There appears to be but little attempt at justice for the sailor, though I think that their chances of obtaining their rights in the future are considerably brighter than they used to be. Does any one of the other three great maritime nations--Great Britain, France, and Germany--permit such acts in their merchantmen as the beating of sailors? Decidedly not. In those countries’ ships sailors are treated as such and not as anthropophagical savages. Yet our marine laws are practically the same as theirs. Their laws are enforced, ours are not, by reason of petty briberies and deceits. It is a different story on our steamers, where the officers would not dare to maltreat the men. Discipline, far better than we have here, can be maintained without recourse to violence, which is proved by the vessels of other nations. Contrary to the statements of captains and mates, who make them to shield their bad deeds, foremast hands are _not_ continually trying to create a disturbance. I will leave this question to be answered by two American ship-masters, who run their vessels as deep-water ships ought to be, and who never have any trouble with their crews. These two men, I do not say that there are no others (though there are lementably few of them), are Captain Gates of the “S. P. Hitchcock,” and Captain Banfield of the “St. James”; these skippers believe in decent treatment and they see that their men get it. Among twenty or thirty men there are sure to be two or three hard cases; these should be dealt with according to their deserts; yet on this ship the black legs have, in every instance that we have seen, escaped punishment, while such inoffensive and well-meaning men as Brün, Karl, and others, have been made the mark for the violent tempers of both mates. The reason for brutality on Yankee ships is traceable in every instance to one man, the captain; for, if he did not countenance it, such acts could not be committed. It is passing strange that American captains, who have almost invariably risen from before the mast, should have so little sympathy for sailors, in view of the fact that only a few years ago they suffered from the tempers of mates just as now the men do who are under them. Latitude, 57° 22′ south; longitude, 68° 55′ west. +July 24+