# A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before

Daniel Defoe

It has for some ages been thought so wonderful a thing to sail the tour or circle of the globe, that when a man has done this mighty feat, he presently thinks it deserves to be recorded like Sir Francis Drake's. So soon as men have acted the sailor, they come ashore and write books of their voyage, not only to make a great noise of what they have done themselves, but pretending to show the way to others to come after them, they set up for teachers and chart makers to posterity. Though most of them have had this misfortune, that whatever success they have had in the voyage, they have had very little in the relation; except it be to tell us, that a seaman when he comes to the press, is pretty much out of his element, and a very good sailor may make but a very indifferent author.

I do not in this, lessen the merit of those gentlemen who have made such a long voyage as that round the globe; but I must be allowed to say, as the way is now a common road, the reason of it thoroughly known, and the occasion of it more frequent than in former times, so the world has done wondering at it; we no more look upon it as a mighty thing, a strange and never heard of undertaking; this cannot be now expected of us, the thing is made familiar, every ordinary sailor is able to do it, if his merchants are but qualified to furnish him for so long a voyage; and he that can carry a ship to Lisbon, may with the same ease carry it round the world.

Some tell us, it is enough to wonder at a thing nine days, one would reasonably then conclude, that it is enough that sailing round the world has been wondered at above a hundred years. I shall therefore let the reader know, that it is not the rarity of going round the world that has occasioned this publication, but if some incidents have happened in such a voyage, as either have not happened to others, or as no other people, though performing the same voyage have taken notice of, then this account may be worth publishing, though the thing, viz. The Voyage round the World, be in itself of no value.

It is to be observed, of the several navigators whose Voyages round the World have been published, that few, if any of them, have diverted us with that variety which a circle of that length must needs offer. We have a very little account of their landings, their diversions, the accidents which happened to them, or to others by their means; the stories of their engagements, when they have had any scuffle either with natives, or European enemies, are told superficially and by halves; the storms and difficulties at sea or on shore, have nowhere a full relation; and all the rest of their accounts are generally filled up with directions for sailors coming that way, the bearings of the land, the depth of the channels, entrances, and bars, at the several ports, anchorage in the bays, and creeks, and the like things, useful indeed for seamen going thither again, and how few are they? but not at all to the purpose when we come expecting to find the history of the voyage.

Another sort of these writers have just given us their long journals, tedious accounts of their log-work, how many leagues they sailed every day; where they had the winds, when it blew hard, and when softly; what latitude in every observation, what meridian distance, and what variation of the compass. Such is the account of Sir John Narborough's Voyage to the South Seas, adorned with I know not how many charts of the famous Strait of Magellan, a place only now famous for showing the ignorance of Sir John Narborough, and a great many wise gentlemen before him, and for being a passage they had no need to have troubled themselves with, and which nobody will ever go through anymore.

Such also are the Voyages of Captain John Wood, to Nova Zemla, at the charge of the public, in King Charles the Second's time, and Martin Frobisher to the North-West Passages, in Queen Elizabeth's time; all which, are indeed full of their own journals, and the incidents of sailing, but have little or nothing of story in them, for the use of such readers who never intend to go to sea, and yet such readers may desire to hear how it has fared with those that have, and how affairs stand in those remote parts of the world.

For these reasons, when first I set out upon a cruising and trading voyage to the East, and resolved to go anywhere, and everywhere that the advantage of trade or the hopes of purchase should guide us, I also resolved to take such exact notice of everything that past within my reach, that I would be able, if I lived to come home, to give an account of my voyage, differing from all that I had ever seen before, in the nature of the observations, as well as the manner of relating them. And as this is perfectly new in its form, so I cannot doubt but it will be agreeable in the particulars, seeing either no voyage ever made before, had such variety of incidents happening in it, so useful and so diverting, or no person that sailed on those voyages, has thought fit to publish them after this manner.

Having been fitted out in the river of Thames so lately as the year 1713, and on a design perhaps not very consistent with the measures taking at that time for the putting an end to the war, I must be allowed to own I was at first obliged to act not in my own name, but to put in a French commander into the ship, for the reasons which follow, and which those, who understand the manner of trade upon closing the late war, I mean the trade with Spain, will easily allow to be just and well grounded.

During the late war between Great Britain and her confederates on one side, and the united crowns of France and Spain on the other, we all know the French had a free trade into the South Seas; a trade carried on with the greatest advantage, and to the greatest degree, that any particular commerce has been carried on in the world for many ages past; insomuch, that we found the return of silver that came back to France by those ships, was not only the enriching of the merchants of St. Malo, Rochelle, and other ports in France, some of whom we saw get immense estates in a few years, even to a million sterling a man; but it was evident, the King of France himself was enabled, by the circulation of so much bullion through his mints, to carry on that war with very great advantage.

It was just at the close of this war, when some merchants of London, looking with envy on the success of that trade, and how the French, notwithstanding the peace, would apparently carry it on, for some years at least, to infinite advantage, began to consider whether it might not be possible to come in for a portion of it with France, as they were allied to Spain, and yet go abroad in the nature of a private cruiser.

To bring this to pass, it was thought proper, in the first place, to get a share if possible, in a new design of an East India trade in Flanders, just then intended to be set up by some British merchants, by the assistance of an imperial charter, or at least under colour of it: and so we might go to sea in a threefold capacity, to be made use of as occasion might present, viz., when on the coast of New Spain we sought to trade, we were Frenchmen, had a French captain, and a sufficient number of French seamen, and Flemish or Walloon seamen, who spoke French, so to appear on all proper occasions. When at sea we met with any Spanish ship worth our while, we were English cruisers, had letters of mart from England, had no account of the peace, and were fitted for the attack. And when in the East Indies we had occasion to trade, either at the English or Dutch settlements, we should have imperial colours, and two Flemish merchants, at least in appearance, to transact everything as we found occasion. However, this last part of our project failed us, that affair not being fully ripe.

As this mysterious equipment may be liable to some exceptions, and perhaps to some inquiries, I shall for the present conceal my name, and that of the ship also. By inquiries, I mean inquiries of private persons concerned; for, as to public inquiries, we have no uneasiness, having acted nothing in contradiction to the rules and laws of our country; but I say, as to private persons, it is thought fit to prevent their inquiries, to which end, the captain, in whose name I write this, gives me leave to make use of his name, and conceal my own.

The ship sailed from the river the 20th of December, 1713, and went directly over to the coast of Flanders, lying at an anchor in Newport Pitts, as they are called, where we took in our French Captain Jean Michael Merlotte, who, with thirty-two French seamen, came on board us in a large snow from Dunkirk, bringing with them one hundred and twenty-two small ankers or rundlets of brandy, and some hampers and casks of French wine in wickered bottles. While we were here, we lay under English colours, with pendants flying, our ship being upwards of five hundred ton, and had forty-six guns mounted, manned with three hundred and fifty-six men; we took the more men on board, because we resolved, as occasion should present, to fit ourselves with another ship, which we did not question we should meet with in the South Seas.

We had also a third design in our voyage, though it may be esteemed an accident to the rest, viz., we were resolved to make some attempts for new discoveries, as opportunity offered; and we had two persons on board who were exceeding well qualified for our direction in this part, all which was derived from the following occasion.

The person who was principally concerned in the adventure was a man not only of great wealth, but of great importance; he was particularly addicted to what we call new discoveries, and it was indeed upon his genius to such things, that the first thought of the voyage was founded. This gentleman told me, that he had already sent one ship fully equipped and furnished for a new attempt upon the North-West or North-East passages, which had been so often in vain tried by former navigators; and that he did not question the success, because he had directed them by new measures, and to steer a course that was never attempted yet; and his design in our voyage was to make like discoveries towards the South pole; where, as he said, and gave us very good reasons for it, he did not doubt but we might discover, even to the pole itself, and find out new worlds and new seas, which had never been heard of before.

With these designs, this gentleman came into the other part of our project, and contributed the more largely, and with the more freedom, to the whole, upon that account; in particular, all the needful preparations for such discoveries were made wholly at his expense, which I take notice of here, as being most proper in the beginning of our story, and that the reader may the less wonder at the particular way we took to perform a voyage which might with much more ease have been done by the usual and ordinary way.

We sailed from the coast of Flanders the 2nd of January, and, without any extraordinary incident, made the coast of Galway, in Ireland, the 10th, where we stayed, and took in a very extraordinary store of provisions, three times as much as usual, the beef being also well pickled or double packed, that we might have a sufficient reserve for the length of our voyage, resolving also to spare it as much as possible.

We had a very rich cargo on board, consisting of all sorts of British manufactures suitable for the Spanish trade in their West Indies; and, as we aimed at nothing of trade till we came to the Spanish coast, we sailed directly for the Canary Islands: having not fully resolved whether we would make our voyage to the South Seas first, and so round the globe by the East Indies, as has been the usual way, or whether we would go first by the East Indies, and upon the discoveries we were directed to, and then cross the great Pacific Ocean to the west coast of America, as was at last resolved.

We made the Canaries, the 11th of February; and, coming to an anchor there to take in some fresh water, we put out French colours, and sent our boat on shore, with a French boatswain and all French seamen, to buy what we wanted: they brought us on board five butts or pipes of wine, and some provisions, and having filled our water, we set sail again the 13th. In this time we called a council among ourselves, by which way we should go.

I confess I was for going by the Cape of Good Hope first, and so to the East Indies: then, keeping to the south of Java, go away to the Moluccas, where I made no doubt to make some purchase among the Dutch Spice Islands, and so away to the Philippines; but the whole ship's company, I mean of officers, were against me in this scheme, although I told them plainly, that the discoveries which would be made in such a voyage as that, were the principal reasons why our chief owner embarked in the adventure, and that we ought to regard the end and design of our voyage; that it would certainly in the conclusion amount to the same, as to trade, as if we went the usual way, seeing the places we were to go to were the same one way as the other, and it was only putting the question which we should go to first; that all the navigators, on such voyages as these, went by the South Seas first, which would be no honour to us at all: but, if we went by the East Indies first, we should be the first that ever went such a voyage, and that we might make many useful discoveries and experiments in trying that course; that it would be worth our while, not only to go that way, but to have all the world take notice of it, and of us for it.

I used a great many arguments of the like nature, but they answered me most effectually, with laying before me the difficulties of the voyage, and the contrary methods of trade, which, in a word, made the going that way impracticable: First, the difficulty of the voyage, over the vast ocean called the Pacific Sea, or South Sea, which, if we kept a southern latitude, and took the variable winds, as we should find them, as I proposed to do, might very well be a voyage of six or eight months, without any sight of land, or supply of provisions or water, which was intolerable; that, as to trade, it was preposterous, and just setting the voyage with the bottom upward; for as we were loaden with goods, and had no money, our first business, they said, was to go to the South Seas, where our goods were wanted, and would sell for money, and then to the East Indies, where our money would be wanting, to buy other goods to carry home, and not to go to the East Indies first, where our goods would not sell, and where we could buy no other for want of money.

This was seemingly so strong a way of reasoning, that they were all against me, as well French as English, and even the two agents for discoveries submitted to it; and so we resolved to stand away from the Canaries to the coast o Brazil, thence upon the eastern coast of South America to Cape Horn, and then into the South Seas; and, if we met with anything that was Spanish by the way, we resolved to make prize of it, as in a time of war.

Accordingly, we made the coast of Brazil in twenty-six days, from the Canary Islands, and went on shore at Cape St. Augustine, for fresh water; afterwards we put into the bay of All Saints, got some fresh provisions there, and about an hundred very good hogs, some of which we killed and pickled, and carried the rest on board alive, having taken on board a great quantity of roots and maize, or Indian corn, for their food, which they thrived on very well.

It was the last of March when we came to the bay, and having stayed there fourteen days, to furnish ourselves with all things we wanted, we got intelligence there, that there were three ships at Buenos Ayres, in the river Rio de la Plata, which were preparing to go for Europe, and that they expected two Spanish men of war to be their convoy, because of the Portuguese men of war which were in Brazil, to convoy the Brazil fleet.

Their having two Spanish men of war with them for their convoy, took away a great deal from the joy we had entertained at the news of their being there, and we began to think we should make little or nothing of it; however, we resolved to see the utmost of it, and, particularly, if our double appearance would not now stand us in some stead.

Accordingly, we went away for the river of Plata, and, as usual, spreading French colours, we went boldly up to Buenos Ayres, and sent in our boat, manned with Frenchmen, pretending to be homeward bound from the South Seas, and in want of provisions.

The Spaniards received us with civility, and granted us such provisions as we wanted; and here we found, to our great satisfaction, that there was no such thing as any Spanish man of war there; but they said they expected one, and the governor there for the King of Spain asked our French officer if we would take one of their ships under our convoy? Monsieur Merlotte answered him warily, that his ship was deep loaden, and foul, and he could not undertake anything; but, if they would keep him company, he would do them what service he could; but that also, as they were a rich ship, they did not design to go directly to France, but to Martinico, where they expected to meet with some French men of war to convoy them home.

This answer was so well managed; though there was not one word of truth in it, that one of the three ships, for the other two were not ready, resolved to come away with us, and, in an evil hour for them, they did so.

To be brief, we took the innocent Spaniard into our convoy, and sailed away to the northward with them, but were not far at sea before we let them know what circumstances they were in, by the following method. We were about half a league a head of them, when our captain bringing to, and hauling up our courses, made a signal to the Spaniards for the captain to come on board, which he very readily did; as soon as he was on board, our captain let him know that he was our prisoner, and all his men, and immediately manning their boat with thirty of our men, we sent them on board their ship, to take possession of her, but ordered them that they should behave civilly to the men on board, and plunder nothing. For we made a promise to the Spanish captain, that his ship should not be plundered, upon condition he would give us a just account of his loading, and deliver peaceably to us what riches he had on board; then we also agreed, that we would restore him his ship, which by the way, we found was chiefly loaden with hides, things of no value to us, and that the ship also was an old vessel, strong, but often doubled, and therefore a very heavy sailer, and consequently not at all fit for our purpose, though we greatly wanted a ship to take along with us, we having, as I have said, both too many men, and being too full of goods.

