354 
SOUTH SEA 
taken, the very enjoyments of the sailors at times ap- 
peared to me to be sufferings, when I compared London 
associations with things which take place upon the great 
sea. But when I saw thirty- two good, industrious, and 
harmless, though brave men, abused and browbeaten to 
a most shameful extent, by a mean and contemptible 
tyrant, while at the same time they were exerting them- 
selves to their utmost for the success of the voyage, 
which he had himself frequently neglected to do, I 
turned from the scene with horror, and plainly intimated 
that I could no longer endure the sight. 
Can we wonder at some of our men deserting us ? I 
have heard of seamen escaping from ships which have 
been tyrannically governed, although they have been 
twenty miles from land, merely using a piece of bamboo 
to assist them to swim on shore; others in their despair 
have thrown themselves among savages. They have pre- 
cipitated themselves into the sea! they have at times 
turned against their inhuman task-masters— they have 
mutinied— they have destroyed their oppressor in some 
instances, in consequence of the ill-treatment they 
have received and endured, until the passions in their 
vehement reaction could no longer be shackled or kept 
down. 
Such was the captain’s conduct that I now made up 
my mind to seize the first opportunity of leaving him 
to his fate the moment I could find it convenient, 
whether advantageous or not to myself, and on the first 
of June 1832, being still off the Bonin Islands, we had 
the good fortune to fall in with the Sarah and Elizabeth 
