men between us, and I believe I laid down the law pretty plain to the
Dagos and Swedes who fell to my lot. They couldn't understand much of
what I said, but they could tell something of my meaning when I held up a
rope's-end and belaying-pin before their eyes and made certain
significant gestures in regard to their manipulation. This may strike the
landsman as unnecessary and somewhat brutal; but, before he passes
judgment, he should try to take care of a lot of men who are, for a part,
a little lower than beasts.

If a man can understand the language you use, he can sometimes be made to
pay attention if he has the right kind of men over him, but when he
cannot understand and goes to sea with the certain knowledge he is on a
hard ship and will probably come to blows in a few minutes, he must have
some ocular demonstration of what is coming if he doesn't jump when a
mate sings out to him. Often the safety of the entire ship depends upon
the quickness with which an order can be carried out, and a man must not
hang back when the danger is deadly. He must do as he is told, instantly
and without question; if he gets killed--why, there is no great loss, for
any owner or skipper can get a crew aboard at any of the large ports of
trade. Of course, if he takes a different point of view, the only thing
for him to do is to stay on the beach. He must not ship on a sailing
packet that is carrying twenty percent more freight than the law allows
and is getting from three to four dollars a ton for carrying it some ten
or fifteen thousand miles over every kind of ocean between the frigid
zones. My men were surly enough, perhaps because they had heard what kind
of treatment they should expect; so after I had told them what they must
do, I bade them go below and straighten out their dunnage.

Mr. Trunnell, after separating his men from mine, cursed them
individually and collectively as everything he could think of, and only