The Spanish captain, though surprised with the stratagem that had brought him thus into the hands of his enemies, and greatly enraged in his mind at being circumvented, and trepanned out of his ship, yet showed a great presence of mind under his misfortune; and, as I verily believe, he would have fought us very bravely, if we had let him know fairly what we were, so he did not at all appear dejected at his disaster, but capitulated with us as if he had been taken sword in hand. And one time, when Captain Merlotte and he could not agree, and the Spanish captain was a little threatened, he grew warm; told the captain that he might be ill used, being in his hands, but that he was not afraid to suffer whatever his ill fortune had prepared for him, and he would not, for fear of ill usage, yield to base conditions; that he was a man of honour, and if he was so too, he demanded to be put on board his own ship again, and he should see he knew how to behave himself. Captain Merlotte smiled at that, and told him, he was not afraid to put him on board his own ship, and fight for her again, and that, if he did so, he was sure he could not escape him; the Spanish captain smiled too, and told him he should see, if he did, that he knew the way to heaven from the bottom of the sea as well as any other road, and that men of courage were never at a loss to conquer their enemy one way or other; intimating, that he would sink by his side rather than be taken, and that he would take care to be but a very indifferent prize to him, if he was conquered.

However, we came to better terms with him afterwards. In short, having taken on board all the silver, which was about two hundred thousand pieces of eight, and whatever else we met with that was valuable, among the rest his ammunition, and six brass guns, we performed conditions, and sent him into the Rio de la Plata again with his ship, to let the other Spanish captains know what scouring they had escaped.

Though we got a good booty, we were disappointed of a ship; however, we were not so sensible of that disappointment now, as we were afterwards: for, as we depended upon going to the South Seas, we made no doubt of meeting with vessels enough for our purpose. Of what followed, the reader will soon be informed.

We had done our work here, and had neither any occasion or any desire to lie any longer on this coast, where the climate was bad, and the weather exceeding hot, and where our men began to be very uneasy, being crowded together so close all in one ship; so we made the best of our way south.

We met with some stormy weather in these seas, and particularly a north-west blast, which carried us for eleven days a great way off to sea; but, as we had sea-room enough, and a stout strong-built ship under us, perfectly well prepared, tight and firm, we made light of the storms we met with, and soon came into our right way again; so that, about the 4th of May, we made land in the latitude of 45° 12', south.

We put in here for fresh water; and, finding nothing of the land marked in our charts, we had no knowledge of the place, but, coming to an anchor at about a league from the shore, our boat went in quest of a good watering-place; in pursuit of this, they went up a creek about two leagues more, where they found good water, and filled some casks, and so came on board to make their report.

The next day we came into the creek's mouth, where we found six to eight fathom water within a cable's length of the shore, and found fresh water enough, but no people or cattle, though an excellent country for both.

Of this country I made many observations, suitable to the design and desire of our ingenious employer and owner; and those observations are one end of publishing this voyage. I shall mention only one observation here, because I shall have occasion to speak of them hereafter more largely. My observation here is as follows: —

> An observation concerning the soil and climate of the continent of America, south of the river De la Plata; and how suitable to the genius, the constitution, and the manner of living of Englishmen, and consequently for an English colony.

> The particular spot which I observe upon, is that part of the continent of America which lies on the shore of the North Seas, as they are called, though erroneously, for they are more properly the East Seas, being extended along the east shores of South America. The land lies on the same east side of America, extended north and south from Coasta Deserta, in 42°, to Port St. Julian, in 49½°, being almost five hundred miles in length, full of very good harbours, and some navigable rivers. The land is a plain for several scores of miles within the shore, with several little rising hills, but nowhere mountainous or stony; well adapted for enclosing, feeding, and grazing of cattle; also for corn, all sorts of which would certainly not only grow, but thrive very well here, especially wheat, rye, pease, and barley, things which would soon be improved by Englishmen, to the making the country rich and populous, the raising great quantities of grain of all sorts, and cattle in proportion. The trade which I propose for the consumption of all the produce, and the place whither to be carried, I refer to speak of by itself, in the farther progress of this work.

I return now to the pursuit of our voyage. We put to sea again the 10th of May, with fair weather and a fair wind; though a season of the year, it is true, when we might have reason to expect some storms, being what we might call the depth of their winter. However, the winds held northerly, which, there, are to be esteemed the warm winds, and bringing mild weather; and so they did, till we came into the latitude of 50°, when we had strong winds and squally weather, with much snow and cold, from the south-west and south-west by west, which, blowing very hard, we put back to Port St. Julian, where we were not able to stir for some time.

We weighed again the 29th, and stood south again past the mouth of the Straits of Magellan, a strait famous for many years, for being thought to be the only passage out of the North Seas into the South Seas, and therefore I say famous some ages; not only in the discovery of it by Magellan, a Spanish captain, but of such significance, that, for many years, it was counted a great exploit to pass this strait, and few have ever done it of our nation, but that they have thought fit to tell the world of it as an extraordinary business, fit to be made public as an honour to their names. Nay, King Charles the Second thought it worth while to send Sir John Narborough, on purpose to pass and take an exact survey of this strait; and the map or plan of it has been published by Sir John himself, at the public expense, as a useful thing.

Such a mighty and valuable thing also was the passing this strait, that Sir Francis Drake's going through it gave birth to that famous old wives' saying, viz., that Sir Francis Drake shot the gulf; a saying that was current in England for many years after Sir Francis Drake was gone his long journey of all; as if there had been but one gulf in the world, and that passing it had been a wonder next to that of Hercules cleansing the Augean stable.

Of this famous place I could not but observe, on this occasion, that, as ignorance gave it its first fame and made it for so many ages the most eminent part of the globe, as it was the only passage by which the whole world could be surrounded, and that it was to every man's honour that had passed it; so now it is come to the full end or period of its fame, and will in all probability never have the honour to have any ship, vessel, or boat, go through it more, while the world remains, unless, which is very improbable, that part of the world should come to be fully inhabited.

I know some are of opinion, that, before the full period of the earth's existence, all the remotest and most barren parts of it shall be peopled; but I see no ground for such a notion, but many reasons which would make it appear to be impracticable, and indeed impossible; unless it should please God to alter the situation of the globe as it respects the sun, and place it in a direct, as it now moves in an oblique position; or that a new species of mankind should be produced, who might be as well qualified to live in the frozen zone as we are in the temperate, and upon whom the extremity of cold could have no power. I say, as there are several parts of the globe where this would be impracticable, I shall say no more than this, that I think it is a groundless suggestion.

But to return to our voyage; we passed by the mouth of this famous Strait of Magellan, and those others which were passed through by Le Maire the Dutch sailor afterwards; and keeping an offing of six or seven leagues, went away south, till we came into the latitude of 58°, when we would, as we had tried three days before, have stretched away south-west, to have got into the South Seas, but a strong gale of wind took us at west-north-west, and though we could, lying near to it, stretch away to the southward, yet, as it over-blowed, we could make no westward way; and though we had under us an excellent strong-built vessel, that, we may say, valued not the waves, and made very good work of it, yet we went away to leeward in spite of all we could do, and lost ground apace. We held it out, however, the weather being clear, but excessive cold, till we found ourselves in the latitude of 64°.

We called our council several times, to consider what we should do, for we did but drive to leeward the longer we strove with it; the gale held still on, and, to our apprehensions, it was set in; blowing like a kind of monsoon, or trade-wind, though in those latitudes I know there is no such thing properly called, as a trade-wind.

We tried, the wind abating, to beat up again to the north, and we did so; but it was by running a great way to the east; and once, I believe, we were in the longitude of St. Helena, though so far south, but it cost us infinite labour, and near six weeks' time. At length we made the coast, and arrived again at the Port of St. Julian the 20th of June, which, by the way, is the depth of their winter.

Here we resolved to lay up for the winter, and not attempt to go so far south again at that time of the year, but our eager desire of pursuing our voyage prevailed, and we put out to sea again, having taken in fresh provisions, such as are to be had there; that is to say, seals, penguins, and such like, and with this recruit we put to sea, I say, a second time.

We had this time worse luck than we had before; for, the wind setting in at south-west, blew a storm, and drove us with such force away to sea eastward, that we were never able to make any way to the southward at all, but were carried away with a continued storm of wind, from the same corner, or near it. Our pilot, or master, as we called him, finding himself often obliged to go away before it, which kept us out long at sea, and drove us far to the north-east, eastward, that he advised us to stand away for the Cape of Good Hope; and accordingly we did so, and arrived there the last day of July.

We were now disheartened indeed, and I began to revive my proposal of going to the East Indies, as I at first proposed; and to answer the objection which they then made against it, as being against the nature of trade, and that we had nothing on board but European goods, which were not fitted for the East Indies, where money only was suitable to the market we were to make; I say, to answer this objection, I told them I would engage that I would sell our whole cargo at the Philippine Islands as well as on the coast of America; for that those islands being Spanish, our disguise of being French would serve us as well at the Philippines, as it would in New Spain; and with this particular advantage, that we should sell here for four times the value we should on the coast of Chili, or Peru; and that, when we had done, we could load our ship again there, or in other places in the Indies, with such goods as would come to a good market again in New Spain.

This I told them was indeed what had not been practised, nor at any other time would it be practicable: for as it was not usual for any ships to go from the East Indies to the Philippines, so neither was it usual for any European ships to trade with freedom in the South Seas, till, since the late war, when the French had the privilege; and I could not but be amazed that the French had never gone this way, where they might have made three or four voyages in one, and with much less hazard of meeting with the English or Dutch cruisers; and have made twice the profits which they made the other way, where they were frequently out three or four years upon one return; whereas here they might make no less than three returns, or perhaps four, in the same voyage and in much less time.

They were now a little surprised, for in all our first debates we had nothing of this matter brought in question; only they entertained a notion that I was going upon strange projects to make discoveries, search for the South pole, plant new colonies, and I know not how many whims of their own, which were neither in my design, or in my instructions. The person, therefore, who was our supercargo, and the other captain, whose name I have not mentioned, together with the French Captain, Merlotte, and the rest, who had all opposed me before, came cheerfully into my proposal; only the supercargo told me, in the name of the rest, that he began to be more sensible of the advantages of the voyage I had proposed, than he was before; but that, as he was equally intrusted with me in the government of the trading part, he begged I would not take it ill, that he desired I would let him farther into that particular, and explain myself, at least as far as I thought proper.

This was so just a request, and so easy for me to do, and, above all, was made with so much good manners and courtesy, that I told him, if I had been otherwise determined, the courteous and good-humoured way with which he required it, would constrain me to it; but that, however, I was very ready to do it, as he was intrusted with the cargo jointly with me, and that it was a piece of justice to the owners, that whom they thought fit to trust I should trust also; upon this I told him my scheme, which was as follows:

First, I said, that, as the Philippine Islands received all their European goods from Acapulco, in America, by the king of Spain's ships, they were obliged to give what price was imposed upon them by the merchants, who brought those goods by so many stages to Acapulco. For example, the European goods, or suppose English goods in particular, with which they were loaden, went first from England to Cadiz, from Cadiz by the galleons to Porto Bello, from Porto Bello, to Panama, from Panama to Acapulco; in all which places the merchants had their several commissions and other profits upon the sale; besides the extravagant charges of so many several ways of carriage, some by water, some by land, and besides the king's customs in all those places; and that, after all this, they were brought by sea from Acapulco to the Philippine Islands, which was a prodigious voyage, and were then generally sold in the Philippine Islands at three hundred per cent. advance.

That, in the room of all this, our cargo being well bought and well sorted, would come to the Philippine Islands at once, without any landing or re-landing, and without any of all the additions of charge to the first cost, as those by the way of New Spain had upon them; so that, if we were to sell them at the Philippine Islands a hundred per cent. cheaper than the Spaniards usually sold, yet we should get abundantly more than we could on the coast of Peru, though we had been allowed a free trade there.

That there were but two objections to this advantage, and these were, our liberty of trading, and whether the place would consume the quantity of goods we had; and to this I had much to answer. First, that it was well known at the Philippine Isles, that the kings of France and Spain were united firmly together; that the king of Spain had allowed the king of France's subjects a free trade in his American dominions, and consequently, that it would not be denied there; but, on the other hand, that, if it was denied by the governor, yet there would be room to find out a trade with the inhabitants, and especially with the Chinese and Japan merchants, who were always there, which trade the governor could not prevent; and thus we could not fear a market for all our cargo, if it was much greater than it was.

That as to the returns, we had the advantage either way: for, first, we should be sure to receive a great part of the price of our goods in Chinese or Japan gold and silver, or in pieces of eight; or, if we thought fit to trade another way, we might take on board such a quantity of China damasks, and other wrought silks, muslins and chintz, China ware, and Japan ware; all which, would be immediately sold in America; that we should carry a cargo of these goods to New Spain, infinitely to our advantage, being the same cargo which the four great Acapulco ships carry back with them every year: That when we had gone to the South Seas with this cargo, of which we knew we should make a good market, we had nothing to do but to come back, if we thought fit, to the East Indies again, where we might load for England or Flanders such goods as we thought proper; or, if we did not think fit to take so great a run, we might go away to the south, and round by Cape Horn into the Atlantic Ocean, and perfect those discoveries, which we made part of in the beginning of our voyage.

This was so clear a scheme of trade, that he seemed surprised with it, and fully satisfied in every part of it. But the captain then objected against the length of the voyage to the South Seas from the Philippines, and raised several scruples about the latitude which we should keep in such a voyage; that we should not be able to carry any provisions which we could take on board in those hot countries, that would keep for so long a run, and several other difficulties; to all which I made answer, that when we had sold our cargo at the Philippines, and found our advantages there to answer our desires, I would not oppose our returning from thence directly to England if they found it needful; or, if they thought a farther adventure would not answer the risks we were to expect in it, we would never have any dispute about that.

