I Believe I Omitted To State That Mr. Andrew B. Amerzene, The Chief
Mate Of The Pilgrim, An Estimable, Kind, And Trustworthy Man, Had A
Difficulty With Captain Faucon, Who Thought Him Slack, Was Turned
Off Duty, And Sent Home With Us In The Alert.
Captain Thompson,
instead of giving him the place of a mate off duty, put him into
the narrow between-
Decks, where a space, not over four feet high,
had been left out among the hides, and there compelled him to live
the whole wearisome voyage, through trades and tropics, and round
Cape Horn, with nothing to do, - not allowed to converse or walk
with the officers, and obliged to get his grub himself from the
galley, in the tin pot and kid of a common sailor. I used to
talk with him as much as I had opportunity to, but his lot was
wretched, and in every way wounding to his feelings. After our
arrival, Captain Thompson was obliged to make him compensation
for this treatment. It happens that I have never heard of him
since.
Henry Mellus, who had been in a counting-house in Boston, and left
the forecastle, on the coast, to be agent's clerk, and whom I met,
a married man, at Los Angeles in 1859, died at that place a few years
ago, not having been successful in commercial life. Ben Stimson left
the sea for the fresh water and prairies, and settled in Detroit as
a merchant, and when I visited that city, in 1863, I was rejoiced to
find him a prosperous and respected man, and the same generous-hearted
shipmate as ever.
This ends the catalogue of the Pilgrim's original crew, except
her first master, Captain Thompson. He was not employed by the
same firm again, and got up a voyage to the coast of Sumatra for
pepper. A cousin and classmate of mine, Mr. Channing, went as
supercargo, not having consulted me as to the captain. First,
Captain Thompson got into difficulties with another American vessel
on the coast, which charged him with having taken some advantage of
her in getting pepper; and then with the natives, who accused him
of having obtained too much pepper for his weights. The natives
seized him, one afternoon, as he landed in his boat, and demanded
of him to sign an order on the supercargo for the Spanish dollars
that they said were due them, on pain of being imprisoned on shore.
He never failed in pluck, and now ordered his boat aboard, leaving
him ashore, the officer to tell the supercargo to obey no direction
except under his hand. For several successive days and nights,
his ship, the Alciope, lay in the burning sun, with rain-squalls
and thunder-clouds coming over the high mountains, waiting for a
word from him. Toward evening of the fourth or fifth day he was
seen on the beach, hailing for the boat. The natives, finding they
could not force more money from him, were afraid to hold him longer,
and had let him go.
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