266 BRUTALITY TO SEAMEN. 



to 'have 1)6611 placed there by the captain of a 

 schooner. From a person who knew something of the 

 history of the vicinity, I learned that .the deceased 

 had been an American seaman, a colored man, who 

 had left an American whale-ship in Freemantle, 

 years previous ; there he had married, joined the 

 schooner and set out as one of a whaling party to the 

 Abrolhas' ; but before he had reached the scene of 

 operations, he had fought his last battle, and been 

 conquered by death. 



On Middle Island there is a rough house erected, 

 which has remained for many years ; as also the ruins 

 of a try works — memorials of a whaling party. The 

 tenement is built of stone, the roof of mahogany, 

 and, no doubt, was formerly quite a substantial 

 building; but the north-westers that howl through 

 the islands have made sad havoc with its fair propor- 

 tions, and it is no longer tenan table. 



At night we braced forward and stood out to the 

 open ocean. On the 29th we gammoned the clipper 

 barque Sunlight, of New Bedford, a beautiful craft, 

 twenty-one months from home, with eight hundred 

 and fifty barrels of oil. Her captain, a namesake of 

 the iron-handed protector of England, was described 

 by his crew as being a fiend incarnate — cursing, 

 beating, and abusing every one under his command ; 

 giving them scarcely enough to eat. Poor fellows, 

 they were glad to get hard bread, which we, touched 

 by their relation, gave to them : this they secreted on 

 their persons to carry aboard and make a meal of. 

 The account of their sufferings from this monster 

 almost exceeded belief; but as it was the same story 

 from all grades of the members of the ship's com- 



