by Daniel Defoe
agree to lend youa boat to go back to your ship, they would fall together by the earsabout who should go with you, for not a man of them that went with youwould ever come back again hither, if your captain would take them onboard, 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 ofanother mind himself, till he saw things and till he talked with thegunner, and this put new thoughts in his head; so he entertained thegunner with a scheme of his own, and told him, if it was so as herelated it, and that he had really a mind to come off from the gang, hebelieved 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 ofthem that might be depended upon.
The gunner replied, I can pick out a set of very brave fellows, goodseamen, and most of them such as, having been forced into the pirates'ships, were dragged into that wicked life they had lived, not onlyagainst 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 answerfor?
Why, says he, after a short pause, I am sure I can answer for above ahundred.
Upon this my mate told him the circumstances we were in, the voyage wewere upon; that we were a letter of mart ship of such a force, but thatwe were over-manned and double-stored, in hopes of getting a good shipupon 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, wewould pay them for it in ready money, and perhaps entertain a hundred oftheir men into the bargain.
The gunner told him he would propose it to them; and added, in positiveterms, that he knew it would be readily accepted, and that he shouldtake which of the three ships I pleased.
The mate then desired that he would lend him his shallop to go on boardour ship, to acquaint me with it, and bring back sufficient orders totreat.
He told him, he would not only do that, but, before I could be ready togo, he would propose it to the chief men that he had his eye upon, andwould have their consent, and that then he would go along with him onboard to make a bargain.
This was as well as our mate could expect; and the gunner had either somuch authority among them, or the men were so forward to shift theirstation in the world, that the gunner came again to our mate in lessthan two hours, with an order, signed by about sixteen of theirofficers, empowering him to sell us the ship which the gunner was onboard of, and to allot so many guns, and such a proportion of ammunitionto her, as was sufficient, and to give the work of all their carpentersfor 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 didnot know; but she was a very strong, tight ship, and a pretty goodsailer.
We made her carry two-and-thirty guns, though she had not been used tocarry above twenty-four.
The gunner being thus empowered to treat with my mate, came away intheir shallop, and brought the said gunner and two more of theirofficers with him, and eight seamen. The gunner and I soon made abargain 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 ofthem almost naked of clothes, and, as for other things, they had scarcea pair of stockings or shoes among them.
When our bargain was made, and the mate had related all the particularsof the conference he had had with the gunner, we came to talk of thepeople who were to go with us: the gunner told us that we might indeedhave good reason to suspect a gang of men who had made themselvesinfamous 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, ashe should have the power in his hands to pick and choose his men, so hewould answer body for body for the fidelity of all the men he shouldchoose; and that most, if not all of them, would be such as had beentaken by force out of other ships, or wheedled away when they weredrunk: and he added, there never was a ship load of such penitents wentto sea together as he would bring us.
When he said this, he began to entreat me that I would please to givehim the same post which he held in the ship, viz., of gunner, which Ipromised him; and then he desired I would permit him to speak with me inprivate; I was not at first very free to it, but he having consented tolet the mate and Captain Merlotte be present, I yielded.
When all the rest were withdrawn, he told me, that having been fiveyears in the pirates' service, as he might call it, and being obliged todo 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 beenobliged to go with them, he had made some advantage; and that, beingresolved to leave them, he had a good while ago packed up some of thebest of what he had got, to make his escape, and begged I would let himdeposit it with me as a security for his fidelity.
Upon this he ordered a chest to be taken out of the shallop, and broughtinto my great cabin; and, besides this, gave me out of his pocket, abag, sealed up, the contents of which I shall speak of hereafter.
The shallop returned the next day, and I sent back the mate with mylong-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 werenecessary to be done to her: and some days after, I sent CaptainMerlotte with the supercargo, in our sloop, to go and secure thepossession, and to cover the retreat of any of the men who might have amind to come away, and might be opposed by the rest; and this was doneat the request of the gunner who foresaw there might be some debateabout 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, thoughnot so well cured as to last a great while. One of the best things wegot a recruit of here was casks, which, as said before, we greatlywanted, 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 theymade 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 menhad the possession of her, they were surprised one morning, on a sudden,with a most horrible tumult among the pirates: and had not ourbrigantine been at hand to secure the possession, I believe they hadtaken the ship from our men again, and perhaps have come down with herand their two sloops, and have attacked us. The case was this:
The gunner, who was a punctual fellow to his word, resolved that none ofthe men should go in the ship but such as he had singled out; and theywere such as were generally taken out of merchant ships by force: butwhen 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 wouldstay behind; and, in a word, they fell out about it to that degree thatthey came to blows, and the gunner was forced to fly for it, with abouttwenty-two men that stood to him, and six or seven were wounded in thefray, whereof two died.
The gunner being thus driven to his shifts, made down to the shore tohis boat, but the rogues were too nimble for him, and had got to hisboat before him, and prepared to man her and two more, to go on boardand secure the ship.
In this distress, the gunner, who had taken sanctuary in the woods atabout a mile distance, but unhappily above the camp, so that theplatform of guns was between him and the ship, had no remedy but to sendone of his men, who swam very well, to take a compass round behind thepirates' camp and come to the water-side below the camp and platform, soto take the water and swim on board the ship, which lay near a leaguebelow their said camp, and give our men notice of what had happened; towarn them to suffer none of their men to come on board, unless thegunner was with them; and if possible, to send a boat
on shore to fetchoff the gunner and his men, who were following by the same way, andwould 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 ofmen 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 tothem by a speaking-trumpet, and told them they might go back again, forthey should not come on board, nor any other boat, unless the gunner wason board.
They rowed on for all that, when our men called to them again, and toldthem, if they offered to put off, in order to come on board, or, inshort, to row down shore any farther than a little point which our mennamed, and which was just ahead of them, they would fire at them. Theyrowed 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 littleahead of them, so as not to hit the boat, and this brought them to astop; so they lay upon their oars awhile, as if they were consideringwhat to do, when our men
