them, so that they are not a whit better off in the quality of their sailors than other vessels; yet there is never any trouble aboard of them at sea, and good-will and cheerfulness pervade both vessels. They have made some rattling good passages, and are positive proof that discipline can be obtained without violence; and, after nearly four months’ experience here, I believe that I am justified in expressing my opinion, which is, that _brutality toward and the continual driving and hazing of sailors do not conduce to order and discipline_. Commands are not obeyed here with the precision that they were on the “Mandalore,” and many and many a time I have seen the men make a great show of hauling on the braces when in reality they were not pulling a hundred pounds. Knock them over for this? No, it only makes them worse next time, but that’s what Yankee mates generally do. If work is to be got out of sailors, _they must be treated justly to begin with_; if not, you will get no more out of them than out of any other class. The apathy and ignorance of people ashore is more remarkable than anything else in connection with this subject of brutality to sailors. I even know a young man who owns shares in some of our largest square-riggers who was utterly amazed when I told him of the record of one of his own captains. In justice to him, though, I must say that he took no personal interest in the ships other than that they should pay good dividends, and he really was in total ignorance of the _modus operandi_ of American captains. But it is not so with the vast majority of our sailing-ship-owners, who are fully aware of the manner in which their vessels are run, and who go bail to the extent of many hundreds of dollars for their inhuman captains when the latter are occasionally held to answer for some particularly atrocious deed, and who in many cases connive at the disappearance of blackguard mates when they are seeking to escape ashore from infuriated sailors whom these mates have half killed at sea. Cannot something be done to compel decent treatment of our long-voyage seamen? Sailors must be ruled with a hand of iron, for there are desperate characters among them; but, in heaven’s name, let him who wields the power be compelled to administer justice in his punishment of the men under him, that the disgrace and shame which now rest upon our long-voyage sailing ships may be removed, and that the offensive name of “Yankee hell-ship,” by which our deep-water vessels are known to foreign sailors, may be forever obliterated. Latitude, 13° 43′ north; longitude, 127° west. +September 1+