For a minute the jokers were non-plussed; their victim having the laugh on his side; but this was soon remedied by the fastenings of the ladder giving away, and the pendant caulker was whipped up on deck amid the jeers of his companions. This remedy is generally effectual; but I have seen a case of persistency in this, to a seaman, odious habit, which after everything else had failed, was eradicated by tying the caulker’s leg fast to a large pig, which, upon being roused up by the tormentors, travelled fore and aft the deck with Kedge Anchor in tow. Previous to this he had been repeatedly soused with water, bent on to, made fast to the bell, getting a reprimand for the _peal_ he unwittingly rang, and lashed to the studding-sails on the forecastle, where, at times, he would remain the greater part of the night; but all to no purpose, until a humorous genius one night, when nothing else was on the carpet, proposed uniting Kedge to the porker, and, as I before stated, the remedy was effectual. Our cook, a German, who had been to sea before, having an eye to creature comforts, purchased, whilst at Flores, a number of jackass cheeses. These he had carefully saved, intending to make them last as long as he possibly could, and for this purpose he locked them up in his chest; but, unfortunately, during the night some person or persons went clandestinely to his chest and feloniously appropriated the cheeses therein to his or their benefit. The cook, on the whole, was a good-natured fellow, but losing his cheeses soured his disposition, and he swore vengeance. His Dutch oaths soon attracted attention, and old Jack, as the oldest man in the forecastle, was appointed inquisitor, to find out the perpetrator or perpetrators of the heinous crime; sailors viewing theft from a shipmate, even of the slightest article, as an offence second in enormity only to murder; and woe betide the poor wretch who is detected in the act, as he can never recover an intimate footing with his shipmates.