Both Semmes and his lieutenants take great pride in the humane treatment of those on board the large steam- ship, Ariel. When the ship was taken, the plan was to burn her and land the prisoners at Kingston. There was fever in Kingston, however ; so, rather than expose so many persons to danger of infection, the vessel was allowed to go on her way under bond. Semmes's remark on this in his log (not in his published narrative) savors delightfully of the charity of Glossin in "Guy Mannering." "It would have been inhuman to put ashore, even if permitted (and I greatly doubted on this point), so large a number of persons, many of whom were women and children, to become victims, perhaps, to the pestilence." 11
And what do the prisoners themselves say about it? Naturally their view was somewhat different. Complaints appear of rough usage, chiefly of the employment of irons, which was at times manifestly necessary, where the number of captives was so large. " The manner of the master of the steamer was overbearing and insolent in the extreme," writes one victim; "and it was at the great risk of the personal safety, if not of the life, of the deponent, that he so strenuously insisted upon his ship and cargo being released." 12 But in general there is a remarkable — all the more so because grudging — agreement that things were conducted peaceably and civilly and that no personal violence was used in any case. Here again the testimony of Bolles, who had made a
