retty clear of them, except when
on duty, and we were then compelled to lend a hand to any one of them
who might summon us. This we did cheerfully, though I, being the
youngest, had all sorts of odd jobs to perform, not all of the
pleasantest description. I thus had opportunities of hearing what the
men were talking about without intending to be an eavesdropper, and I
was before long convinced that some of them, if they had the
opportunity, would not scruple to mutiny, to knock all who opposed them
on the head, and take possession of the ship, or to run off themselves.
I told Medley of my suspicions.

"It's all brag, Jack," he answered. "Don't trouble yourself about the
matter. They might very probably like to do that, or any other piece of
villainy, but they dare not. They are cowards at heart, let them talk
ever so boastfully."

I was not convinced, and determined to watch them. While we were
engaged in the chase of whales, in towing them alongside, and in cutting
out and trying in, or, in other words, in taking off the blubber and
boiling it down into oil, they were too actively employed to plot
mischief. They were also then separated, some being in the boats and
others on board; but while the ship was at anchor off some savage
island, away from all constituted authority, was the time when they were
likely to carry out their evil designs.

I am sorry to say it, that though Captain Hake was a bold seaman,
generous and kind-hearted, he was influenced by no religious principle;
he objected to what he called Methodism on board, and so did the mate
and doctor. Not a chest except Medley's and mine contained a Bible, and
we had to read ours in secret to avoid the risk of being ordered to
throw them overboard. If we had had merely to endure the sneers and
laughter of our shipmates, we should not have minded. How I should have
acted if left to myself, or with a different sort of companion, I do not
know; but he encouraged me to read and pray, and refrain from evil
habits, for which I owe him a deep debt of gratitude.

The first land we made was Juan Fernandez, or, as we called it, Robinson
Crusoe's Island, where he, or rather Alexander Selkirk, lived so long
till rescued by the ship in which the veteran Dampier sailed as pilot.
It is about three hundred miles west of Valparaiso, on the coast of
Chili, very mountainous and rugged, but richly covered with vegetation.
We hove-to off the bay in which Drake, Cavendis