The old controversy about the value of Lasears as sailors
has been revived by a story of the imminent wreck of the El Dorado,' in the Bay of Biscay. The lascars are said by all the passengers to have struck work and, gone below. The com- mander, however, writes that they did work below, and that misconduct was exceptional ; but he only writes when his ship is sailing, and the passengers cannot repeat their story. We believe, as we have said elsewhere, that lascar courage is habitually traduced, but in this instance the evidence that the men struck is overwhelming. We presume the reconciling point between the captain's statement and the passengers' is that the lascars would work no longer in the cold on the upper deck, but did gradually return to active duty below, where, as the captain says, they were of real use. That the passengers had to do the work on deck, with sixty lascars on board, is not denied.
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