Discipline was indeed
maintained at a high pitch of perfection, no man daring to look
awry, much less complain of any hardship, however great. Even
this humble submissiveness did not satisfy our tyrant, and at
last his cruelty took a more active shape. One of the long
Yankee farmers from Vermont, Abner Cushing by name, with the
ingenuity which seems inbred in his 'cute countrymen, must needs
try his hand at making a villainous decoction which he called
"beer," the principal ingredients in which were potatoes and
molasses. Now potatoes formed no part of our dietary, so Abner
set his wits to work to steal sufficient for his purpose, and
succeeded so far that he obtained half a dozen. I have very
little doubt that one of the Portuguese in the forecastle
conveyed the information aft for some reason best known to
himself, any more than we white men all had that in a similar
manner all our sayings and doings, however trivial, became at
once known to the officers. However, the fact that the theft was
discovered soon became painfully evident, for we had a visit from
the afterguard in force one afternoon, and Abner with his brewage
was haled to the quarter-deck. There, in the presence of all
hands, he was arraigned, found guilty of stealing the ship's
stores, and sentence passed upon him.
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