This satisfied them fully, and they went immediately with the news to the men, as what they thought would please them wonderfully, seeing they were mighty uneasy but two or three days before, about their being to go back again to the south of America, and the latitude of 64°, where we had not only been twice driven back, as if heaven had forbidden us to pass that way, but had been driven so far to the south, that we had met with a most severe cold, and which pinched our men exceedingly, who being come, as we might say, a hot-weather voyage, were but ill furnished for the state of the air usual in the latitudes of 64°.

But we had a harder task to go through than we expected, upon this occasion; and it may stand here upon record, as a buoy or beacon to warn officers and commanders of ships, supercargoes, and such as are trusted in the conduct of the voyage, never to have any disputes among themselves, (I say not among themselves), about the course they shall take, or whither they shall go; for it never fails to come among the men after them, and if the debate is but named on the outside of the great cabin door, it becomes immediately a dispute among the officers upon the quarter-deck, the lieutenants, mates, purser, &c.; from thence it gets afore the mast, and into the cook room, and the whole ship is immediately divided into factions and parties; every foremast man is a captain, or a director to the captain; every boatswain, gunner, carpenter, cockswain, nay, and even the cook, sets up for a leader of the men; and if two of them join parties, it is ten to one but it comes to a mutiny, and perhaps to one of the two last extremities of all mutinies, viz., running away from the ship, or, what is worse, running away with the ship.

Our case was exactly thus, and had issued accordingly, for aught I know, if we had not been in a port where, we got immediate assistance, and that by a more than ordinary vigour in the management too.

I have mentioned the first time when we called a council about our voyage at the Canaries, and how it was carried against my opinion not to go to the East Indies, but to go to the South Seas, about by Cape Horn. As the debate of this was not at all concealed, the officers of the ship, viz., the two lieutenants and two mates, the purser, and others, came in, and went out, and not only heard all we said, but talked of it at liberty on the quarter-deck, and where they pleased, till it went among the whole ship's crew. It is true, there came nothing of all this at that time, because almost all the votes being against my opinion, as I have said already, the ship's company seemed to join in naturally with it, and the men were so talked into the great prospects of gain to themselves, by a voyage to the South Seas, that they looked upon me, who ought to have had the chief direction in the business, to be nobody, and to have only made a ridiculous proposal, tending to hurt them; and I perceived clearly after this, that they looked upon me with an evil eye, as one that was against their interest; nay, and treated me with a sort of contempt too, as one that had no power to hurt them, but as one, that if things were left to me, would carry them on a wildgoosechase they knew not whither.

I took no notice of this at first, knowing that, in the process of things, I should have opportunity enough to let them know I had power to oblige them many ways; as also, that I had authority sufficient to command the whole ship, and that the direction of the voyage was principally in me, though I being willing to do everything in a friendly way, had too easily, and, I may say, too weakly, put that to the vote, which I had a right to have commanded their compliance with. The ill consequences of which appeared not for some time, but broke out upon the occasion of our new measures, as will presently appear.

As soon as we had determined our voyage among ourselves in the great cabin, the supercargo and Captain Merlotte went out upon the quarter-deck, and began to talk of it among the officers, midshipmen, &c.; and, to give them their due, they talked of it very honestly; not with any complaint of being over-ruled, or over-persuaded, but as a measure that was fully agreed to among us in the great cabin.

The boatswain, a blunt, surly, bold fellow, as soon as he heard of it, Very well, says he, so we are all come back into Captain Positive's blind proposal (for so he called me); why this is the same that everybody rejected at the Canaries; and now, because we are driven hither by contrary winds, those winds must be a reason why we must undertake a preposterous, ridiculous voyage, that never any sailor would have proposed, and that man never went before. What, does the captain think that we cannot find our way to the coast of America again, and because we have met with cross winds, we must never meet with fair ones? I warrant him, let us but go up the height of St. Helena, we will soon reach the Rio de la Plata and Port St. Julian again, and get into the South Seas too, as others have done before us.

The gunner took it from the boatswain, and he talks with one of the midshipmen in the same dialect. For my part, says he, I shipped myself for the South Seas when I first came aboard the ship, and in hopes of good booty; and if we go thither, I know nothing can hinder us, wind and weather permitting: but this is such a voyage as no man ever attempted before; and whatever the captain proposes, can have nothing in it for the men, but horrid fatigue, violent heats, sickness, and starving.

One of the mates takes it from him, and he says as openly, I wonder what a plague the rest of the gentlemen mean; they were all against the captain when he started this whimsical voyage before, and now they come all into it of a sudden, without any consideration; and so the project of one man must ruin the most promising voyage ever yet undertaken, and be the death of above two hundred as stout fellows as ever were together in one ship in this part of the world.

One of the midshipmen followed the mate, and said, We were all promised that another ship should be gotten, either purchased or taken, and that the first ship we took, should be manned and victualled out of this ship, where we were double manned, and crowded together enough to bring an infection among us, in such hot climates as we are going into; and if we were in the South Seas, we should easily buy a ship, or take a ship for our purpose, almost where we would; but in all this part of the world there is no such thing as a ship fit for an Englishman to set his foot in. We were promised, too, that when we got into such a ship, we that entered as midshipmen should be preferred to offices, as we were qualified, and as our merit should recommend us. What they are going to do with us now, I cannot imagine, unless it be to turn us afore the mast, when half the foremast men are dead, and thrown overboard.

The master, or pilot of the ship, heard all these things, and sent us word into the great cabin of all that passed, and, in short, assured us, that, if these things went a little farther, he was afraid they would come up to a mutiny; that there was great danger of it already, and that we ought to apply some immediate remedy to it, or else he thought it would be too late. He told me the particulars also, and how the whole weight of their resentment seemed to tend to quarrelling at my command, as believing that this project of going to the East Indies was wholly mine; and that the rest of the officers being a little influenced by the accident of our being driven so far out of our way, were only biassed in the rest by my opinion; and, as they were all against it before, would have been so still, if it had not been for me; and he feared, if they went on, they might enter into some fatal measures about me, and perhaps resolve to set me on shore in some barren uninhabited land or other, to give me my bellyful of new discoveries, as it seems some of them had hinted, and the second mate in particular.

I was far from being insensible of the danger I was in, and indeed of the danger the whole voyage, ship and all, was in; for I made no question, but that, if their brutish rage led them to one villanous action, they would soon go on to another; and the devil would take hold of that handle to represent the danger of their being punished for it when they came home; and so, as has been often the case, prompt them to mutiny against all command, and run away with the ship.

However, I had presence of mind enough to enter into prompt measures for our general safety, and to prevent the worse, in case of any attempt upon me. First, I represented the case to the rest of the gentlemen and asked if they would stand by me, and by the resolutions which we had taken for the voyage; then I called into our assistance the chief mate, who was a kinsman of one of our owners, a bold resolute gentleman, and a purser, who we knew was faithful to us; as also the surgeon and the carpenter. I engaged them all to give me first their opinions whether they were convinced of the reasonableness of my scheme for the voyage I had proposed; and that they might judge for themselves, laid it all before them again, arguing every part of it so clearly to them, that they were convinced entirely of its being the most rational prospect of the voyage for us, of any we could go about.

When I had done this, I recommended it to them to expostulate with the men, and if possible, to keep them in temper, and keep them to their duty; but at the same time, to stand all ready, and upon a signal which I gave them, to come all to the steerage, and defend the great cabin door with all the other hands, whom they could be sure of; and in the mean time to be very watchful over the motions of the men, and see what they drove at.

At the same time I fortified myself with the French captain, and the supercargo, and the other captain; and by the way, all the French captain's men were true to him, and he true to us, to a man. We then brought a sufficient store of ammunition and small arms into the great cabin, and secured the steerage, as also the roundhouse, so that we could not possibly be surprised.

There was nothing done that night, but the next morning I was informed, that the gunner and second mate were in a close cabal together, and one or two of the midshipmen, and that they had sworn to one another, not that they would not go the voyage as was proposed, for that might have ended in their running away, which I should not have been sorry for; but, in short, their oath was, that the ship should not go the voyage; by which I was presently to understand, that they had some measures to take to prevent my design of the voyage to the Philippines, and that, perhaps, this was to run away with the ship to Madagascar, which was not far off.

I had, however, this apparent encouragement, that as the contrivance was yet but two days' old, for it was but two days since they had any notice of our intentions to go, they would be some days caballing and forming an interest among the men, to make up a party strong enough to make any attempt; and that, as I had a trusty set of men, who would be as diligent the other way, they would be contriving every method to get the men over to their opinion, so that at least it would be some time before they could make their party up.

The affair was rightly conjectured, and the three men who had made themselves the head of the mutineers, went on apace, and my men increased too, as much as could be desired for the time; but the Friday after, which was about five days from the first discovery, one of the midshipmen came, and desired to speak with me, and begged it might not, if possible, be known that he was with me. I asked him if he desired to be alone; he said no, I might appoint whom I thought convenient that I could trust, but that what he had to say was of the last importance to all our lives, and that therefore, he hoped I would be very sure of those in whom I confided.

Upon this, I told him, I would name the chief mate, the French captain, and the supercargo, and in the mean time, I bade him not be too much surprised, for that I had already some warning of the scheme which I believed he had to tell me of, and that I was preparing all things to disappoint it: that, however, I should not value his fidelity the less, and that he might speak freely his mind before those men, for they were all in the secret already, and he might be sure both of protection and reward.

Accordingly, I bade him go out upon the quarter-deck, and walk there, and that, when the chief mate went off into the roundhouse, he should go down between decks as if he was going into his cabin to sleep, and that, when he heard the chief mate call the cabin boy, a black of mine, whose name was Spartivento, he should take that for a signal that the steerage was clear, and he might come up, and should be let into the great cabin; all which was so managed, and in so short a time, that he was with us in the great cabin in a quarter of an hour after the first conference, and none of the men perceived it.

Here he let me into the whole secret, and a wicked scheme it was; viz., that the second mate, the gunner, three midshipmen, the cockswain, and about six-and-thirty of the men, had resolved to mutiny, and seize upon all us who were in the new project, as they called it; and to confine us first, then to set us on shore, either there where we were, or somewhere else, and so carry the ship away to the South Seas, and then to do as they found convenient; that is to say, in a word, to seize upon me, the other captain, the French captain, the supercargo, the chief mate, doctor, and carpenter, with some others, and run away with the ship.

He told me, that they had not fully concluded on all their measures, nor gained so many of the men as they intended; that they were to sound some more of the men the next morning, and, as soon as they had made their number up fifty, they were resolved to make the attempt, which they did not question would be by Thursday, and this was Monday morning; and that, if they were then ready, they would make the onset at changing the watch the same evening. He added, that, as they were to go on shore the next morning for fresh water, I should know the truth of it by this; that the second mate would come to me, and tell me that they wanted more water, and to know if I pleased the boats should go on shore, and that, if I chose it, he would go with them, or any else whom I pleased to appoint; and that, upon supposition that I would leave it to him, to take those he thought fit to go with him, he would then take occasion to choose the principal conspirators, that they might, when they were on shore, conclude upon the measures they intended to pursue.

I had all that day (Monday) to order my preparations, and upon this plain intelligence, I determined to lose no time, nor was it long before I resolved what to do; for as their design was desperate, so I had nothing but desperate remedies to provide. Having therefore settled my measures, I called for the cockswain, and bade him man the pinnace, for that I was to go on shore, and I appointed only the supercargo, and the surgeon, and the French captain, to go with me.

There were no English ships in the road, but there were about five Dutch vessels homeward-bound, waiting for more, and three outward-bound. As I passed by one of the outward-bound East India ships, the French captain, as we had agreed before, pretended to know the ship, and that the commander was his old acquaintance, and asked me to give him leave to visit him, and told me he was sure he would make us all welcome. I seemed unwilling at first, telling him I intended to go on shore and pay my respects to the governor, and, as was usual, to ask him leave to buy some provisions, and that the governor would take it very ill if I did not go. However, upon his alleging that we would not stay, and that the Dutch captain, upon his going on board, would, he was sure, give us a letter of recommendation to the governor, by which we should have everything granted that we could desire, I consented to his importunity, and we went on board.

Captain Merlotte, who spoke Dutch very well, hailed the ship, asked the captain's name, and then asked if he was on board; they answered, Yes; then he bade them tell him the captain of the English ship was come to visit him; upon which, immediately their chief mate bade them man the side, and stood at the side to receive us, and, before we could get up, the Dutch captain came upon the quarter-deck, and with great civility invited us into his cabin; and, while we were there, the chief mate, by the captain's order, entertained the boat's crew with like civility.

When we were in the cabin, Captain Merlotte told the Dutch captain that we came indeed to him in the form of a visit, but that our business was of the greatest importance, and desired we might speak to him of it in the hearing of none but such as he could trust. The captain told us with the greatest open-heartedness imaginable, that though we were strangers to him, yet we looked like honest men, and he would grant our request; we should speak it in the hearing of none but those we could trust, for there should be nobody by but ourselves.

We made him fully sensible that we knew how obliging that compliment was, but begged he would admit any whom he thought worthy to be trusted with a secret of the last importance. He then carried it as far the other way, and told us, that then he must call in the whole ship's company, for that there was not a man in the ship but he could trust his life in his hands. However, upon the whole, he sent everybody out of the cabin but us three and himself, and then desired we would speak our minds freely.

Captain Merlotte, who spoke Dutch, began, but the Dutch captain interrupted him, and asked if the English captain, meaning me, spoke Dutch; he said no; upon which he asked Captain Merlotte if he spoke English, and he said yes, upon which he let me know that he understood English, and desired I would speak to him in English.

I was heartily glad of this, and began immediately with the story, for we had time little enough, I told him that he was particularly happy in having it in his power to say he could put his life in the hand of any man, the meanest in his ship; that my men were unhappily the reverse of his; and, then beginning at the first of the story, I gave him a full account of the whole, as related above.

