Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/219

 CHAPTER VIII.

I was on board of this ship two poor men were executed for mutiny. The scene was far more solemn to me than any thing I had ever beheld. Indeed it was the first thing of the kind I had been present at. When we hear of executions on shore, we are always prepared to read of some foul atrocious crime, some unprovoked and unmitigated offence against the laws—of civilized society, which a just and a merciful