Part 2 (1/2)
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 s.h.i.+p, that I could not go on sh.o.r.e; and indeed some of my men were so drunk, that they could scarce sit to their oars; and the c.o.xswain 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 sh.o.r.e 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 c.o.xswain, 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 mids.h.i.+pmen 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 sh.o.r.e from two other s.h.i.+ps,) full of men also, having acquainted them with the design. As soon as our boats came on sh.o.r.e, 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 sh.o.r.e there: the mate answered, they came from on board the English s.h.i.+p, 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 sh.o.r.e till his return.
Upon this, away goes the second mate of our s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p. 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 cutla.s.s in my hand, but said nothing; neither was there a word spoke anywhere all the while.
In this juncture, the chief mate, the faithful mids.h.i.+pmen, 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 pa.s.sing 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 mids.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+p, 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 s.h.i.+p 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 circ.u.mstances 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 s.h.i.+p 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 sh.o.r.e, and suffered to go to the second mate and his comrades: and farther, I told them what circ.u.mstances 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 circ.u.mstances 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 s.h.i.+p, and set me on sh.o.r.e, 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 s.h.i.+p, 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 pa.s.sion 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 s.h.i.+p; 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 s.h.i.+p, 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.