He was extremely affected with it, and asked me what he could do to serve me, and assured me that he would not only do what in him lay, but would engage all the ships in the road to do the like, and the governor also on shore. I thanked him very sincerely, and told him what at present was the circumstance I thought lay before me, was this, viz., that the chief conspirators would be on shore on the morrow, with one, or perhaps two, of our boats, to fetch water and get some fresh provisions, and I should be very glad to have them seized upon by surprise, when they were on shore, and that then I thought I could master the rest on board well enough.

Leave that to me, says he, I will give the governor notice this evening, and as soon as they come on shore they shall be all seized; But, says he, if you think they may incline to make any resistance, I will write a line to the governor, and give it you now; then, when your men go on shore, order two of the principal rogues to go and wait on the governor with the letter from you, and when he receives it, he shall secure them there; so they will be divided, and taken with the more ease.

In the mean time, added he, while this is doing on shore, I will come on board your ship, with my long boat and pinnace, and as many men as you please, to repay you the compliment of this visit, and assist you in reducing the rest.

This was so kind, and so completely what I desired, that I could have asked nothing more; and I accepted his visit in his barge, which I thought would be enough, but was afraid that, if more came, our men might be alarmed, and take arms before I was ready; so we agreed upon that, and, if I desired more help, I should hang out a signal, viz., a red ancient, on the mizen top.

All things being thus consulted, I returned on board, pretending to our men that I had spent so much time on board the Dutch ship, that I could not go on shore; and indeed some of my men were so drunk, that they could scarce sit to their oars; and the coxswain was so very far gone, that I took occasion to ask publicly, to leave him on board till the next day, giving the Dutch captain also a hint that he was in the conspiracy, and I should be glad to leave him on that account.

The next day, about nine o'clock, the second mate came to me, and told me they wanted more water, and, if I pleased to order the boat on shore, he would go if I thought fit, and see if he could get any fresh provisions, the purser being indisposed.

I told him, yes, with all my heart; that the Dutch captain last night had given me a letter to the governor, to desire we might be furnished with whatever we had occasion for, and that I had thoughts of calling for him to go on shore and deliver it, and that, perhaps, the governor might make him some present in compliment to the English nation.

He seemed extremely pleased at this, and even elevated, and going out to give orders about the boat, ordered the long-boat and the shallop, and came in again, and asked me whom I pleased to have go along with him. I answered, smilingly to him. Pick and choose then yourself, only leave the pinnace's crew that went with me yesterday, because they must go on board again to carry the Dutch captain a little present of English beer that I am going to send him, and fetch aboard their drunken coxswain, who was so intoxicated that we were fain to leave him behind us.

This was just what he wanted; and we found he chose all the chief rogues of the conspiracy; such as the boatswain, the gunner, the midshipmen we spoke of, and such of the foremast men as he had secured in his design; and of the rest, we judged they were in the plot, because he took them with him; and thus having the long-boat and the shallop, with about six-and-thirty men with them, away they went to fill water.

When they came on shore, they had presently three Dutchmen, set by the Dutch captain, unperceived by them, to be spies upon them, and to mark exactly what they did; and at the same time found three boats of Dutchmen at the watering-place, (for the captain had procured two boats to go on shore from two other ships,) full of men also, having acquainted them with the design. As soon as our boats came on shore, the men appeared to be all very much engaged in something more than ordinary, and, instead of separating, as it was expected they should, they went all into one boat, and there they were mighty busily engaged in discourse one with another.

The Dutch captain had given the charge of these things to a brisk bold fellow, his mate, and he took the hints the captain gave him so well, that nothing could have been better; for, finding the men thus in a kind of a cabal, he takes four of his men with muskets on their shoulders, like the governor's men, and goes with them to the Englishmen's boat, and asks for their officer, the second mate, who, upon this, appears. He tells them he comes from the governor, to know if they were Englishmen, and what their business was on shore there: the mate answered, they came from on board the English ship, that they were driven there by stress of weather, and hoped they might have leave to fill water and buy necessaries for their money.

He told them he supposed the governor would not refuse them when he knew who they were, but that it was but good manners to ask leave: the Englishman told him, that he had not yet filled any water or bought any provisions, and that he had a letter to the governor from the captain, which he supposed was to pay the usual civilities to him, and to give him the civility of taking leave, as was expected.

The Dutchman answered, that was hael weel; that he might go and carry it, if he pleased, then, and, if the governor gave them leave, all was right and as it should be; but that the men could not be admitted to come on shore till his return.

Upon this, away goes the second mate of our ship and three of the men with him, whereof the gunner was one; for he had asked the Dutchman how many he might carry with him, and he told him three or four: and those he took you may be sure, were of the particular men whom he had a confidence in, because of their conversing together by the way.

When they came to the governor, the mate sent in a message first, viz., that he was come from on board the English ship in the road, and that he had a letter from the captain to his excellence.

The governor, who had notice given him of the business, sends out word, that the gentlemen should send in the letter, and the governor would give them an answer: in the mean time, there appeared a guard of soldiers at the governor's house, and the four Englishmen were let into the outer room, where the door was shut after them, and the soldiers stood without the door, and more soldiers in another room between them and the parlour which the governor sat in.

After some time, the mate was called in, and the governor told him that he had read the letter which he brought, and asked him if he knew the contents of it; he answered, No: the governor replied, he supposed not, for, if he had, he would scarce have brought it; at the same time told him, he was obliged to make him and all his men prisoners, at the request of their own captain, for a conspiracy to raise a mutiny and run away with the ship. Upon which, two great fat Dutchmen came up to him, and bid him deliver his sword, which he did with some reluctance; for he was a stout strong fellow; but he saw it all to no purpose to dispute or resist.

At the same time, the three men without were made prisoners also by the soldiers. When the governor had thus secured these men, he called them in, and inquired the particulars of the case, and expostulated with them very pathetically upon such a horrid, villanous design, and inquired of them what the occasion could be; and, hearing all they had to say in their defence, told them he could do nothing more in it till their captain came on shore, which would be in a day or two, and that, in the mean time, they must be content to remain in custody, which they did, separated from one another. They were very civilly treated, but strictly kept from speaking or sending any messages to one another, or to the boats.

When this was accomplished, the governor sent six files of musketeers down to the watering-place, with an order to secure all the Englishmen in the two boats, which was done. They seemed inclined to make some resistance at first, being all very well armed; but the seamen of the three Dutch long-boats, joining themselves to the soldiers, and notice being given the English seamen, that if they fired one gun, they should have no quarter; and especially their two principal men, the chief mate and the gunner, being absent, they submitted, and were all made prisoners also.

When this was done, of which the Dutch captain had notice by a signal from the shore, he came off in his shallop, with about sixteen seamen, and five or six gentlemen and officers, to pay his visit to me. I received him with all the appearance of ceremony imaginable, ordered an elegant dinner to be prepared for him, and caused his men to be all treated upon the deck, and made mighty preparations for the feast.

But in the middle of all this, Captain Merlotte, with all his Frenchmen, being thirty-two, appeared in arms on the quarter-deck; the Dutch captain's attendants stood to their arms on the main-deck, and I, with the supercargo, the doctor, and the other captain, leaving the Dutch captain and some men in the great cabin as a reserve, came to the steerage door, cleared the steerage behind me, and stood there with a cutlass in my hand, but said nothing; neither was there a word spoke anywhere all the while.

In this juncture, the chief mate, the faithful midshipmen, the carpenter, and the gunner's mate, with about twenty men whom they could trust, went fore and aft between decks, and secured all the particular men that we had the least suspicion of, being no less than thirty-five more. These they secured, bringing them up into the steerage, where their hands were tied behind them, and they were commanded not to speak a word to one another upon pain of present death.

When this was done, the chief mate came to me to the steerage door, and passing by, went forward with his men, entered the cook-room, and posted himself at the cook-room door. There might be still about eighty men upon the forecastle and midships upon the open decks; and there they stood staring, and surprised at what was doing, but not being able to guess in the least what was meant, what was the cause of it, or what was intended to be done farther.

When I found all things ready, I moved forward a step or two, and beckoning to the mate to command silence, I told the men that I was not disposed to hurt any man, nor had I done what I now did, but by necessity, and that I expected they should all submit; that, if any one of them made the least resistance, he was a dead man; but that, if they would be easy and quiet, I should give a very good account to them all, of every part of the voyage, or scheme of a voyage, which I had laid, and which had been so ill represented to them.

Then I caused my commissioner letter of mart to be read to them all, by which it appeared that I was really chief commander of the ship, and had a right to direct the voyage as I thought best; with a paper of written instructions, signed by the owners and adventurers, and directed to me, with another paper of instructions to all the officers, to be directed by me in all things; which, indeed, was all news to them, for they did not think I was the chief captain or commander of the ship and voyage.

When I had done this, I gave them a long and full account of the reasons why I thought it best, as our present circumstances were stated, not to go to the South Seas first, but to go away to the Philippine Islands, and what great prospect of advantage to the owners there was, as well as to the men; and that I wondered much that such measures were taken in the ship as I heard there were; and that I was not, they might see, unprovided of means to reduce every one of them to their duty by force, and to punish those that were guilty, as they deserved, but that I rather desired to win them with kindness; and that, therefore, I had resolved, that if any of them had any reason to dislike the voyage, they should be safely set on shore, and suffered to go to the second mate and his comrades: and farther, I told them what circumstances they were in and how effectually they were secured.

This astonished them, and surprised them exceedingly, and some of them inquired more particularly into the circumstances of the said second mate and his fellows: I told them they were safe enough, and should remain so; for, as I could prove they had all a villanous design to run away with the ship, and set me on shore, either here, or in a worse place, I thought that only upon account of my own safety, such men were not fit to go in the ship, being once capable to entertain such horrid mischievous thoughts, or that could be guilty of such a villany; and that, if any of them were of their minds, they were very welcome, if they thought fit, to go to them.

At this offer, some bold rogues upon the forecastle, which I did not discern, by reason of the number that stood there, cried out, One and all, which was a cry, at the same time, of mutiny and rebellion, that was certain, and in its kind very dangerous.

However, to let them see I was not to be daunted with it, I called out to one of the men among them, whom I saw upon the forecastle; You Jones, said I, tell me who they are, and come away from them, for I will make an example of them, whoever they are. Will Jones slunk in among the rest, and made me no answer, and immediately One and all was cried again, and a little huzza with it, and some of the men appeared to have fire-arms with them. There was a great many of them, and I presently foresaw, that, if I went to the extremity, I should spoil the voyage, though I conquered them; so I bridled my passion with all my power, and said calmly, Very well, gentlemen, let me know what you mean by one and all? I offered any of you that did not like to go the voyage to quit the ship; is that what you intend by one and all? If so, you are welcome, and pray take care to do it immediately; as for what chests or clothes you have in the ship, you shall have them all with you. Upon this I made the chief mate, who was now come to me again, advance a little with some more men, and get between the men upon the forecastle and those who were upon the main deck; and, as if he had wanted room, when he had gotten between them, he said to them, Stand aft a little, gentlemen, and so crowded them towards me.

As they came nearer and nearer to where I stood, I had an opportunity to speak to them singly, which I did calmly and smilingly.

Why, how now, Tom, says I, to one of them; what are you among the mutineers?

Lord, sir, says Tom, not I, they are mad, I think; I have nothing to say to them; I care not where I go, not I; I will go round the globe with you, it's all one to me.

Well, Tom, says I, but what do you do among them then? come away into the steerage, and show yourself an honest man.

So Tom comes in, and after him another, and then two more. Upon my saying to Tom, What do you do among them? one of the fellows says to one of the officers that stood at a little distance from me, What does the captain mean by saying, among them? What, does he reckon us to be in the plot? He is quite wrong, we are all ignorant, and surprised at it. He immediately tells me this, and I was glad, you may be sure, to hear it, and said aloud to the man that he spoke to, If they are honest men, and would not appear in this villany, let them go down between decks, and get out of the way, that they may have no share in the punishment, if they have none in the crime. With all my heart, says one; God bless you, captain, says another, and away they dropt one by one in at the steerage door, and down between decks, every one in his hammock or cabin, till there were not above five or six of them left.

By this time, our two boats appeared from the shore, being both manned with Dutchmen, viz. the Dutch captain's mate and about twenty of his men, all the water casks full, but not a man of mine with them, for they were left on shore in safe custody.

I waited till they came on board, and then turning to the men on the forecastle, I told them they should go on board the boats immediately, as soon as the butts of water were hoisted in. They still said, One and all, they were ready, desired they might go and fetch their clothes.

No, no, says I, not a man of you shall set your foot any more into the ship; but go get you into the boat, and what is your own shall be given you into the boat.

As I spoke this in an angry tone, and with a kind of passion, that bespoke resentment to a high degree, they began to see they had no opportunity to choose; and some of them slipt down the scuttle into the cook-room. I had ordered the officer who was there, who was one of the midshipmen, to wink at it, and let as many come down as offered it; and the honest man did more than that, for he went to the scuttle himself, and, as if he had whispered, so that I should not hear him, called them one by one by their names, and argued with them; Prithee, Jack, says he to one of them, do not you be distracted, and ruin yourself to gratify a rash drunken humour; if you go into the boat you are undone; you will be seized as soon as you come on shore, as the rest are, and will be sent to England in irons, and there you will be infallibly hanged; why you are certainly all mad.

Jack replies, he had no design to mutiny, but the second mate drew him in, and he did not know what to do, he wished he had not meddled; he knew he was undone; but now what could he do?

Do, says the midshipman, leave them for shame, and slip down here, and I will see and get you off if I can.

Accordingly he pulled him down, and after him so many got out of sight the same way, that there was not above seventeen or eighteen left upon the forecastle.

