CHAPTER XXII Back to Primitive Things
Many harsh and ignorant things have been written concerning the masters of ships, principally, I think, because of the crimes committed by a few of them. Therefore I feel that it ought to be plainly stated that, remembering the temptation a shipmaster in a sailing ship on a long voyage is subjected to daily, it speaks well for human nature in general, and for seafarers in particular, that those crimes have been so few, so very few in proportion to the number of individuals who have been tempted to the commission of them. It is too often forgotten by those who ignorantly write upon this subject how free from all restraint save that of his own conscience is the master of a sailing ship at sea on a long passage. If he be a cruel, brave bully and tyran
