Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 2.djvu/280

 they would throw him overboard. Although in some measure I participated in their angry feeling, yet I could not reconcile myself to leave a fellow-creature thus to perish, even in the pit which he had dug for others, and this too at a time when we needed every indulgence from the Almighty for ourselves, and every assistance from his hand to conduct us into a port.

"He deserves to die; it is all his own doings," said they; "come into the boat yourself, Sir, or we must shove off without you."

The poor captain—who, after sleeping four hours, had recovered his senses, and felt all the horror of his situation—wept, screamed, tore his hair, laid hold of my coat, from which only the strength of my men could disengage him. He clung to life with a passion of feeling which I never saw in a criminal condemned by the law; he fell on his knees before me, as he appealed to us all, collectively and separately; he re-