138 



porter's JOURNALr 



would not absent themselves until the moment before my 

 departure. This severity had the desired eflfect ; what- 

 ever might have been their disposition, none thought pro- 

 per to absent themselves except a lazy negro, whom I took 

 on board through charity at Tumbez, and who, from his 

 insignificance, was not missed until after we had sailed. 

 This affair had, however, like to have ended seriously ; my 

 crew did not see the same motives for restraint as myself, 

 they had long been indulged, and they thought it now hard 

 to be deprived of their usual liberty. They were restless, 

 discontented, and unhappy. The girls lined the beach 

 from morning until night, and every moment importuned 

 me to take the taboos off the men, and laughingly express- 

 ed their grief by dipping their fingers into the sea and 

 touching their eyes, so as to let the salt-water trickle 

 down their cheeks. Others would seize a chip? and hold- 

 ing it in the manner of a shark's tooth, declared they 

 would cut themselves to pieces in despair ; some threat- 

 ened to beat their brains out with a spear of grass, some 

 to drown themselves, and all were determined to inflict on 

 themselves some dreadful punishment, if I did not permit 

 their sweethearts to come on shore. The men did not 

 bear it with so much good humour : their situation, they 

 said, was worse than slavery, and one Robert White de- 

 clared, on board the Essex Junior, that the crew of the 

 Essex had come to a resolution not to weigh her anchor, or 

 if they should be compelled to get the ship under way, in 

 three days' time after leaving the port, to hoist their own 

 flag. When this was reported to me it became necessary 

 to notice it, and with such a variety of characters as com- 

 pose the crew of a ship of war, none but energetic mea- 

 sures will answer. 1 was willing to let them ease their 

 minds by a little grumbling. It was no more than what I 

 expected, but a threat of this kind was carrying matters 

 rather too far. I called all hands on the larboard side of 

 the quarter-deck, and after stating to them the necessity 

 of getting the ship in readiness for sea with all possible 

 despatch, informed them that was the sole cause of their 

 confinement, which was by no means intended as a punish- 

 ment to them, as their conduct had not merited any, but to 

 the contrary, had met my entire approbation. I then re- 

 presented the serious consequences which would be Hkely 



