WHALING VOYAGE. 
357 
CHAPTER XL 
When I arrived on board the Sarah and Elizabeth, I 
was at once struck with the different scene that pre- 
sented itself to that which I had so recently left. The 
men were elastic ; and merry, smiling faces appeared 
everywhere. The captain firm, but yet humane, was 
strict in discipline, but kind in heart. 
When the busy scenes of the day were over, the men 
enjoyed the merry dance and song, to the tune of some 
amateur upon the fiddle— sounds which were never 
heard in the ship I had just left, except once or twice 
at the commencement of the voyage, when a similar 
instrument was used, and a few dances were produced— 
but such was the discord, and unharmonious sounds 
which sprung up from tyranny, that the poor instrument 
itself broke down from sheer melancholy, and never 
uttered another note afterwards. But although the 
men in the Sarah and Elizabeth enjoyed full freedom, 
still none of them ever attempted to go beyond the 
boundary of discretion. They were as one family, toil- 
ing for one common end ; having laws which they obeyed 
and liberties which they enjoyed, with a president they 
revered, because they knew he was just! The natural 
consequences were, that success followed in the wake 
