It might have been supposed that an act like this would have prevented the recurrence of any further insult; but the more the Americans perceived Thompson's value, the more eager were they to have him as their own. The second mate, whom I have already described as a rough and brutal fellow, one day proposed to him to belong to their vessel, certain, he added, that he would make his fortune by the capture of two, if not three, extra Indiamen, which they had information of on their passage. Thompson looked the man fully in the face, and said, "Did ye no hear what I telled the captain the ither day?" "Yes," said the man, "I knew that, but that's what we call in our country `all my eye.'" "But they do not call it so in my country," said the Caledonian, at the same time planting his fist so full and plump in the left eye of the mate, that he fell like the "_humi bos_," covering a very large part of the deck with his huge carcass. The man got up, found his face bleeding plentifully, and his eye closed; but instead of resenting the insult himself, went off and complained to the captain. Many of the Americans, either from hatred or jealousy, went along with him, and clamorously demanded that the Englishman should be punished for striking an officer. When the story, however, came to be fairly explained, the captain said he was bound to confess that the second mate was the aggressor, inasmuch as he had acknowledged that he knew the penalty of the transgression before he committed the act; that he (the captain) had told Thompson, when he made the declaration, that he thought him perfectly right, and, consequently, he was bound to protect him by every law of hospitality as well as gratitude, after his services in saving the lives of their countrymen. This did not satisfy the crew; they were clamorous for punishment, and a mutiny was actually headed by the second mate. There was, however, a large party on board who were in no humour to see an Englishman treated with such indignity. Of what country they were may readily be conjectured. The dispute ran high; and I began to think that serious consequences might ensue, for it had continued from the serving of grog at twelve o'clock till near two; when casting my eyes over the larboard quarter, I perceived a sail, and told the captain of it; he instantly hailed the look-out-man at the mast-head; but the look-out-man had been so much interested with what was going on upon deck, that he had come down into the maintop to listen. "Don't you see that sail on the larboard quarter?" said the captain. "Yes, sir," said the man. "And why did you not report her?" The man could make no reply to this question, for a very obvious reason. "Come down here," said the captain; "let him be released, Solomon; we will show you a little Yankee discipline."