THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 229 



CHAPTER XX. 



The Captain's Law. Man cut down. Ship adrift with Yards aback. 

 Men refuse Duty, and still drifting. The "Round Robin." Make sail 

 for Sandwich Islands. The Treaty, and a Peace-offering. Remarkable 

 Tenacity of Life in Sperm-whale. Finback. Gam with Adeline Gibbs, 

 Captain West. Greenwich and Mean Time compared. Fighting 

 Sperm-whale of the Galapagos. A Yankee Trick on a Whale. How 

 Whalemen are made: Cabin-boy at ten, Master at twenty- two. Love 

 of the Profession. The Sailor dreams he is Captain, and goes on a 

 Whale. Shyness of Whales rather than diminished Numbers length- 

 ens Voyages. Balloon suggested to take Whales. Water-spouts dis- 

 cussed. Mowee raised, and anchored at Honolulu. Sad History of 

 the Washonk. Slaughter of the Crew, and recovery of the Ship. 

 Smuggling Rum on Board. Pig-headed Perversity. Offenders taken 

 on Shore. 



AFTER a time the captain ordered us into the waist again. 

 We found him standing at the carpenter's bench, by the 

 companion-way, bare-headed, more calm, and evidently de- 

 termined as to his course. At his hand lay a pair of pistols, 

 the roll of fate (the ship's articles), and a volume in law- 

 binding. We stood in line, under the range of this formida- 

 ble battery, and were allowed to gaze, while our antagonist 

 arranged his weapons. This began to tell on the men ; for, 

 while the pistols had no terror for them, the great white 

 roll, which mysteriously held them bound, body and soul, 

 and the thundering big book, at least twice as large as our 

 " Bowditch," had an awful threatening aspect. We were 

 getting a little shaky, when the captain drew from his hat 

 a " colt," and the sight of the hated rope's-end closed up our 

 fluttering rank. The captain opened fire by reading from 

 the "Articles" how we had clearly forfeited our "lays" by 