I seemed to take no notice of that, till at last one of the men that was left there, with his hat or cap in his hand, stepping just to the edge of the forecastle, which was next to me, said, in a very respectful manner, that I saw how many had slunk away and made their peace, or at least obtained pardon, and that I might, perhaps, know that they who were left were only such as had their duty there, being placed there of course before the mutiny began, and that they had no hand in it, but abhorred it with all their hearts, which he hoped I would consider, and not join them with those that had offended, merely because they came upon the forecastle, and mixed there with the men who had the watch.

I told him, if that was true, it would be in their favour, but I expected he would prove it to my satisfaction before I accepted that for an excuse. He told me, it might, perhaps, be hard to prove it, seeing the boatswain and his mate, and the second mate, were gone, but the rest of the ship's crew could all testify that they were a part of the men whose watch it was, and that they were upon the forecastle by the necessity of their duty, and no otherwise; and called several men who were upon duty with them to witness it, who did confirm it.

Upon this, I found myself under a necessity, in justice to the men, to approve it; but my own management was a bite upon myself in it; for, though I did allow the midshipman to wink at their slipping away, as before, yet I made no question but I should have some left to make examples of; but as I could not go back from the promise of mercy which I had allowed the midshipman to offer in my name, so I tricked myself by their mistake into a necessity of pardoning them all, which was very far from my design; but there was no remedy.

However, the men, when they were so happily escaped, desired the midshipman, who had been instrumental to their deliverance, to assure me, that as they were sensible that they had deserved very ill at my hands, and that yet I had treated them thus kindly, they would not only reveal to me all the particulars of the conspiracy, and the names of those principally concerned in it, but that they would assure me they would never more dispute any of my measures, but were very ready to do their duty as seamen, to what part of the world soever I might think fit to go, or which way I thought fit to carry them, whether outward or homeward; and that they gave me the tender of their duty in this manner with the utmost sincerity and with thankfulness, for my having forgiven them that conduct which was the worst that a seamen could be guilty of.

I took this very kindly, and sent them word I did so, and that they should see they had taken the wiser course; that I had an entire confidence in their fidelity; and that they should never find I would reproach them with, or use them the worse for, what had past.

I must confess, I was very glad of this submission of the men; for though, by the measures I had taken, I was satisfied I should conquer them, and that I was safe from their attempts; yet, carrying it on by resentment, and doing justice upon the offenders, whatever advantage it had one way, had this disadvantage in the consequence; viz., that it would ruin the voyage, for at least half the men were in the plot.

Having thus conquered them by good usage, I thought my next work was to inquire into the mistakes which had been the foundation of all this: so, before I parted with the men who had returned to their duty, I told them, that as I had freely forgiven what was past, so I would keep my word, that I would never reproach them with it; but that I thought it was necessary their judgments should be convinced how much they were imposed upon, as well as their tempers be reduced by my kindness to them. That I was of the opinion that they had been abused in the account given them of what I had designed to do, and of the reasons I had to give for doing it; and I would desire them to let me know afterwards, whether they had been faithfully informed or not; and whether in their own judgment, now when they were freed from the prepossessions they were under, they could object anything against it or no.

This I did with respect to the other men whom I had made prisoners in the steerage, whom I had the same design to be kind to as I had to these; but upon whom I resolved to work this way, because, after all, I might have this work to do over again, if I should meet with any disappointment or miscarriage in the voyage; or especially, if we should be put to any difficulties or distresses in the pursuing it.

In order to this I caused the voyage itself, and the reasons of it, the nature of the trade I was to carry on by it, the pursuit of it to the South Seas, and, in a word, everything just as we had argued and settled it in the great cabin, to be put into writing and read to them.

The fellows, every one of them, declared they were fully satisfied in the voyage itself, and that my reasons for it were perfectly good; and that they had received a quite different account of it; as that I would carry them into the island of the Moluccas, which was the most unhealthy part of the East Indies; that I would go away to the south for new discoveries; and that I would go away thence to the South Seas; which was a voyage of such a length, that no ship could victual for; that it was impossible to carry fresh water such a length; and, in a word, that it was a voyage that would destroy us all.

It was the chief mate and the midshipman who took them all down the scuttle, that brought me this account from them: so I made him take two of those penitent mutineers with him, and go to the men in the steerage, whom he had made prisoners at first, and see whether their delusions were of the same kind, and what kind of temper they were in; accordingly, he went to them directly, for this was not a business that admitted giving them time to club and cabal together, and form other societies or combinations which might have consequences fatal to us still.

When he came to them, he told them, the captain was willing to do all the justice possible to his men, and to use them, on all occasions, with equity and kindness; that I had ordered him to inquire calmly what it was had moved them to these disorders, and what it was which they had been made to believe was doing, that they could enter into measures so destructive to themselves, and to those who had intrusted them all with the ship and cargo; for that, in a voyage, every foremast-man, in his degree, is trusted with the safety of the whole ship.

They answered it was the second mate; that they had never shown themselves discontented, much less disorderly, in the ship; that they had, on all occasions, done their duty through the whole voyage till now; and that they had no ill design upon any one, much less had they any design to destroy the voyage, or injure the captain; but that they were all told by the second mate, that the captain had imposed upon them, by proposing a mad voyage to the south pole, that would be the death of them all, and that they were to lay aside the trading and cruising voyages which they came out upon, and were now to spend the whole voyage in new discoveries; by which the men could propose nothing to themselves but hardships, and perhaps perishing with hunger and cold; whereas, had they gone to the South Seas as was intended, they might all have been made; and that the hazards, with that prospect, had some consolation in them; whereas, in this project, there was nothing but certain destruction.

The mate delivered them a copy of the scheme I had proposed, the reasons of it, the trade I had designed, the return I was to make, and everything, as I have already mentioned, and bade them take it and consider of it.

As I was justly provoked to see how I had been abused and misrepresented to the men, so they were astonished when they read my scheme, and saw what mischiefs they had been led into, for they knew not what, and without any reason or just consideration: and, after they had debated things awhile among themselves, they desired the chief mate might come to them again, which he did; then they told him, that as they had been thus grossly abused, and drawn into mischiefs which they never designed, by such plausible pretences, and by being told such a long story full of lies, and to carry on an infernal project of the second mate's, they hoped their being so much imposed upon would a little extenuate their fault; that they were convinced the captain had proposed nothing but what was very rational, and a voyage that might be very profitable to the owners and to every individual; and they entirely threw themselves upon the captain's mercy, and humbly begged pardon; that, if I pleased to forgive them, they would endeavour to merit such forgiveness by their future behaviour; and that, in the mean time, they submitted to what punishment I pleased to lay upon them: and, particularly, that, as they had forfeited, by their conspiracy, all the claims they had upon the ship, and might justly have been turned on shore at the first land they came to, they were willing to sign a discharge for all their wages due to them, which was now near eight months a man, and to be considered for the rest of the voyage as they deserved: that they would all take a solemn oath of fidelity to me to do their duty, to go wherever I would carry them, and to behave with the greatest submission and diligence, in hopes to regain my favour by their future behaviour, and to show their gratitude for the pardon I should grant them.

This was, indeed, just as I would have it, for I wanted nothing more than to have something offered, which I might give them back again; for I ever thought, and have found it by experience, to be the best way; and men were always secured in their duty by a generous kindness, better than by absolute dominion and severity: indeed, my opinion was justified in all the measures I took with these men; for as I found they were sufficiently humbled, and that I had brought them low enough, I let them know that it was not their punishment but their amendment I desired; that I scorned to make a prey of them, and take that forfeiture they had offered, by putting the wages due to them for their labour in my pocket. I then sent them word I was very glad to hear that they were sensible how much they had been imposed upon; that, as it was not my design to offer anything to them which they or any honest men ought to refuse, so it was not my desire to make any advantages of their follies but what might tend to bring them back to their duty; that, as I had no prospect that was inconsistent with their safety and interest, so I scorned to make an advantage of their submission; that as to their wages, though they had forfeited them by their mutiny, yet God forbid I should convert them to my own profit; and since forgiving their offence was in my power, the crime being in one particular an offence against me, they should never be able to say I made a gain of their submission, and, like the Pope, should sell them my pardon; that, upon their solemnly engaging to me never to offer the least disturbance of any kind in the ship for the future, but to do their duty faithfully and cheerfully, I would forget all that was passed; only this I expected, that two of them, who were particularly guilty of threatening the life of Captain Merlotte, should be punished as they deserved.

They could not deny but this was most just; and they did not so much as offer to intercede for those two; but, when one of the two moved the rest to petition for them, they answered they could not do it, for they had received favour enough for themselves, and they could not desire anything of the captain for their sakes, for they had all deserved punishment as well as they.

In a word, the two men were brought upon deck, and soundly whipped and pickled; and they all proved very honest ever after: and these, as I said at first, were two-and-thirty in all.

All this while Captain Merlotte with his Frenchmen were in arms, and had possession on the quarter-deck to the number of twenty-three stout men; I had possession of the main-deck with eighteen men and the sixteen Dutchmen, and my chief mate with the midshipman, had possession of the cook-room and quarter-deck; the Dutch captain, our supercargo, the surgeon, and the other captain, kept the great cabins with a guard of twelve musketeers without the door, and about eight more within, besides servants. Captain Merlotte's man also had a guard of eight men in the roundhouse. I had now nothing to do but with my men who were on shore; and of these, six were no way culpable, being men not embarked in the design, but carried on shore by the chief mate, with a design to engage them with him; so that, indeed, they fell into a punishment before they fell into the crime, and what to do with these men was a nice point to manage.

The first thing I did, was to dismiss my visitor, the Dutch captain, whom I had a great deal of reason to think myself exceedingly obliged to: and, first, I handsomely rewarded his men, to whom I gave four pieces of eight a man; and having waited on the captain to the ship's side, and seen him into his boat, I fired him twenty-one guns at his going off; for which he fired twenty-five when he came on board his ship.

The same afternoon I sent my pinnace on board him for my drunken cockswain, and with the pinnace I sent the captain three dozen bottles of English beer, and a quarter cask of Canary, which was the best present I had to make him; and sent every one of his other seamen a piece of eight per man; and, indeed, the assistance I had from the ship deserved it; and to the mate, who acted so bravely with my men on shore, I sent fifty pieces of eight.

The next day I went on shore to pay my respects to the governor, when I had all the prisoners delivered up to me. Six men I caused to be immediately set at liberty, as having been innocent, and brought all the rest on board, tied hand and foot, as prisoners, and continued them so, a great while afterward, as the reader will find. As for the second mate, I tried him formally by a council of war, as I was empowered by my commission to do, and sentenced him to be hanged at the yard-arm: and though I suspended the execution from day to day, yet I kept him in expectation of the halter every hour; which, to some, would have been as grievous as the hanging itself.

Thus we conquered this desperate mutiny, all principally proceeding from suffering the private disputes among ourselves, which ought to have been the arcana of the whole voyage, and kept as secret as death itself could have kept it, I mean so as not to come among the seamen afore the mast.

We lay here twelve days, during which time we took in fresh water as much as we had casks for, and were able to stow. On the 13th day of August, we weighed and stood away to the east, designing to make no land any more till we came to Java Head, and the Straits of Sunda, for that way we intended to sail; but the wind sprung up at E. and E. S. E., and blew so fresh, that we were obliged, after two days' beating against it, to bear away afore it, and run back to the Cape of Good Hope.

While we were here, there came in two Dutch East Indiamen more, homeward-bound, to whom had happened a very odd accident.

They had been attacked by a large ship of forty-four guns, and a stout sloop of eight guns; the Dutch ships resolving to assist one another, stood up to the Frenchman, (for such it seems he was,) and fought him very warmly. The engagement lasted six or seven hours; in which the privateer had killed them some men; but in the heat of the fight, the sloop received a shot, which brought her mainmast by the board; and this caused the captain of the frigate to sheer off, fearing his sloop would be taken; but the sloop's men took care of themselves, for, hauling a little out of the fight, they got into their own boats, and a boat which the frigate sent to their help, and abandoned the sloop; which the Dutchmen perceiving, they manned out their boats, and sent and took the sloop with all that was in her, and brought her away with them.

The Dutchmen came into the road at the Cape with this prize while our ship was there the second time; and we saw them bringing the sloop in tow, having no mast standing, but a little pole-mast set up for the present, and her mizen, which was also disabled, and of little use to her.

I no sooner saw her, but it came into my thoughts, that, if she was anything of a sea-boat, she would do our business to a tittle; and, as we had always resolved to get another ship, but had been disappointed, this would answer our end exactly; accordingly I went with my chief mate, in our shallop, on board my old acquaintance the Dutch captain, and inquiring there, was informed that it was a prize taken, and that in all probability the captain that took her would be glad to part with her; and the captain promised me to go on board the ship that brought her in, and inquire about it, and let me know.

Accordingly, the next morning the captain sent me word I might have her; that she carried eight guns, had good store of provisions on board, with ammunition sufficient, and I might have her and all that was in her for twelve hundred pieces of eight. In a word, I sent my chief mate back with the same messenger and the money, giving him commission to pay for her, and take possession of her, if he liked her; and the Dutch captain, my friend, lent him twelve men to bring her off to us, which they did the same day.

I was a little put to it for a mast for her, having not anything on board we could spare that was fit for a main-mast; but resolving at last to mast her not as a sloop, but as a brigantine, we made shift with what pieces we had, and a spare foretop-mast, which one of the Dutch ships helped me to; so we fitted her up very handsomely, made her carry twelve guns, and put sixty men on board. One of the best things we found on board her, were casks, which we greatly wanted, especially for barrelling up beef and other provisions, which we found very difficult; but our cooper eked them out with making some new ones out of her old ones.

After staying here sixteen days more, we sailed again. Indeed, I thought once we should never have gone away at all; for it is certain above half the men in the ship had been made uneasy, and there remained still some misunderstanding of my design, and a supposition of all the frightful things the second mate had put in their heads; and, by his means, the boatswain and gunner.

