Since that time, I have felt a peculiar hostility to a practice, which is lamentably common in some schools and families; I mean that of rapping children on the head with a thimble, or with the knuckles, or anything else. The practice is the result of irrational passion, it is dangerous, and cannot therefore be too severely reprobated. If it is pleaded as necessary to enforce obedience and ensure respect, I know it will fail of such effects; it will only excite feelings of revenge, ill-will and malice.
We now received sailing orders, and were very soon under weigh, bound to the Balize at the mouth of the Mississippi. On this passage we had further opportunities of learning the character of our officers. Although Captain Porter was stern and severe, yet he never used bad language. He always spoke with the utmost deliberation, but with such obvious indications of feeling, that we often trembled to hear his voice. Most of the other officers were by no means novitiates in the art of swearing; but our sailing-master exceeded all the rest in this diabolical habit. Whenever it was his watch on deck, he exercised his voice, and practised the use of his choice and varied vocabulary of oaths, by hallooing and threatening the men continually. Whenever we had to set on sail, or to reef, he was especially diligent in these matters; mingling with his curses, threats of the lash to those who were tardy, or whose movements did not exactly suit his taste. If such officers could only apprehend the profound contempt and bitter hatred with which they are regarded by their maddened crew, they would both tremble for safety, and despise their own littleness of soul. No really great man would enact the childish vagaries of a petty tyrant.
There was one respect in which we were more annoyed in the Boxer than I had been in the Macedonian. In this latter ship, none but the captain could order a man to be flogged; in the Boxer, the lieutenant or the officer of the watch could send a man to the gangway, and order the boatswain to lay on with a rope’s-end. This is a liberty which the laws of the navy should prohibit. A man should be secured the rights of a citizen, as well on the planks as on the soil of his country. True, it may be said, severity of discipline is necessary to good order in a ship. Not severity, but strictness, is what is wanted. Let a strict discipline be enforced, with pleasant looks, and a “Hurrah my lads, bear a hand!” and obedience will be more prompt and more perfect than when every order is accompanied with a “Damn you,” and with an exhibition of the rope’s-end or cat-o’-nine-tails. Common sense, as well as experience, will sustain this opinion.
While these matters were passing on board, our little brig was dashing through the waves in fine style. We arrived at the Balize, from whence we dropped down to Ship Island, where we took in water. A share of this severe task fell to my lot, for I was here taken out of the gig, and placed in the jolly-boat, to make way for a smaller and lighter lad in the former. We obtained our water by digging large holes in the sand, into which we placed our casks; the salt water, by passing through so much sand, would be so thoroughly filtrated, that by the time it reached our casks it was fit for use. We then emptied it into ten-gallon kegs, called breakers, which we carried on our shoulders to the boat. This of itself was hard work, but we had certain tormentors on this island, which made it a task of much suffering. These were hosts of hungry, gigantic moschetos, which assailed our persons, and especially our naked feet, in flying squadrons, with a ferocity that indicated an uncontrollable thirst for blood. But even these were not our worst persecutors. They were attended by armies of large, yellow horseflies, which our men called gallinippers. These merciless insect savages were always sure to attack the very spot we had rubbed sore, after the bite of a moscheto. Their bite felt like the thrust of a small sword; I still retain scars on my feet occasioned by these fierce gallinippers.
This island bore marks of the battle of New Orleans; for we found various articles bearing the broad arrow and stamped G. R. We also remarked several mounds, which had the appearance of being large graves. We afterwards learned that this was the place where the British brought their dead, after their unsuccessful attack on the city of New Orleans.
From Ship Island, we proceeded to New Orleans. This was a laborious passage; the current ran down the river with amazing force, bearing huge logs on its bosom, which, if suffered to strike either our bows or cables, were capable of doing much damage: to avoid them required no trifling exertions. Sometimes we endeavored to track her, or draw her along with ropes, as canal-boats are drawn by horses. But, as this brought us into shallow water, it was abandoned.
The banks of the river displayed large numbers of alligators, luxuriating on the numerous logs that were fast in the mud. We made many attempts to get near enough to these scaly monsters to pierce them with a boat-hook; but they kept too sharp a look-out for us; invariably diving into the stream before our boat got near enough for us to strike them. But, if we failed in capturing alligators, we obtained an abundance of palm-leaf, from the shore, with which we furnished ourselves with hats.
An instance of our commander’s tyranny occurred while we were ascending the river. He had requested a seaman, named Daily, who was somewhat acquainted with the river, to act as pilot. By accident or negligence, he suffered the brig to strike the bottom, though without the least injury. The captain flew into a passion, ordered him to the gangway, and commanded the boatswain’s mate to lay on with his rope’s-end. I did not witness this flogging, for the hands were not called up to witness punishment, unless administered by the cat-o’-nine-tails, but one of my messmates said that he received at least one hundred lashes. I saw him several days afterwards, with his back looking as if it had been roasted, and he unable to stand upright. He wore the same shirt in which he was flogged for some time afterwards. It was torn to rags, and showed the state of his back beneath. His object in wearing it was to mortify and shame the captain for his brutality.
The severity of flogging with the rope’s end is justly described in Mr. Dana’s excellent book, called “Two Years before the Mast.” Though not so cruel as the cat, it is nevertheless a harsh, degrading punishment. Our men used to say that “they would as lief be cut up on the bare back with the cat, as have back and shirt cut up together,” as was poor Daily’s. In truth, that flogging was both unjust and illegal. The articles of war provide, that not more than twelve lashes shall be given for a crime; but here one hundred were inflicted for no crime—for an accident, which might have happened to the best pilot who ever ascended the Mississippi. But though the captain was thus rendered amenable to the law, who would believe a poor sailor? Had he complained, it would doubtless have been to his own injury; for law, and especially naval law, is always on the side of the strong. This was not the only case of illegal flogging; but the justification of these excessive whippings, was found in the pretended existence of several crimes in the helpless offenders.