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

THE CAPTAIN'S GENEROSITY.

17

way with them. After this the letter which was left by the men was given to the captain, by his boy, with whom, it seems, the men had left it. The letter was much to the same purpose of what they had said to the mate, and which he declined to say for them; only that at the end of their letter they told the captain, that as they had no dishonest design, so they had taken nothing away with them which was not their own, except some arms and ammunition, such as were absolutely necessary to them, as well for their defence against the savages, as to kill fowls or beasts for their food that they might not perish; and as there were considerable sums due to them for wages, they hoped he would allow the arms and ammunition upon their accounts. They told him, that as to the ship's long-boat, which they had taken to bring them on shore, they knew it was necessary to him, and they were willing to restore it to him; and, if he pleased to send for it, it should be very honestly delivered to his men, and not the least injury offered to any of those who came for it, not the least persuasion or invitation made use of to any of them to stay with them; and, at the bottom of the letter, they very humbly besought him, that, for their defence, and for the safety of their lives, he would be pleased to send them a barrel of powder, and some ammunition, and give them leave to keep the mast and sail of the boat, that if it was possible for them to make themselves a boat of any kind, they might shift off to sea, to save themselves in such part of the world as their fate should direct them to.

Upon this the captain, who had won much upon the rest of his men by what he had said to them, and was very easy as to the general peace (for it was very true, that the most mutinous of the men were gone), came out to the quarterdeck, and, calling the men together, let them know the substance of the letter; and told the men, that, however, they had not deserved such civility from him, yet he was not willing to expose them more than they were willing to expose themselves, he was inclined to send them some ammunition; and, as they had desired but one barrel of powder, he would send them two barrels, and shot, or lead, and moulds to make shot, in proportion; and to let them see that he was civiler to them than they deserved, he ordered a cask of arrack, and a great bag of bread, to be sent them for subsistence, till they should be able to furnish themselves.

C

The rest of the men applauded the captain's generosity, and every one of them sent us something or other; and about three in the afternoon the pinnace came on shore, and brought us all these things, which we were very glad of, and returned the long-boat accordingly; and as to the men that came with the pinnace, as the captain had singled out such men as he knew would not come over to us, so they had positive orders not to bring any one of us on board again, upon pain of death; and indeed both were so true to our points, that we neither asked them to stay, nor they us to go.

We were now a good troop, being in all twenty-seven men, very well armed, and provided with everything but victuals; we had two carpenters among us, a gunner, and, which was worth all the rest, a surgeon or doctor, that is to say, he was an assistant to a surgeon at Goa, and was entertained as a supernumerary with us. The carpenters had brought all their tools, the doctor all his instruments and medicines, and indeed we had a great deal of baggage, that is to say, in the whole, for some of us had little more than the clothes on our backs, of whom I was one; but I had one thing which none of them had, viz., I had the twenty-two moidores of gold, which I stole at the Brazils, and two pieces of eight. The two pieces of eight I showed, and one moidore, but no more; and none of them ever suspected that I had any more money in the world, having been known to be only a poor boy taken up in charity, as you have heard, and used like a slave, and in the worst manner of a slave, by my cruel master the pilot.

It will be easy to imagine we four, that were left at first, were joyful, nay, even surprised with joy, at the coming of the rest, though at first we were frightened, and thought they came to fetch us back to hang us; but they took ways quickly to satisfy us that they were in the same condition with us, only with this additional circumstance, that theirs was voluntary, and ours by force.

The first piece of news they told us after the short history of their coming away, was, that our companion was on board, but how he got thither, we could not imagine; for he had given us the slip, and we never imagined he could swim so well as to venture off to the ship, which lay at so great a distance; nay, we did not so much as know that he could

ESTABLISHMENT OF RULES.

19

swim at all, and not thinking anything of what really happened, we thought he really must have wandered into the woods, and was devoured, or was fallen into the hands of the natives, and was murdered; and these thoughts filled us with fears enough, and of several kinds, about its being some time or other our lot to fall into their hands also.

But hearing how he had with much difficulty been received on board the ship again, and pardoned, we were much better satisfied than before.

Being now, as I have said, a considerable number of us, and in condition to defend ourselves, the first thing we did was to give every one his hand, tha: we would not separate from one another upon any occasion whatsoever, but that we would live and die together; that we would kill no food, but that we would distribute it in public; and that we would be in all things guided by the majority, and not insist upon our own resolutions in anything, if the majority were against it; that we would appoint a captain among us to be our governor or leader during pleasure; that while he was in office, we would obey him without reserve, on pain of death; and that every one should take turn, but the captain was not to act in any particular thing without advice of the rest, and by the majority.

Having established these rules, we resolved to enter into some measures for our food, and for conversing with the inhabitants or natives of the island for our supply; as for food, they were at first very useful to us, but we soon grew weary of them, being an ignorant, ravenous, brutish sort of people, even worse than the natives of any other country that we had seen; and we soon found that the principal part of our subsistence was to be had by our guns, shooting of deer and other creatures, and fowls of all other sorts, of which there is abundance.

We found the natives did not disturb or concern themselves much about us; nor did they inquire or perhaps know whether we stayed among them or not, much less that our ship was gone quite away, and had cast us off, as was our case; for the next morning after we had sent back the longboat, the ship stood away to the south-east, and in four hours' time was out of our sight.

The next day, two of us went out into the country one way, and two another, to see what kind of a land we were

in; and we soon found the country was very pleasant and fruitful, and a convenient place to live in; but, as before, inhabited by a parcel of creatures scarce human, or capable of being made sociable on any account whatsoever.

We found the place full of cattle and provisions: but whether we might venture to take them where we could find them, or not, we did not know; and though we were under a necessity to get provisions, yet we were loath to bring down. a whole nation of devils upon us at once, and, therefore, some of our company agreed to try to speak with some of the country, if we could, that we might see what course was to be taken with them. Eleven of our men went on this errand, well armed, and furnished for defence. They brought word, that they had seen some of the natives, who appeared very civil to them, but very shy and afraid, seeing their guns; for it was easy to perceive, that the natives knew what their guns were and what use they were of.

They made signs to the natives for some food, and they went and fetched several herbs and roots, and some milk; but it was evident they did not design to give it away, but to sell it, making signs to know what our men would give them.

Our men were perplexed at this, for they had nothing to barter; however, one of the men pulled out a knife and showed them, and they were so fond of it, that they were ready to go together by the ears for the knife: the seaman seeing that, was willing to make a good market of his knife, and keeping them chaffering a good while, some offered him roots, and others milk; at last one offered him a goat for it, which he took. Then another of our men showed them another knife, but they had nothing good enough for that, whereupon one of them made signs that he would go and fetch something; so our men stayed three hours for their return, when they came back, and brought him a small-sized, thick, short cow, very fat, and good meat, and gave him for his knife.

This was a good market, but our misfortune was, we had no merchandise; for our knives were as needful to us as to them, and but that we were in distress for food and must of necessity have some, these men would not have parted with their knives.

However, in a little time more, we found that the woods