Page:Wonderful adventures of sixteen British seamen.pdf/5

5 short time before resigned the office of steward in the South-Sea whaler, and who had originally projeetedprojected [sic] this mad-like scheme. They had only one eoursecourse [sic] to follow; for thothe [sic] trade wind whiehwhich [sic] blows for a considerable part of the year eonstantlyconstantly [sic] from the south, earriedcarried [sic] them briskly up the wide eoastcoast [sic] of Peru. On their voyage, which was extended to a cousiderableconsiderable [sic] distaneedistance [sic] beyond Lima, they had not the good fortune to fall in with a single legitimate prize; but running short of provisions, they were soon foreedforced [sic] to put under contribution such trading vessels and boats as they happened to fall in with.

Supporting themselves entirely by compulsory levies, it was not long before they lost all proper seneesence [sic] of a distinction between plundering and privateering; but the plea of neeessitynecessity [sic] was always at hand to satisfy their not over-serupulousscrupulous [sic] eonsciencesconsciences [sic], that in employing such means to supply their wants, they did nothing morally wrong—or at least that, eireumstaneedcircumstanced [sic] as they were, their doings amounted, at the utmost, to justifiable marauding. Their aetsacts [sic] of depredation beeomebecome [sic] so frequent, however, and in some instaneesinstances [sic] of so aggravated a eharactercharacter [sic], that they soon exeitedexcited [sic] alarm throughout the whole coast. Even at Lima they were heard of. At one period, indeed, it was seriously intended by the authorities there, to dispatch a small force to consign the drugger and her pilfering erewcrew [sic] to the bottom of the ocean; but they were saved the trouble of carrying their threat into exeeutionexecution [sic]. The offenders soon brought on their own apparent ruin; for, dreaded by friends no less than by foes, they were in a few weeks shunned and run from by every bark that hovo in sight. Smugglers, as well as people of their own calling, refused not only to relieve their wants, but to hold any