DEPRAVITY IN THE MIDST OF DANGER. 



163 



aiic! iiaulyards; and the mast, destitute of support, 

 immediately fell on a captain of infantry, and 

 broke his thigh ; he was instantly seized by the 

 soldiers and thrown into the sea, but was saved 

 by the opposite party. About an hour after mid 

 night the insurrection burst forth anew. They 

 rushed upon the officers like desperate men, each 

 having a knife or a sabre in his hand ; and such 

 was the fury of the assailants, that they tore their 

 flesh, and even their clothes with their teeth. 

 There was no time for hesitation ; a general 

 slaughter took place, arid the raft was strewed with 

 dead bodies. On the return of day, it was found 

 that, in the course of the preceding night of hor 

 ror, sixty-Jive of the mutineers had perished, and 

 two of the small party attached to the officers. 

 A third night of horror approached, distinguished 

 by the piercing cries of those whom hunger and 

 thirst devoured ; and the morning s sun showed 

 them a dozen unfortunate creatures stretched 

 lifeless on the raft. The fourth night was mark 

 ed by another massacre. Some Spaniards and 

 Italians conspired to throw the rest into the sea. 

 A Spaniard was the first to advance with a drawn 

 bate; the sailors seized him and throw him into 

 the sea. The Italian seeing this, jumped over 

 board ; the rest were mastered, and order was 

 restored. But, before the ship Argus came to 

 their relief, of the 150 that embarked on the raft, 

 15 unhappy creatures only remained, covered 

 with wounds and bruises, almost naked, stripped 

 of their skin, shrivelled with the rays of the sun, 

 iheir eyes hollow, and their countenances sa 

 vage. Such are the dreadful effects of maligni 

 ty, which produces more sufferings and fatal 

 effects, than the most tremendous elements of 

 nature ! 



A certain portion of the same spirit was lately 

 displayed by several individuals on board of 

 the Kent East Indiaman. In the midst of a 

 most violent gale, in the Bay of Biscay, when 

 the sea was running mountains high, this vessel, 

 containing about. 600 persons, took fire, in conse 

 quence of the spirits from a stoved cask having 

 communicated with a lamp ; and all hopes of 

 safety became extinguished, till the ship Cam 

 bria, Captain Cooke, hove in sight. But the 

 danger of passing from one ship to the other, in 

 boats, in such a tempestuous sea, rendered the 

 preservation of the passengers and crew in a 

 degree doubtful. Yet, in the midst of the danger, 

 the alarm and the anguish which accompanied 

 this tremendous scene, we are told by the narra 

 tor, page 24, that &quot; it is suspected that one or 

 two of those who perished, must have sunk un 

 der the weight of their spoils; the same indivi 

 duals having been seen eagerly plundering the 

 cuddy cabins.&quot; And, a little afterwards, page 

 31, he adds: &quot;Some time after the shades of 

 night had enveloped us, I descended to the cuddy 

 in quest of a blanket to shelter me from the in 

 creasing cold, and the scene of desola ion that 



there presented itself was melancholy in the ex 

 treme. The place, which only a few short hours 

 before had been the seat of kindly intercourse, 

 and of social gayety, was now entirely deserted, 

 save by a few miserable wretches, who were 

 either stretched in irrecoverable intoxication on 

 the floor, or prowling about, like beasts of prey, 

 in search of plunder.&quot;* 



The following is a short description of the 

 moral character of the inhabitants of Carolina, 

 and of one of the amusements of a people who 

 boast of their liberty and their civilization, as 

 it is found in &quot; Morse s American Geography.&quot; 

 &quot; The citizens of North Carolina who are not 

 better employed, spend their time in drinking, or 

 gaming at cards or dice, in cock-fighting, or 

 horse-racing. Many of the interludes are filled 

 up with a boxing match ; and these matches fre 

 quently become memorable by feats of gouging. 

 This delicate and entertaining diversion is thus 

 performed : When two boxers are worried with 

 fighting and bruising each other, they come, as 

 it is called, to close quarters ; and each endea 

 vours to twist his fore-fingers in the ear-locks of 

 his antagonist. When these are fast clenched, 

 the thumbs are extended each way to the nose, 

 and the eyes gently twined out of their Rockets. 

 The victor, for his expertness, receives shouts of 

 applause from the sporting throng, while his poor 

 eyeless antagonist is laughed at for his misfortune. 

 In a country that pretends to any degree of 

 civilization, one would hardly expect to find a 

 prevailing custom of putting out the eyes of each 

 other. Yet this more than barbarous custom is 

 prevalent in both the Carol inas, and in Georgia 

 among the lower class of people.&quot; &quot; Lord, 

 what is man !&quot; In a savage and a civilized state 

 in infancy and in manhood in his games and 

 diversions in the instructions by which he is 

 trained in the remarks he makes upon his 

 neighbours in the sports and amusements in 

 which he indulges in his literary pursuits and 

 lucubrations in his system of rewards and 



* See a &quot; Narrative of the Loss of the Kent East 

 Indiaman, by fire, in the Bay of Biscay, on the 1st of 

 March, 1825, by a Passenger,&quot; supposed to be Major 

 Macgregor. The humanity and intrepidity display 

 ed, amidst the heart-rending scene which this narra 

 tive describes by Captain Cobb of the Kent ; by 

 Messrs. Thompson, Fearon, Macgregor, and the 

 other officers, and many of the soldiers ; by Captain 

 Cooke of the Cambria, his crew, and the Cornish 

 miners-is above all praise. Their benevolent and 

 heroic conduct at that alarming crisis, is far more 

 deserving of a public monument being raised for its 

 commemoration, than that of many of our military 

 heroes, in honour of whom so many trophies have 

 been erected. If men, who have been instrumental 

 in destroying the lives and the happiness of hun 

 dreds and of thousands, have pensions bestowed on 

 them, and are exalted to posts of honour, surely 

 those who have exerted tfeir energies in preserving 

 the lives of hundreds, and in preventing the anguish 

 of thousands, oueht not to be suffered to sink into 

 oblivion, or to pass unrewarded. It is, I presume, 

 one reason among others, why virtue is so x ittle 

 practised, that it is seldom rewarded according to it* 

 merit. 



