Two
or three days since, moreover, two of the sailors came before me, and
gave their account of the matter; and it looked very differently from
that of the captain. According to them, the man had no idea of attacking
the captain, and was so drunk that he could not keep himself upright
without assistance. One of these two men was actually holding him up
when the captain fired two barrels of his pistol, one immediately after
the other, and lodged two balls in the pit of his stomach. The man sank
down at once, saying, "Jack, I am killed,"--and died very shortly.
Meanwhile the captain drove this man away, under threats of shooting him
likewise. Both the seamen described the captain's conduct, both then and
during the whole voyage, as outrageous, and I do not much doubt that it
was so. They gave their evidence like men who wished to tell the truth,
and were moved by no more than a natural indignation at the captain's
wrong.
I did not much like the captain from the first,--a hard, rough man, with
little education, and nothing of the gentleman about him, a red face and
a loud voice. He seemed a good deal excited, and talked fast and much
about the event, but yet not as if it had sunk deeply into him. He
observed that he "would not have had it happen for a thousand dollars,"
that being the amount of detriment which he conceives himself to suffer
by the ineffaceable blood-stain on his hand.
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