I had hardly got upon the poop, when one of the men was brought upon deck who was neither beloved by the men nor officers; they then placed him upon the tub, and asked him several questions, and while he was in the act of answering them, they thrust some black balls into his mouth, and then rubbed his face and neck over with lather, and scraped it in an unmerciful manner till the blood run in several places; they next pushed him into the tub of water and kept him under for the space of a minute, which tended to smart and inflame the wounds. It was at least a fortnight before he could wash himself perfectly clean; but now several more shared the same fate. The sun was setting fast before the amusements of the day were finished. The clouds presented the most beautiful appearance, and the rippling of the sea, together with the flying fish, scudding along the surface of the water, afforded the mariner a great field of thought. At so grand a display of the great and wonderful works of God, what mortal can be unmoved, or deny the existence of a BEING which nature herself proclaims! The evening was very fine and beautifully star-light, and the moon shone with resplendent brightness. After the company had withdrawn to their evening refreshments, I amused myself with walking on the solitary poop. The sea appeared to be an immense plain, and presented a watery mirror to the skies. The infinite height above the firmament stretched its azure expanse, bespangled with unnumbered stars, and adorned with the moon '_walking in brightness_;' while the transparent surface both received and returned her silver image. Here, instead of being covered with sackcloth,[A] she shone with resplendent lustre; or rather with a lustre multiplied in proportion to the number of beholders. [Footnote A: I must be excused for the ideal extravagance of "clothing" this nocturnal luminary in "SACKCLOTH," on adverting to that unlimited flight of poetic imagination, which speaks of "_Heaven peeping through the blanket of the deep_." _Vide Shakspeare's Macbeth._] Such I think is the effect of exemplary behaviour in persons of exalted rank; their course as it is nobly distinguished, so it will be happily influential; others will catch the diffusive rays, and be ambitious to resemble a pattern so commanding. Their amiable qualities will not terminate in themselves, but we shall see them reflected in their families. My readers, I trust, will not wonder at my meditations on these sublunary objects, when they consider that they are the seaman's guide, and from them the greatest sources of nautical information are derived.