As these three had the principal management of the conspiracy, and that I had pardoned all the rest, I had some thoughts of making an example of these; I took care to let them know it, too, in a manner that they had no room to think it was in jest, but I intended to have them all three hanged; and I kept them above three weeks in suspense about it: however, as I had no intention to put them to death, I thought it was a piece of cruelty, something worse than death, to keep them continually in expectation of it, and in a place too where they had but little more than room to breathe.

So, having been seventeen days gone from the Cape, I resolved to relieve them a little, and yet at the same time remove them out of the way of doing me any capital injury, if they should have any such design still in their heads. For this purpose, I caused them to be removed out of the ship into brigantine, and there I permitted them to have a little more liberty than they had on board the great ship; and where two of them entered into another conspiracy, as wild and foolish as ever I heard of, or as, perhaps, was ever heard of by any other; but of this I shall say more in its place.

We were now to sail in company, and we went away from the Cape, the 3rd of September, 1714. We found the brigantine was an excellent sea-boat, and could bear the weather to a miracle, and no bad sailer; she kept pace with us on all occasions, and in a storm we had at S. S. E., some days after, she shifted as well as we did in the great ship, which made us all well pleased with her.

This storm drove us away to the northward; and I once thought we should have been driven back to the Cape again; which, if it had happened, I believe we should never have gone on with the voyage; for the men began to murmur again, and say we were bewitched; that we were beaten off first from the south of America, that we could never get round there, and now driven back from the south of Africa; so that, in short, it looked as if fate had determined this voyage to be pursued no farther. The wind continued, and blew exceeding hard: and, in short, we were driven so far to the north, that we made the south point of the island of Madagascar.

My pilot knew it to be Madagascar as soon as he had a clear view of the land; and, having beaten so long against the sea to no purpose, and being in want of many things, we resolved to put in; and accordingly made for Port St. Augustine, on the west side of the island, where we came to an anchor in eleven fathom water, and a very good road.

I could not be without a great many anxious thoughts upon our coming into this island; for I knew very well that there was a gang of desperate rogues here, especially on the northern coast, who had been famous for their piracies; and I did not know but that they might be either strong enough as pirates to take us, or rogues enough to entice a great many of my men to run away; so I resolved neither to come near enough the shore to be surprised, nor to suffer any of my men to go on shore, such excepted as I could be very secure of.

But I was soon informed by a Dutchman, who came off to me with some of the natives in a kind of canvass boat, that there were no Europeans there but himself, and the pirates were on the north part of the island; that they had no ship with them of any force, and that they would be glad to be fetched off by any Christian ship; that they were not above two hundred in number, their chief leaders, with the only ships of force they had, being out a cruising on the coast of Arabia, and the Gulf of Persia.

After this, I went on shore myself with Captain Merlotte, and some of the men whom I could trust; and we found it true as the Dutchman had related. The Dutchman gave us a long history of his adventures, and how he came to be left there by a ship he came in from Europe, which, he running up into the country for sport with three more of his comrades, went away without them, and left them among the natives, who, however, used them extremely well; and that now he served them for an interpreter and a broker, to bargain for them with the European ships for provisions. Accordingly, he engaged to bring us what provisions we pleased, and proposed such trinkets in return as he knew the natives desired, and as were of value little enough to us; but he desired a consideration for himself in money, which, though it was of no use to him there, he said it might be hereafter; and, as his demand was but twenty pieces of eight, we thought he very well deserved them.

Here we bought a great quantity of beef, which, having no casks to spare, we salted, and then cured it in the sun, by the Dutchman's direction, and it proved of excellent use to us through the whole voyage; for we kept some of it till we came to England, but it was then so hard, that a good hatchet would hardly cut it.

While we lay here, it came into my thoughts, that now was a good time to execute justice upon my prisoners; so I called up the officers to a kind of council of war, and proposed it to them in general terms, not letting them know my mind as to the manner of it. They all agreed it was necessary, and the second mate, boatswain, and gunner, had so much intelligence of it from the men, that they prepared for death as much as if I had signed a dead-warrant for their execution, and that they were to be hanged at the yard-arm.

But, in the midst of those resolves, I told the council of officers, my design was to the north part of the island, where a gang of pirates were said to be settled, and that I was persuaded I might get a good ship among them, and as many men as we desired, for that I was satisfied the greatest part of them were so wearied of their present situation, that they would be glad of an opportunity to come away, and especially such as had, either by force, or rash, hasty resolutions, been, as it were, surprised into that sort of life; that I had been informed they were very far from being in such a formidable posture as they had been represented to us in Europe, or anything near so numerous; but that, on the contrary, we should find them poor, divided, in distress, and willing to get away upon any terms they could.

Some of the officers of the ship differed from me in my opinion. They had received such ideas of the figure those people made in Madagascar, from the common report in England, that they had no notion of them, but as of a little commonwealth of robbers; that they were immensely rich; that Captain Avery was king of the Island; that they were eight thousand men; that they had a good squadron of stout ships, and that they were able to resist a whole fleet of men of war; having a harbour so well fortified at the entrance into it, that there was no coming at them without a good army for land-service, to assist in the enterprise.

I convinced them how impossible this was to be true, and told them all the discourse I had with the Dutchman, at the place where I now was, who had received a full account of the particulars from several of them who had come down to St. Augustine's in little boats in order to make their escape from their comrades, and to get passage for Europe; that he had always assisted, and got them off, whenever any ship touched at that port; and that they all agreed in their relation of their state and condition, which was indeed miserable enough, saving that they wanted not for victuals.

In a word, I soon brought them to enter into the reason of it, and to be of my opinion; and, accordingly, I ordered to get ready, and in three days' time weighed anchor, and stood away for the north of the island, taking care not to communicate our debates and resolves to the men before the mast, as had been done before, we having had enough of that already.

While we were thus coasting the island to the north, and in the channel or sea between the island and the main of Africa, it came into my thoughts, that I might now make use of my traitors to my advantage and their own too, and that I might, if they were honest, gain my end, and get a full intelligence of the people I had my eye upon; and, if they were still traitors, they would desert and go over to the pirates, and I should be well rid of them, without the necessity of bringing them to the yard-arm; for I was very uneasy in my mind about hanging them, nor could I ever have been brought to do it, I believe, whatever risk I had run from their mutinous disposition.

I was now got in the latitude of fifteen degrees and a half south of the line, and began to think of standing in for the shore; when I ordered the second mate, who lay in irons in the brigantine, to be brought on board the great ship, and to be called up into the great cabin. He came in great concern, though he was of himself a very bold and resolute fellow, yet, as he made no doubt that he was sent for to execution, he appeared thoroughly softened, and quite another man than he was before.

When he was brought in, I caused him to be set down in a nook of the cabin where he could not stir to offer any violence to me, had he been so inclined, two large chests being just before him; and I ordered all my people to withdraw, except Captain Merlotte and the supercargo; and then, turning myself to the criminal, I told him, as he knew his circumstances, I need not repeat them, and the fact for which he was brought into that condition; that I had hitherto, from time to time, delayed his execution, contrary to the opinion of the rest of the chief officers, who in full council had unanimously condemned him; that a sudden thought had come into my mind, which, if he knew how to merit mercy, and to retrieve his circumstances by his future fidelity, might once again put it into his power, not only to save his life, but to be trusted in the ship again, if he inclined to be honest; that, however, if he had no inclination to merit by his service, I would put it to his choice, either to undertake with courage and fidelity what I had to propose to him, in which case he might expect to be very well treated, or, if not, I would pardon him as to the death he had reason to expect, and he with his two fellow-criminals should be set on shore to go whither they pleased.

He waited, without offering to speak a word, till I made a full stop, and then asked me if I gave him leave to answer.

I told him he might say whatever he thought proper.

Then he asked if I gave him leave to speak freely, and would not take offence at what he might say? I replied, he should speak as freely as if he had never offended; and that, as I had given him his life, I now would give him my word, nothing he could say should revoke the grant; and that he should not only go freely on shore, (for I expected by his words that he had made that choice) but I would give him the lives of his two fellow-prisoners; and would give them arms and ammunition, and anything else that was reasonable for them to ask, or necessary to their subsisting on shore in such a country.

He told me then, that had it been any other part of the world than at Madagascar, he would readily have chosen to have gone on shore; nay, though the place had been really desolate and uninhabited; that he did not object because my offer was not very generous and kind, and that it would be always with regret that he should look back upon the mercy he should have received, and how ill he had deserved it at my hands.

But that as it was at this place that I mentioned setting him at liberty, he told me, that though he had been mutinous and disorderly, for which he had acknowledged he had deserved to die, yet he hoped I could not think so ill of him as to believe he could turn pirate; and begged that, rather than entertain such hard thoughts of him, I would execute the worst part of the sentence, and send him out of the world a penitent and an honest man, which he should esteem far better than to give him his life in a condition in which he could preserve it upon no other terms than those of being the worst of villains. He added, that if there was anything he could do to deserve so much mercy as I intended him, he begged me that I would give him room to behave himself as became him, and he would leave it wholly to me to use him as he should deserve, even to the recalling the pardon that I had granted him.

I was extremely satisfied with what he said, and more particularly with the manner of his speaking it; I told him I was glad to see that he had a principle of so much honesty at the bottom of a part so unhappy as he had acted; and I would be very far from prompting him to turn pirate, and much more from forcing him to do so, and that I would, according to his desire, put an opportunity into his hands to show himself a new man, and, by his fidelity, to wipe out all that was past. And then, without any more ceremony, I told him my whole design, which was, to send him, and four or five more men with him, on shore among the pirates as spies, to see what condition they were in, and to see whether there were any apprehensions of violence from them, or whether they were in the mean circumstances that I had reason to believe they were in; and, lastly, whether they had any ship or vessel which might be bought of them, and whether men might be had to increase our company; that is to say, such men as, being penitent for their rogueries and tired with their miseries, would be glad of the opportunity of turning honest men before they were brought to it by distress and the gallows.

He embraced the offer with the greatest readiness, and gave me all the assurances that I could desire of his fidelity. I then asked him whether he thought his two fellow-prisoners might be trusted upon the same conditions.

In reply, he asked me if I would take it for a piece of sincerity, if, after a trial, he should tell me his mind, and would not be displeased if he declined speaking his thoughts till he had talked with them.

I told him he should be at liberty to give his farther answer after he had proposed it to them; but I insisted upon his opinion first, because it was only his opinion that I asked now; whereas, if he reported it to them, then he had no more to do but to report their answer.

He then asked me if I would please to grant him one thing, that, whatever his opinion should be, what he should say should be no prejudice to them in their present condition.

I told him it was a reasonable caution in him, and I would assure him that, whatever he said should not do them any prejudice; and, to convince him of it, I gave him my word that I would not put them to death on any account whatsoever, merely for his sake.

He bowed, and thanked me very heartily for that grant, which, he said, obliged him to be the plainer with me on that head; and as, he said, he would not deceive me in anything whatever, so he would not in this, especially; and therefore told me it was his opinion, they would not serve me faithfully; and he referred me to the experience I should find of it; and added, that he would be so just to me in the beginning, as that, while he begged to be merciful to them, yet for my own sake he would also beg me not to trust them.

I took the hint, and said no more at that time, but ordered his irons to be taken off, with direction for him to have leave to go to his former cabin, and to have his chests and things restored to him; so that he was at full liberty in the ship, though not in any office, or appointed to any particular business.

A day or two after this we made land, which appeared to be the north-west part of the island, in the latitude of 13° 30'; and now I thought it was time to put our design into execution; for I knew very well that it could not be a great way from this part of the island where the pirates were to be heard of: so I ordered the boat on shore, with about sixteen men, to make discoveries, and with them my new-restored man.

I gave him no instruction for anything extraordinary at this time, our work now being only to find out where they were. The boat came on board again at night, (for we had now stood in within two leagues of the shore) and brought us an account, that there were no English or Europeans on that part of the island, but that they were to be heard of a great way farther; so we stood away to the north all the night, and the next day, the wind being fair and the sea smooth, and by our reckoning we went in that time about forty leagues.

The next evening, the same company went on shore again, and were shown by some of the natives where the pirates inhabited; which, in short, was about five or six and twenty miles farther north still, in a river very commodious for shipping, where they had five or six European-built ships, and two or three sloops, but they were all laid up, except two sloops, with which they cruised sometimes a great distance off to the north, as far as the Arabian Gulf. The mate returned with this intelligence the same night; and by his direction we stood in as close under the shore as we could conveniently, about six leagues farther north; here we found a very good road under a little cape, which kept us perfectly undiscovered; and in the morning, before day, my man went on shore again with the boat, and keeping only four men with him, sent the boat on board again, agreeing on a signal for us to send the boat for him again when he should return.

There was a pretty high ledge of hills to the north of the place where he landed, and which, running west, made the little cape, under the lee of which our ship rode at anchor.

As soon as he came to the top of those hills, he plainly discovered the creek or harbour where the pirates' ships lay, and where they had formed their encampment on the shore. Our men took proper observations of the situation of the place they were in, upon the hill, that they might not fail to find their way back again, though it were in the night; and that, by agreeing in the account they should give of themselves, they might be all found in the same tale. They boldly went down the hill, and came to the edge of the creek, the pirates' camp being on the other shore.

Here they fired a gun, to raise a kind of alarm among them, and then, hanging out a white cloth on the top of a pole, a signal of peace, they hailed them in English, and asked them if they would send a boat and fetch them over.

The pirates were surprised at the noise of the piece, and came running to the shore with all speed; but they were much more surprised when they heard themselves hailed in English. Upon the whole, they immediately sent a boat to fetch them over, and received them with a great deal of kindness.

Our men pretended to be overjoyed at finding them there, told them a long story, that they came on shore on the west side of the island, where, not far off, there were two English ships; but that the natives quarrelling with their men, upon some rudeness offered to their women, and they being separated from their fellows, were obliged to fly; that the natives had surrounded the rest, and, they believed, had killed them all; that they wandered up to the top of the hill, intending to make signals to their ship, to send them some help, when, seeing some ships, and believing some Europeans were there, they came down to take some shelter, and begged of them a boat to carry them round the cape to their comrades, unless they would give them leave to stay with them, and do as they did, which they were very willing to do.

