333 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OR, 



The captain was badly wounded in the head, and had his 

 arm broken. The foremast hands left the ship in a body, 

 leaving the sails hanging in the brails. There being no 

 man-of-war in port, the authorities of the place had not force 

 sufficient to overcome the mutineers, as all the sailors in port, 

 American and English, sided with the latter. A new crew 

 was shipped, among them one of the men who ran away 

 from us in Selango. Poor fellow, he had suffered much 

 since he left us, being broken down by the coast fever, and 

 the worse dissipations of Spanish sea -ports. He told us 

 that the boat had been overhauled by the Peruvian armed 

 vessel Congresso; that the boat had been appropriated, and 

 the entire crew -pressed into the service. Bad food and 

 brutal treatment prevailed, and all pay was denied them. 

 They deserted as opportunity offered, and became scattered 

 one from the other. What became of our old favorite, Eli- 

 sha Ohipman, he could not tell ; but he said, hopelessly, " I 

 don't believe one of them can be alive to-day." 



Captain F , of the A , profited by his dearly-bought 



experience. The old-time customs of " hazing " and " work- 

 ing up " have passed away, and his present crew, to a man, 

 honor and respect him. All hands are working hard to re- 

 trieve past hard fortune. 



Our approach to the " offshore ground " is apparent from 

 the number of sail in sight almost every day occasionally 

 three or four are in view at one time ; yet, how many other 

 hunting-grounds are in like manner overcrowded by the ea- 

 ger hunters of oil ! Besides the fleet now cruising on this 

 ground, others scour the equatorial seas, away west among 

 the coral islands, on the savage coast of KTew Zealand, and 

 about the unfriendly shores of Van Diemen's Land and New 

 Holland ; also on the coast of Chili ; ten thousand miles due 

 west on the east coast of Africa ; in the Channel of Mozam- 

 bique ; away north-east on the shores of Alaska, and its oppp- 



