obtain my pardon of the captain, but could not: and he knew no way for me but to have patience, and submit to my fate; and if they came to speak with any ship of their nation at the Cape, he would endeavour to have them stand in, and fetch us off again if we might be found.

Then I begged I might have my clothes on shore with me. He told me he was afraid I should have little need of clothes, for he did not see how we could long subsist on the island, and that he had been informed that the inhabitants were cannibals or men-eaters (though he had no reason for that suggestion), and we should not be able to live among them; I told him I was not so afraid of that, as I was of starving for want of victuals; and as for the inhabitants being cannibals, I believed we should be more likely to eat them, than they us, if we could but get at them: but I was mightily concerned, I said, we should have no weapons with us to defend ourselves, and I begged nothing now, but that he would give me a gun and a sword, with a little powder and shot.

He smiled; and said, they would signify nothing to us, for it was impossible for us to pretend to preserve our lives among such a populous and desperate nation as the people of the island were. I told him that, however, it would do us this good, for we should be devoured or destroyed immediately; so I begged hard for the gun. At last he told me, he did not know whether the captain would give him leave to give me a gun, and if not, he durst not do it; but he promised to use his interest to obtain it for me, which he did, and the next day he sent me a gun, with some ammunition, but told me, the captain would not suffer the ammunition to be given us, till we were set all on shore, and till he was just going to set sail. He also sent me the few clothes I had in the ship, which indeed were not many.

Two days after this we were all carried on shore together; the rest of my fellow-criminals hearing I had a gun and some powder and shot, solicited for liberty to carry the like with them, which was also granted them; and thus we were set on shore to shift for ourselves.

At our first coming into the island, we were terrified exceedingly with the sight of the barbarous people; whose figure was made more terrible to us than really it was, by the report we had of them from the seamen; but when we came to converse with them awhile, we found they were not

CIVILITY OF THE NATIVES.

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cannibals, as was reported, or such as would fall immediately upon us and eat us up: but they came and sat down by us, and wondered much at our clothes and arms, and made signs to give us some victuals, such as they had, which was only roots and plants dug out of the ground, for the present, but they brought us fowls and flesh afterwards, in good plenty.

This encouraged the other four men that were with me very much, for they were quite dejected before; but now they began to be very familiar with them, and made signs, that if they would use us kindly, we would stay and live with them; which they seemed glad of, though they knew little of the necessity we were under to do so, or how much we were afraid of them.

However, upon other thoughts, we resolved that we would only stay in that part so long as the ship rid in the bay, and then, making them believe we were gone with the ship, we would go and place ourselves, if possible, where there were no inhabitants to be seen, and so live as we could, or perhaps watch for a ship that might be driven upon the coast, as

we were.

The ship continued a fortnight in the roads repairing some damage which had been done her in the late storm, and taking in wood and water; and during this time the boat coming often on shore, the men brought us several refreshments, and the natives believing we only belonged to the ship, were civil enough. We lived in a kind of a tent on the shore, or rather a hut, which we made with the boughs of trees, and sometimes in the night retired to a wood a little out of their way, to let them think we were gone on board the ship. However, we found them barbarous, treacherous, and villanous enough in their nature, only civil for fear, and therefore concluded we should soon fall into their hands when the ship was gone.

The sense of this wrought upon my fellow-sufferers even to distraction; and one of them, being a carpenter, in his mad fit, swam off to the ship in the night, though she lay then a league to sea, and made such pitiful moan to be taken in, that the captain was prevailed with at last to take him in, though they let him lie swimming three hours in the water before he consented to it.

Upon this, and his humble submission, the captain received him, and, in a word, the importunity of this man

(who for some time petitioned to be taken in, though they hanged him as soon as they had him), was such as could not be resisted; for, after he had swam so long about the ship, he was not able to have reached the shore again; and the captain saw evidently, that the man must be taken on board, or suffered to drown, and the whole ship's company offering to be bound for him for his good behaviour, the captain at last yielded, and he was taken up, but almost dead with his being so long in the water.

When this man was got in, he never left off importuning the captain, and all the rest of the officers, in behalf of us that were behind; but to the very last day the captain was inexorable; when, at the time their preparations were making to sail, and orders given to hoist the boats into the ship, all the seamen in a body came up to the rail of the quarter-deck, where the captain was walking with some of his officers, and appointing the boatswain to speak for them, he went up, and falling on his knees to the captain, begged of him, in the humblest manner possible, to receive the four men on board again, offering to answer for their fidelity, or to have them kept in chains till they came to Lisbon, and there to be delivered up to justice, rather than, as they said, to have them left to be murdered by savages, or devoured by wild beasts. It was a great while ere the captain took any notice of them, but when he did, he ordered the boatswain to be seized, and threatened to bring him to the capstan for speaking for them.