This was all a made story; but, however, the tale told so well, that they believed it thoroughly, and received our men very kindly, led them up to their camp, and gave them some victuals.

Our men observed they had provisions enough, and very good, as well beef as mutton, that is to say, of goats' flesh, which was excellent; also pork and veal; and they were tolerable good cooks too; for they found they had built several furnaces and boilers, which they had taken out of their ships, and dressed a great quantity of meat at a time: but, observing they had no liquor, the mate pulled a large bottle of good cordial water out of his pocket, and gave it about as far as it would go, and so did two others of the men, which their new landlords took very kindly.

They spent good part of the first day in looking about them, seeing the manner of the pirates' living there, and their strength, and soon perceived that they were indeed in but a sorry condition every way, except that they had live cattle and flesh meat sufficient. They had a good platform of guns indeed, and a covered pallisadoe round where they lodged their ammunition: but as for fortifications to the landward, they had none, except a double pallisadoe round their camp, and a sort of a bank thrown up within to fire from, and stand covered from the enemies' lances, which was all they had to fear from the natives. They had no bread but what they made of rice, and the store they had of that was very small: they told our men, indeed, that they had two ships abroad, which they expected back every day, with a quantity of rice, and what else they could get, especially some arrack, which they were to trade for with the Arabian merchants, or take it by force, which should first offer.

Our men pretended to like their way of living mighty well and talked of staying with them, if they would let them; and thus they passed their first day of meeting.

Our men had two tents or huts given them to lodge in, and hammocks hung in the huts very agreeably, being such, I suppose, as belonged to some of their company who were dead, or were out upon adventure; here they slept very securely, and in the morning walked about, as strangers might be suffered to do, to look about them. But my new manager's eye was chiefly here upon two things: first, to see if they had any shipping for our purpose; and, secondly, to see if he could pitch upon one man, more likely than the rest, to enter into some confidence with; and it was not long before he found an opportunity for both. The manner was thus:

He was walking by himself, having ordered his other men to straggle away, two and two, this way and that, as if they had not minded him, though always to keep him in sight; I say, he walked by himself towards that part of the creek where, as was said, three of their largest ships lay by the walls, and when he came to the shore right against them, he stood still, looking at them very earnestly.

While he was here, he observed a boat put off from one of them, with four oars and one sitter only, whom they set on shore just by him, and then put off again; the person whom they set on shore, was, it seems, one who had been with our men the evening before, but, having some particular office on board one of those ships, lay on board every night with about ten or twelve men, just to watch and guard the ship, and so came on shore in the morning, as is usual in men-of-war laid up.

As soon as he saw our man he knew him, and spoke very familiarly to him; and seeing he was looking so earnestly at the ship, he asked him if he would go on board; our man faintly declined it, as on purpose to be asked again, and upon just as much farther pressing as was sufficient to satisfy him that the gunner (for that was his office) was in earnest, he yielded; so the gunner called back the boat, and they went on board.

Our man viewed the ship very particularly, and pretended to like everything he saw; but, after some conversation, asked him this home question, namely, Why they did not go to sea, and seek purchase, having so many good ships at their command?

He shook his head, and told him very frankly, that they were in no condition to undertake anything, for that they were a crew of unresolved, divided rogues; that they were never two days of a mind; that they had nobody to command, and therefore nobody to obey; that several things had been offered, but nothing concluded; that, in short, they thought of nothing but of shifting every one for himself as well as he could.

My mate replied, he thought it had been quite otherwise, and that made him tell them the night before that he had an inclination to stay with them.

I heard you say so, said the gunner, and it made me smile; I thought in myself that you would be of another mind when ye knew us a little better; for, in a word, said he, if our people should agree to lend you a boat to go back to your ship, they would fall together by the ears about who should go with you, for not a man of them that went with you would ever come back again hither, if your captain would take them on board, though the terms were, to be hanged when they came to England.

My mate knew that this was my opinion before; but he was really of another mind himself, till he saw things and till he talked with the gunner, and this put new thoughts in his head; so he entertained the gunner with a scheme of his own, and told him, if it was so as he related it, and that he had really a mind to come off from the gang, he believed that he could put him in a way how to do it to his advantage, and to take a set of his people with him, if he could pick out some of them that might be depended upon.

The gunner replied, I can pick out a set of very brave fellows, good seamen, and most of them such as, having been forced into the pirates' ships, were dragged into that wicked life they had lived, not only against their consciences, but by a mere necessity to save their lives, and that they would be glad at any price to go off.

The mate then asked him, Pray, gunner, how many such men can you answer for?

Why, says he, after a short pause, I am sure I can answer for above a hundred.

Upon this my mate told him the circumstances we were in, the voyage we were upon; that we were a letter of mart ship of such a force, but that we were over-manned and double-stored, in hopes of getting a good ship upon our cruise to man out of the other; that we had been disappointed, and had only got the sloop or brigantine which we bought at the Cape; that, if he could persuade the men to sell us one of their ships, we would pay them for it in ready money, and perhaps entertain a hundred of their men into the bargain.

The gunner told him he would propose it to them; and added, in positive terms, that he knew it would be readily accepted, and that he should take which of the three ships I pleased.

The mate then desired that he would lend him his shallop to go on board our ship, to acquaint me with it, and bring back sufficient orders to treat.

He told him, he would not only do that, but, before I could be ready to go, he would propose it to the chief men that he had his eye upon, and would have their consent, and that then he would go along with him on board to make a bargain.

This was as well as our mate could expect; and the gunner had either so much authority among them, or the men were so forward to shift their station in the world, that the gunner came again to our mate in less than two hours, with an order, signed by about sixteen of their officers, empowering him to sell us the ship which the gunner was on board of, and to allot so many guns, and such a proportion of ammunition to her, as was sufficient, and to give the work of all their carpenters for so many days as were necessary to repair her, calk, and grave her, and put her in condition to go to sea.

She was a Spanish-built ship; where they had her the gunner said he did not know; but she was a very strong, tight ship, and a pretty good sailer.

We made her carry two-and-thirty guns, though she had not been used to carry above twenty-four.

The gunner being thus empowered to treat with my mate, came away in their shallop, and brought the said gunner and two more of their officers with him, and eight seamen. The gunner and I soon made a bargain for the ship, which I bought for five thousand pieces of eight, most of it in English goods such as they wanted; for they were many of them almost naked of clothes, and, as for other things, they had scarce a pair of stockings or shoes among them.

When our bargain was made, and the mate had related all the particulars of the conference he had had with the gunner, we came to talk of the people who were to go with us: the gunner told us that we might indeed have good reason to suspect a gang of men who had made themselves infamous all over the world by so many piracies and wicked actions; but, if I would put so much confidence in him, he would assure me, that, as he should have the power in his hands to pick and choose his men, so he would answer body for body for the fidelity of all the men he should choose; and that most, if not all of them, would be such as had been taken by force out of other ships, or wheedled away when they were drunk: and he added, there never was a ship load of such penitents went to sea together as he would bring us.

When he said this, he began to entreat me that I would please to give him the same post which he held in the ship, viz., of gunner, which I promised him; and then he desired I would permit him to speak with me in private; I was not at first very free to it, but he having consented to let the mate and Captain Merlotte be present, I yielded.

When all the rest were withdrawn, he told me, that having been five years in the pirates' service, as he might call it, and being obliged to do as they did, I might be sure he had some small share in the purchase; and however he had come into it against his will, yet, as he had been obliged to go with them, he had made some advantage; and that, being resolved to leave them, he had a good while ago packed up some of the best of what he had got, to make his escape, and begged I would let him deposit it with me as a security for his fidelity.

Upon this he ordered a chest to be taken out of the shallop, and brought into my great cabin; and, besides this, gave me out of his pocket, a bag, sealed up, the contents of which I shall speak of hereafter.

The shallop returned the next day, and I sent back the mate with my long-boat and twenty-four men, to go and take possession of the ship; and appointed my carpenter to go and see to the repairs that were necessary to be done to her: and some days after, I sent Captain Merlotte with the supercargo, in our sloop, to go and secure the possession, and to cover the retreat of any of the men who might have a mind to come away, and might be opposed by the rest; and this was done at the request of the gunner who foresaw there might be some debate about it.

They spent six weeks and some odd days in fitting out this ship, occasioned by the want of a convenient place to lay her on shore in, which they were obliged to make with a great deal of labour; however, she was at last completely fitted up.

When she was equipped, they laid in a good store of provisions, though not so well cured as to last a great while. One of the best things we got a recruit of here was casks, which, as said before, we greatly wanted, and which their coopers assisted us to trim, season, and fit up.

As to bread, we had no help from them; for they had none but what they made of rice, and they had not sufficient store of that.

But we had more to do yet: for, when the ship was fitted up, and our men had the possession of her, they were surprised one morning, on a sudden, with a most horrible tumult among the pirates: and had not our brigantine been at hand to secure the possession, I believe they had taken the ship from our men again, and perhaps have come down with her and their two sloops, and have attacked us. The case was this:

The gunner, who was a punctual fellow to his word, resolved that none of the men should go in the ship but such as he had singled out; and they were such as were generally taken out of merchant ships by force: but when he came to talk to the men of who should go, and who should stay, truly they would all go, to a man, there was not a man of them would stay behind; and, in a word, they fell out about it to that degree that they came to blows, and the gunner was forced to fly for it, with about twenty-two men that stood to him, and six or seven were wounded in the fray, whereof two died.

The gunner being thus driven to his shifts, made down to the shore to his boat, but the rogues were too nimble for him, and had got to his boat before him, and prepared to man her and two more, to go on board and secure the ship.

In this distress, the gunner, who had taken sanctuary in the woods at about a mile distance, but unhappily above the camp, so that the platform of guns was between him and the ship, had no remedy but to send one of his men, who swam very well, to take a compass round behind the pirates' camp and come to the water-side below the camp and platform, so to take the water and swim on board the ship, which lay near a league below their said camp, and give our men notice of what had happened; to warn them to suffer none of their men to come on board, unless the gunner was with them; and if possible, to send a boat on shore to fetch off the gunner and his men, who were following by the same way, and would be at the same place, and make a signal to them to come for him.

Our men had scarce received this notice, when they saw a boat full of men put off from the platform, and row down under shore towards them: but as they resolved not to suffer them to come on board, they called to them by a speaking-trumpet, and told them they might go back again, for they should not come on board, nor any other boat, unless the gunner was on board.

They rowed on for all that, when our men called to them again, and told them, if they offered to put off, in order to come on board, or, in short, to row down shore any farther than a little point which our men named, and which was just ahead of them, they would fire at them. They rowed on for all this, and even till they were past the point; which, our men seeing, they immediately let fly a shot, but fired a little ahead of them, so as not to hit the boat, and this brought them to a stop; so they lay upon their oars awhile, as if they were considering what to do, when our men perceived two boats more come off from the platform, likewise full of men, and rowing after the first.

Upon this, they called again to the first boat with their speaking-trumpet, and told them, if they did not all go immediately on shore, they would sink the boat. They had no remedy, seeing our men resolved, and that they lay open to the shot of the ship; so they went on shore accordingly, and then our men fired at the empty boat, till they split her in pieces, and made her useless to them.

Upon this firing, our brigantine, which lay about two leagues off in the mouth of a little creek, on the south of that river, weighed immediately, and stood away to the opening of the road where the ship lay; and the tide of flood being still running in, they drove up towards the ship, for her assistance, and came to an anchor about a cable's length ahead of her, but within pistol-shot of the shore; at the same time sending two-and-thirty of her men on board the great ship, to reinforce the men on board, who were but sixteen in number.

Just at this time, the gunner and his twenty-one men, who heard the firing, and had quickened their pace, though they had a great compass to fetch through woods and untrod paths, and some luggage to carry too, were come to the shore, and made the signal, which our men in the ship observing, gave notice to the officer of the brigantine to fetch them on board, which he did very safely. By the way, as the officer afterwards told us, most of their luggage consisted in money, with which, it seems, every man of them was very well furnished, having shared their wealth at their first coming on shore: as for clothes, they had very few, and those all in rags; and as for linen, they had scarce a shirt among them all, or linen enough to have made a white flag for a truce, if they had occasion for it: in short, a crew so rich and so ragged, were hardly ever seen before.

The ship was now pretty well manned: for the brigantine carried the gunner and his twenty-one men on board her; and the tide by this time being spent, she immediately unmoored, and loosed her topsails, which, as it happened, had been bent to the yards two days before; so with the first of the ebb she weighed, and fell down about a league farther, by which she was quite out of reach of the platform, and rid in the open sea; and the brigantine did the same.

But by this means, they missed the occasion of the rest of the gunner's men, who, having got together to the number of between seventy and eighty, had followed him, and come down to the shore, and made the signals, but were not understood by our ship, which put the poor men to great difficulties; for they had broken away from the rest by force, and had been pursued half a mile by the whole body, particularly at the entrance into a very thick woody place, and were so hard put to it, that they were obliged to make a desperate stand, and fire at their old friends, which had exasperated them to the last degree. But, as the case of these men was desperate, they took an effectual method for their own security, of which I shall give a farther account presently.

The general body of the pirates were now up in arms, and the new ship was, as it were, in open war with them, or at least they had declared war against her: but as they had been disappointed in their attempt to force her, and found they were not strong enough at sea to attack her, they sent a flag of truce on board. Our men admitted them to come to the ship's side; but as my mate, who now had the command, knew them to be a gang of desperate rogues, that would attempt anything, though ever so rash, he ordered that none of them should come on board the ship, except the officer and two more, who gave an account that they were sent to treat with us; so we called them the ambassadors.

