Our sailors, though half starved, confined and broken down by harsh treatment, always kept up the genuine Yankee character, which is that of being grateful and tractable by kind usage, but stern, inflexible and resentful at harsh treatment. One morning as the general and the captain of the Regulus were walking as usual on the quarter deck, one of our Yankee boys passed along the galley with his kid of "burgoo." He rested it on the edge of the hatch-way, while he was adjusting the rope ladder to descend with his "swill." The thing attracted the attention of the general, who asked the man, how many of his comrades eat of that quantity for their breakfast? "_Six Sir_," said the man, "_but it is fit food only for hogs_." This answer affronted the captain, who asked the man, in an angry tone, "_what part of America he came from?_" "near to BUNKER HILL, Sir--_if you ever heard of that place_." They looked at each other and smiled, turned about and continued their walk. This is what the English call _impudence_. Give it what name you please, it is that _something_ which will, one day, wrest the trident from the hands of Britannia, and place it with those who have more humanity, and more force of muscle, if not more cultivated powers of mind. There was a marine in the Regulus, who had been wounded on board the Shannon in the battle with the Chesapeake, who had a great antipathy to the Americans, and was continually casting reflections on the Americans generally. He one day got into a high dispute with one of our men, which ended in blows. This man had served on board the _Constitution_, when she captured the _Guerriere_ and afterwards the _Java_. After the two wranglers were separated, the marine complained to his officer, that he had been abused by one of the American prisoners, and it reaching the captain's ears, he ordered the American on the quarter deck, and inquired into the cause of the quarrel. When he had heard it all, he called the American sailor a d--d _coward_ for striking a wounded man. "_I am no coward, Sir_," said the high spirited Yankee; "_I was captain of a gun on board the_ Constitution _when she captured the_ Guerriere, _and afterwards when she took the_ Java. _Had I been a coward I should not have been there._" The captain called him an insolent _scoundrel_, and ordered him to his hole again. What the British naval commanders call insolence, is no more than the undaunted expression of their natural and habitual independence. When a British sailor is called by his captain, in an angry tone, on to the quarter-deck, he turns pale and trembles, like a thief before a country justice; but not so the American; he, if he be innocent, speaks his mind with a firm tone and steady countenance; and if he feels himself insulted, he is not afraid to deal in sarcasm. In the instances just mentioned, _Jonathan_ knew full well that the very name of _Bunker Hill_, the _Guerriere_, and the _Java_, was a deep mortification to _John Bull_.