Note 126-1 — CHAP. II.

This gives occasion for a splenetic and unjust tirade from an anonymous writer in the United Service Journal for 1831: "When this boat with a midshipman and several men (four) had been inhumanely ordered from alongside, it was known that there was nothing in her but one piece of salt beef, compassionately thrown in by a seaman; and horrid as must have been their fate, the flippant surgeon, after detailing the disgraceful fact, adds 'that this is the way the world was peopled,' or words to that effect, for we quote only from memory." With a fresh E.S.E. breeze and no provisions there can be little doubt that Midshipman Sival perished at sea, but neither Edwards nor Hamilton are to be censured, the former for despatching a boat on ordinary duty, the latter for penning a platitude.