­and that was mutiny, if not murder; and yet this senseless fellow, in defiance of all human law, kept on goading them to it.  He was warned by a catspaw (whom even despised bullies can have in their pay) that the forecastle was a hotbed of murderous intent, and that for his own safety he should give the men liberty to go ashore, and advance them what money they required.

“Let them revolt!” said he.  “I will soon have them where they deserve to be, the rascals.  Let them, if they dare, disturb me in my cabin, and I’ll riddle them with lead.  If they want to go ashore, let them go without liberty; but if they do, their wages will be forfeited, and I will have them put in prison.”

A policy of this kind was the more remarkable, as even if the men were driven to desertion it was impossible to fill their places at anything like the same wages, or with the same material.  The available hands were either not sailors at all, or if they were, they belonged to the criminal class that feared neither God nor man, and knew no law or pity except that which was unto themselves.  On the other hand, this vessel was manned with the cream of British seamen, who would have dared anything for their captain and owners had they been treated as was their right.  He had run the length of human forbearance.  The crew struck.  They demanded to see the British Consul, and submit their grievances to him.  Sometimes this authority is but a poor tribunal to appeal to when real discrimination is to be determined.  On this occasion the seamen were fortunate in getting a sympathetic verdict, and the captain got what he deserved—­a good trouncing for his treatment of them.  They were willing to sign off the articles, and he was plainly told that they must either be paid their wages in full, or he undertake to carry out the conditions of engagement in a proper manner.  “And I must warn you,” said the irate official of the British Government, “if you drive these men out of your ship, you may expect no assistance from me in collecting another crew.  The men are right, and you are wrong.”