42 FLOGGING 



while a tear was seen to trickle clown the cheek of honest 

 old Joe. 



Upon the man's being cast off, the captain addressed 

 the boatswain's mate, and told him that he had been the 

 means of one of the best men in the ship being flogged ; 

 that, as he found him not fit to be trusted with authority, 

 he should incapacitate him from committing the same 

 thing again, by disrating him from the office he then 

 held ; and he was disrated accordingly, much to the satis- 

 faction of both officers and men. 



This, I believe, was the only instance of corporal 

 punishment Ave had in our long run out — a system of 

 punishment that never should be resorted to hardly under 

 any circumstances, as a too frequent application of it 

 tends to debase the minds of the men, and render them 

 callous to every sentiment of pride in their calling, or 

 reirard for their countrv, while it renders the officers 

 familiar with acts that are degrading to humanity. Much 

 to the credit of our naval discipline, it is now but little 

 practised. 



After a voyage of more than eight months at sea, 

 except the three weeks we were at Rio Janeiro, we cast 

 anchor in the Hooghley, in the month of February, 1804, 

 first having made Dondra Head, where the Busseil 

 parted company with the Madras division of the convoy. 



