At first I was horrified, but in time I got as much accustomed to it as they were, and was only thankful that the oaths were not accompanied by a rope’s-ending.
All this time the discipline was really very slack, and the men behaved to each other as they pleased, and never failed to neglect their duty whenever the mates’ eyes were off them. Still they resented, notwithstanding, the treatment they received, growling fiercely, if not loudly, when the quality of their provisions had begun to fall off. At first the food had been pretty good, but it now became worse and worse, and the men swore that they would stand it no longer. At last, when some rancid pork had been served out with musty peas and weevilly biscuits, the men went aft in a body, headed by the boatswain, Sass Jowler, and Growles, who were deputed to be spokesmen, to the quarterdeck, where the captain was walking.
“I axes you, Captain Longfleet, whether you think this ere stuff is fit food for British seamen?” said the boatswain, holding up a piece of the pork at the end of a two-pronged fork.
“It makes um sick to cook it,” said Caesar, who was standing behind the rest.
“And I wants to know, in the name of the crew, whether this ’ere biscuit as is all alive with maggots, is the stuff we poor fellows forward should be made to put into our mouths?” cried Growles.
“What’s that you’re talking about, you mutinous rascals?” cried the captain; “stop a bit, and I’ll answer you.”
Saying this, he sprang back into the cabin, and while the men stood staring at the door without advancing, he reappeared with a pistol in the one hand and a cutlass in the other. I observed that he had a second pistol in his belt.
“You know I never miss my aim, you scoundrels. The first man that utters a word on the subject I’ll shoot through the head. The food’s good enough for better men than you, so be off forward, and let this be the last time I hear any complaint. If not, look out for squalls.”
The men stood irresolute, and no one liked to run the chance of having a pistol-bullet sent through his head.
“Are you going, you villains?” thundered the captain, pointing his pistol at the boatswain.