312 THE POLICE. 



several of the Elisha Dimbar's crew. One of them, a 

 Bostonian, had been promoted to be sergeant, and 

 Avas living with a great, greasy, disgnsting-looking 

 squaw, as black as the ace of spades, thereby cany- 

 ing out the doctrine of amalgamation to its fullest 

 extent. 



None of the members of either of these bodies are 

 allowed to go beyond the precincts of the city without 

 a pass — the authorities being extremely fearful of 

 desertion ; and with reason, too, as, although these 

 men are induced to enter by the prospect of easy 

 times, (and they are easy, indeed, duty only being 

 required of them for four hours out of the twenty- 

 four, after which time they are at liberty to dress 

 and act as citizens, only they are not permitted to 

 engage in any other business,) yet their very inactivity 

 disgusts them with their billets. Men, like sailors* 

 who have been accustomed to a stirring, active life, 

 ever on the alert to anticipate the storm king's 

 movements, cannot at once divest themselves of 

 their sea-going habits ; hence their uneasiness and 

 determination to desert. "When we left Mauritius, 

 two of them, who had been part of the force for 

 several months, were snugly stowed away aboard our 

 ship, preferring life in a wdialer's forecastle, to ease 

 and comfort ashore. 



The boatmen comprise two distinct classes: the 

 white and the native. The whites are generally sea- 

 men, and in this avocation I saw manual labor per- 

 formed by them only. The principal and most busi- 

 ness-like of these aquatic carriers was a man who had 

 fled the city of New Bedford for no less a crime than 

 manslaughter, and thereby escaped punishment by 