When they came on board, they expostulated very warmly with my new agent, the second mate, that our men came in the posture of friends, and of friends too in distress, and had received favours from them, but had abused the kindness which had been shown them; that they had bought a ship of them, and had had leave and assistance to fit her up and furnish her; but had not paid for her, or paid for what assistance and what provisions had been given to them: and that now, to complete all, their men had been partially and unfairly treated; and when a certain number of men had been granted us, an inferior fellow, a gunner, was set to call such and such men out, just whom he pleased, to go with us; whereas the whole body ought to have had the appointing whom they would or would not give leave to, to go in the ship: that, when they came in a peaceable manner to have demanded justice, and to have treated amicably of these things, our men had denied them admittance, had committed hostilities against them, had fired at their men, and staved their boat, and had afterward received their deserters on board, all contrary to the rules of friendship. And in all these cases they demanded satisfaction.

Our new commander was a ready man enough, and he answered all their complaints with a great deal of gravity and calmness. He told them, that it was true we came to them as friends, and had received friendly usage from them, which we had not in the least dishonoured; but that as friends in distress, we had never pretended to be, and really were not; for that we were neither in danger of anything, or in want of anything; that as to provisions, we were strong enough if need were, to procure ourselves provisions in any part of the island, and had been several times supplied from the shore by the natives, for which we had always fully satisfied the people who furnished us; and that we scorned to be ungrateful for any favour we should have received, much less to abuse it, or them for it.

That we had paid the full price of all the provisions we had received, and for the work that had been done to the ship; that what we had bargained for, as the price of the ship, had been paid, as far as the agreement made it due, and that what remained, was ready to be paid as soon as the ship was finished, which was our contract.

That as to the people who were willing to take service with us, and enter themselves on board, it is true that the gunner and some other men offered themselves to us, and we had accepted of them, and we thought it was our part to accept or not to accept of such men as we thought fit. As for what was among themselves, that we had nothing to do with: that, if we had been publicly warned by them not to have entertained any of their men, but with consent of the whole body, then indeed we should have had reason to be cautious; otherwise, we were not in the least concerned about it. That it is true, we refused to let their boats come on board us, being assured that they came in a hostile manner, either to take away the men by force, which had been entered in our service, or perhaps even to seize the ship itself; and why else was the first boat followed by two more, full of men, armed and prepared to attack us? That we not only came in a friendly manner to them, but resolved to continue in friendship with them, if they thought fit to use us as friends; but that, considering what part of the world we were in, and what their circumstances were, they must allow us to be upon our guard, and not put ourselves in a condition to be used ill.

While he was talking thus with them in the cabin, he had ordered a can of flip to be made, and given their men in the boat, and every one a dram, but would not suffer them to come on board; however, one or two of them got leave to get in at one of the ports, and got between decks among our men; here they made terrible complaints of their condition, and begged hard to be entertained in our service; they were full of money, and gave twenty or thirty pieces of eight among our men, and by this present prevailed on two men to speak to my mate, who appeared as captain, to take the boat's crew on board.

The mate very gravely told the two ambassadors of it, and added, that, seeing they were come with a flag of truce, he would not stop their men without their consent, but the men being so earnest, he thought they would do better not to oppose them. The ambassadors, as I call them, opposed it, however, vehemently, and at last desired to go and talk with the men, which was granted them readily.

When they came into their boat, their men told them plainly, that, one and all, they would enter themselves with their countrymen; that they had been forced already to turn pirates, and they thought they might very justly turn honest men again by force, if they could not get leave to do it peaceably; and that, in short, they would go on shore no more; that, if the ambassadors desired it, they would set them on shore with the boat, but as for themselves, they would go along with the new captain.

When the ambassadors saw this, they had no more to do but to be satisfied, and so were set on shore where they desired, and their men stayed on board.

During this transaction, my mate had sent a full account to me of all that had passed, and had desired me to come on board and give farther directions in all that was to follow; so I took our supercargo and Captain Merlotte along with me, and some more of our officers, and went to them. It was my lot to come on board just when the aforesaid ambassadors were talking with my mate, so I heard most of what they had to say, and heard the answer my mate gave them, as above, which was extremely to my satisfaction; nor did I interrupt him, or take upon me any authority, though he would very submissively have had me shown myself as captain, but I bade him go on, and sat down, as not concerned in the affair at all.

After the ambassadors were gone, the first thing I did, was, in the presence of all the company, and, having before had the opinion of those I brought with me, to tell my second mate how well we were all satisfied with his conduct, and to declare him captain of the ship that he was in; only demanding his solemn oath, to be under orders of the great ship, as admiral, and to carry on no separate interests from us; which he thankfully accepted, and, to give him his due, as faithfully performed, all the rest of our very long voyage, and through all our adventures.

It was upon my seeming intercession, that he gave consent to the boat's crew, who brought the ambassadors, to remain in our service, and set their statesmen on shore; and in the end, I told him that as far as about one hundred and fifty, or two hundred men, he should entertain whom he thought fit. Thus having settled all things in the ship to our satisfaction, we went back to our great ship the next day.

I had not been many hours on board, till I was surprised with the firing of three muskets from the shore; we wondered what could be the meaning of it, knowing that it was an unusual thing in that place, where we knew the natives of the country had no fire-arms; so we could not tell what to make of it, and therefore took no notice, other than, as I say, to wonder at it. About half-an-hour after, we heard three muskets more, and still, not knowing anything of the matter, we made them no return to the signal. Some time after three muskets were fired again, but still we took no notice, for we knew nothing of what return was to be made to it.

When night come on, we observed two great fires upon two several hills, on that part of the shore opposite to us, and after that, three rockets were fired, such as they were, for they were badly constructed; I suppose their gunner was ill provided for such things: but all signified nothing; we would have made any return to them that had been to be understood, but we knew nothing of any agreed signal; however, I resolved that I would send a boat on shore, well manned, to learn, if possible, what the meaning of all this was; and, accordingly, in the morning, I sent our long-boat and shallop on shore, with two-and-thirty men in them both, to get intelligence; ordering them, if possible, to speak with somebody, before they went on shore, and know how things stood; that then, if it was a party of the pirates, they should by no means come near them, but parley at a distance, till they knew the meaning of their behaviour.

As soon as my men came near the shore, they saw plainly that it was a body of above a hundred of the pirates; but seeing them so strong, they stood off, and would not come nearer, nor near enough to parley with them; upon this, the men on shore got one of the islanders' canvass boats, or rather boats made of skins, which are but sorry ones at best, and put off, with two men to manage the sail, and one sitter, and two paddles for oars and away they came towards us, carrying a flag of truce, that is to say, an old white rag; how they came to save so much linen among them all, was very hard to guess.

Our men could do no less than receive their ambassador, and a flag of truce gave no shadow of apprehension, especially considering the figure they made, and that the men on shore had no other boats to surprise or attack us with; so they lay by upon their oars till they came up, when they soon understood who they were, viz. – that they were the gunner's selected men; that they came too late to have their signal perceived from the other ship, which was gone out of sight of the place they were directed to; that they had with great difficulty, and five days and nights' marching, got through a woody and almost impassable country to come at us; that they had fetched a circuit of near a hundred miles to avoid being attacked by their comrades, and that they were pursued by them with their whole body, and therefore they begged to be taken on board; they added, if they should be overtaken by their comrades, they should be all cut in pieces, for that they had broke away from them by force, and moreover had been obliged, at the first of their pursuit, to face about and fire among them, by which they had killed six or seven of them, and wounded others, and that they had sworn they would give them no quarter, if they could come fairly up with them.

Our men told them they must be contented to remain on shore, where they were, for some time, for that they could do nothing till they had been on board, and acquainted their captain with all the particulars; so they came back immediately to me for orders.

As to me, I was a little uneasy at the thoughts of taking them on board; I knew they were a gang of pirates at best, and what they might do I knew not, but I sent them this message, that though all their tale might be very good for aught I knew, yet that I must take so much time as to send an express to the captain of the other ship, to be informed of the truth of it; and that if he brought a satisfactory answer, I would send for them all on board.

This was very uncomfortable news to them, for they expected to be surrounded every hour by their comrades, from whom they were to look for no mercy; however, seeing no remedy, they resolved to march about twenty miles farther south, and lie by in a place near the sea, where we agreed to send to them; concluding that their comrades not finding them near the place where we lay, would not imagine they could be gone farther that way. As they guessed, so it proved, for the pirates came to the shore, where they saw tokens enough of their having been there, but seeing they could not be found, concluded they were all gone on board our ship.

The wind proving contrary, it was no less than four days before our boat came back, so that the poor men were held in great suspense: but when they returned, they brought the gunner with them who had selected those men from all the rest for our new ship; and who, when he came, gave me a long account of them, and what care he had taken to pick them out for our service, delivering me also a letter from my new captain to the same purpose: upon all which concurring circumstances, we concluded to take them on board; so we sent our boats for them, which, at twice, brought them all on board, and very stout young fellows they were.

When they had been on board some days and refreshed themselves, I concluded to send all on board the new ship; but, upon advice, I resolved to send sixty of my own men joined to forty of these, and keep thirty-four of them on board my ship; for their number was just seventy-four, which with the gunner and his twenty-one men, and the sixteen men who came with the worthy ambassadors, and would not go on shore again, made one hundred and twelve men; and, as we all thought, were enough for us, though we took in between forty and fifty more afterwards.

We were now ready to go to sea, and I caused the new ship and the brigantine to come away from the place where they lay, and join us; which they did, and then we unloaded part of our provisions and ammunition; of which, as I observed at first, we had taken in double quantity; and, having furnished the new ship with a proportion of all things necessary, we prepared for our voyage.

I should here give a long account of a second infernal conspiracy, which my two remaining prisoners had formed among the men, which was to betray the new ship to the pirates; but it is too long a story to relate here; nor did I make it public among the ship's company: but as it was only, as it were, laid down in a scheme, and that they had no opportunity to put it in practice, I thought it was better to make as little noise about it as I could. So I ordered my new captain, for it was he who discovered it to me, to punish them in their own way, and, without taking notice of their new villanies, to set them on shore, and leave them to take their fate with a set of rogues whom they had intended to join with, and whose profession was likely, some time or other, to bring them to the gallows. And thus I was rid of two incorrigible mutineers; what became of them afterwards I never heard.

We were now a little fleet, viz., two large ships and a brigantine, well manned, and furnished with all sorts of necessaries for any voyage or any enterprise that was fit for men in our situation to undertake; and, particularly, here I made a full design of the whole voyage, to be again openly declared to the men, and had them asked, one by one, if they were willing and resolved to undertake it, which they all very cheerfully answered in the affirmative.

Here we had an opportunity to furnish ourselves with a plentiful stock of excellent beef, which, as I said before, we cured with little or no salt, by drying it in the sun; and, I believe, we laid in such a store, that, in all our three vessels, we had near a hundred and fifty tons of it; and it was of excellent use to us, and served us through the whole voyage. There was little else to be had in this place that was fit to be carried to sea; except that, as there was plenty of milk, some of our men, who were more dexterous than others, made several large cheeses; nor were they very far short of English cheese, only that we were but indifferent dairy folks. Our men made some butter also, and salted it to keep, but it grew rank and oily, and was of little use to us.

It was on the 15th of December that we left this place, a country fruitful, populous, full of cattle, large and excellent good beef, and very fat; and the land able to produce all manner of good things; but the people wild, naked, black, barbarous, perfectly untractable, and insensible of any state of life being better than their own.

We stood away towards the shore of Arabia, till we passed the line, and came into the latitude of 18° north, and then stood away east, and east-by-north, for the English factories of Surat, and the coast of Malabar; not that we had any business there, or designed any, only that we had a mind to take on board a quantity of rice, if we could come at it; which at last, we effected by a Portuguese vessel, which we met with at sea, bound to Goa, from the Gulf of Persia. We chased her, and brought her too, indeed, as if we resolved to attack and take the ship; but, finding a quantity of rice on board, which was what we wanted, with a parcel of coffee, we took all the rice, but paid the supercargo, who was a Persian or Armenian merchant, very honestly for the whole parcel, his full price, and to his satisfaction; as for the coffee, we had no occasion for it. We put in at several ports on the Indian coast for fresh water and fresh provisions, but came near none of the factories, because we had no mind to discover ourselves; for though we were to sail through the very centre of the India trade, yet it was perfectly without any business among them. We met indeed on this coast with some pearl fishers, who had been in the mouth of the Arabian Gulf, and had a large quantity of pearl on board. I would have traded with them for goods, but they understood nothing but money, and I refused to part with it; upon which the fellows gave our supercargo some scornful language, which though he did not well understand what they said, yet he pretended to take it as a great affront, and threatened to make prize of their barks, and slaves of the men; upon which they grew very humble; and one of them, a Malabar Indian, who spoke a little English, spoke for them, that they would willingly trade with us for such goods as we had; whereupon I produced three bales of English cloth, which I showed them, and said they would be of good merchandise at Gombaroon in the Gulf, for that the Persians made their long vests of such cloths.

In short, for this cloth, and some money, we bought a box of choice pearls, which the chief of them had picked out from the rest for the Portuguese merchants at Goa; and which, when I came to London, was valued at two thousand two hundred pounds sterling.

We were near two months on our voyage from Madagascar to the coast of India, and from thence to Ceylon, where we put in on the south-west part of the island, to see what provisions we could get, and to take in a large supply of water.

The people here we found willing to supply us with provisions; but withal so sharp, imposing upon us their own rates for everything, and withal, so false, that we were often provoked to treat them very rudely. However, I gave strict orders that they should not be hurt upon any occasion, at least till we had filled all our water-casks and taken in what fresh provisions we could get, and especially rice, which we valued very much. But they provoked us at last beyond all patience; for they were such thieves when they were on board, and such treacherous rogues when we were on shore, that there was no bearing with them; and two accidents fell out upon this occasion which fully broke the peace between us; one was on board, and the other on shore, and both happened the same day.