56 THE CRUISE OF TEE "CACHALOT." 



making a villainous decoction which he called "beer/* 

 the principal ingredients in which were potatoes and 

 molasses. Now potatoes formed no part of our dietary, 

 so Abner set his wits to work to steal sufficient for hi& 

 purpose, and succeeded so far that he obtained half a 

 dozen, I have very little doubt that one of the Portu- 

 guese in the forecastle conveyed the information aft for 

 some reason best known to himself, any more than we 

 white men all had that in a similar manner all our 

 sayings and doings, however trivial, became at once 

 known to the officers. However, the fact that the theft 

 was discovered soon became painfully evident, for we 

 had a visit from the afterguard in force one afternoon, 

 and Abner with his brewage was haled to the quarter- 

 deck. There, in the presence of all hands, he was 

 arraigned, found guilty of stealing the ship's stores, and 

 sentence passed upon him. By means of two small 

 pieces of fishing line he was suspended by his thumbs 

 in the weather rigging, in such a manner that when the 

 ship was upright his toes touched the deck, but when 

 she rolled his whole weight hung from his thumbs. 

 This of itself one would have thought sufficient torture 

 for almost any offence, but in addition to it he received 

 two dozen lashes with an improvised cat-o'-nine-tails, 

 laid on by the brawny arm of one of the harpooners. 

 We were all compelled to witness this, and our feelings 

 may be imagined. When, after what seemed a terribly 

 long time to me (Heaven knows what it must have been 

 to him ! ), he fainted, although no chicken I nearly fainted 

 too, from conflicting emotions of sympathy and impotent 

 rage. 



He was then released in leisurely fashion, and we 

 were permitted to take him forward and revive him. Aa 



