96 TEE CRUISE OF TEE " CACEALOT." 



read of "putting the slaves through for all they were 

 worth " on the plantations was fully realized here, and 

 our worthy skipper must have been a lineal descendant 

 of the doughty Simon Legree. 



The men were afraid to go on to the sick-list. Nothing 

 short of total inability to continue would have prevented 

 them from working, such was the terror with which 

 that man had inspired us all. It may be said that we 

 were a pack of cowards, who, without the courage to 

 demand better treatment, deserved all we got. While 

 admitting that such a conclusion is quite a natural one 

 at which to arrive, I must deny its truth. There were 

 men in that forecastle as good citizens and as brave 

 fellows as you would wish to meet — men who in their own 

 sphere would have commanded and obtained respect. 

 But under the painful and abnormal circumstances in 

 which they found themselves — beaten and driven like 

 dogs while in the throes of sea-sickness, half starved and 

 hopeless, their spirit had been so broken, and they were 

 so kept down to that sad level by the display of force, 

 aided by deadly weapons aft, that no other condition 

 could be expected for them but that of broken-hearted 

 slaves. My own case was many degrees better than 

 that of the other whites, as I have before noted ; but 

 I was perfectly well aware that the slightest attempt 

 on my part to show that I resented our common treat- 

 ment would meet with the most brutal repression, and, 

 in addition, I might look for a dreadful time of it for 

 the rest of the voyage. 



The memory of that week of misery is so strong upon 

 me even now that my hand trembles almost to prevent- 

 ing me from writing about it. Weak and feeble do the 

 words seem as I look at them, making me wish for the 



