Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 2.djvu/285

 depend entirely on the conduct of himself and the others; that he must recollect that if our own ship, or any other man-of-war, picked us up, he was liable, with three or four more, to be hanged for mutiny; and that nothing but his and their future obedience could save them from that punishment, whenever we reached a port.

This harangue had a very tranquillizing effect. The offenders all begged pardon, and assured me they would deserve my forgiveness by their future submission.

All this passed at some little distance from the wreck, but within hearing; and while it was going on, the wind, which had been fair when we put off, gradually died away, and blew faintly from the south-west, directly towards the sinking wreck. I took advantage of this circumstance to read them a lecture. When I had subdued them, and worked a little on their feelings, I said I never knew any good come of cruelty: whenever a ship or a boat had left a man behind