CHAPTER II.

THE SEAMEN INTERCEDE TO HAVE US TAKEN ON BOARDON THE CAPTAIN'S REFUSAL, TWENTY-THREE OF THE MEN, WELL ARMED, LEAVE THE SHIP, AND JOIN US ASHORETRANSACTIONS WITH THE NATIVES-WE MAKE A CANOE TO ESCAPE IN-AFTER VARIOUS ADVENTURES WE PUT TO SEA.

UPON this severity, one of the seamen, bolder than the rest, but still with all possible respect to the captain, besought his honour, as he called him, that he would give leave to some more of them to go on shore, and die with their companions,

FELLOWSHIP OF THE CREW.

15

or, if possible, to assist them to resist the barbarians. The captain, rather provoked than cowed with this, came to the barricado of the quarter-deck, and speaking very prudently to the men (for, had he spoken roughly, two-thirds of them would have left the ship, if not all of them), he told them, it was for their safety as well as his own, that he had been obliged to that severity; that mutiny on board a ship was the same thing as treason in the king's palace, and he could not answer it to his owners and employers to trust the ship and goods committed to his charge with men who had entertained thoughts of the worst and blackest nature; that he wished heartily that it had been anywhere else that they had been set on shore, where they might have been in less hazard from the savages; that, if he had designed they should be destroyed, he could as well have executed them on board as the other two; that he wished it had been in some other part of the world, where he might have delivered them up to the civil justice, or might have left them among Christians; but that it was better their lives were put in hazard, than his life, and the safety of the ship; and that, though he did not know that he had deserved so ill of any of them, as that they should leave the ship rather than do their duty, yet if any of them were resolved to do so, unless he would consent to take a gang of traitors on board, who, as he had • proved before them all, had conspired to murder him, he would not hinder them, nor, for the present, would he resent their importunity; but, if there was nobody left in the ship but myself, he would never consent to take them on board.

This discourse was delivered so well, was in itself so reasonable, was managed with so much temper, yet so boldly concluded with a negative, that the greatest part of the men were satisfied for the present: however, as it put the men into juntos and cabals, they were not composed for some hours; the wind also slackening towards night, the captain ordered not to weigh till next morning.

The same night twenty-three of the men, among whom was the gunner's mate, the surgeon's assistant, and two carpenters applying to the chief mate, told him, that, as the captain had given them leave to go on shore to their comrades, they begged that he would speak to the captain not to take it ill that they were desirous to go and die with their companions; and that they thought they could do no less

in such an extremity, than go to them; because, if there was any way to save their lives, it was by adding to their numbers, and making them strong enough to assist one another in defending themselves against the savages, till perhaps they might one time or other find means to make their escape, and get to their own country again.

The mate told them in so many words, that he durst not speak to the captain upon any such design, and was very sorry they had no more respect for him, than to desire him to go upon such an errand; but, if they were resolved upon such an enterprise, he would advise them to take the longboat in the morning betimes, and go off, seeing the captain had given them leave, and leave a civil letter behind him to the captain, and to desire him to send his men on shore for the boat, which should be delivered very honestly, and he promised to keep their counsel so long.

Accordingly, an hour before day, those twenty-three men, with every man a firelock and cutlass, with some pistols, three halberts or half-pikes, and good store of powder and ball, without any provision but about half a hundred of bread, but with all their chests and clothes, tools, instruments, books, &c., embarked themselves so silently, that the captain got no notice of it till they were gotten half the way • on shore.

As soon as the captain heard of it, he called for the gunner's mate, the chief gunner being at that time sick in his cabin, and ordered to fire at them; but, to his great mortification, the gunner's mate was one of the number, and was gone with them; and, indeed, it was by this means they got so many arms and so much ammunition. When the captain found how it was, and that there was no help for it, he began to be a little appeased, made light of it, and called up the men, spoke kindly to them, and told them he was very well satisfied in the fidelity and ability of those that were now left; and that he would give to them, for their encouragement, to be divided among them, the wages which were due to the men that were gone; and that it was a great satisfaction to him that the ship was freed from such a mutinous rabble, who had not the least reason for their discontent.

The men seemed very well satisfied, and particularly the promise of the wages of those that were gone, went a great