adherents, that they were well
able to capture the ship; but before so doing they sought to gain one
more recruit. This man was an American sailor, who had lived long in
Ireland, and spoke with a slight brogue, that led the conspirators to
think him a subject of the king, and an enemy to the revolted
colonies. This man was known to have some knowledge of navigation, and
the mutineers felt that his assistance would be essential to the
success of their plot. Though they had planned to force the
lieutenant, under penalty of death, to navigate the vessel into a
British port, they had no means of telling whether the lieutenant
should play them false. It would be an easy matter for an officer to
take the ship into a French port, where the lives of the conspirators
should pay the penalty of their misdeeds. Accordingly, it was highly
important for them to number among them some one versed in the science
of navigation; and, with this end in view, they turned to the young
Irish-American.

The young seaman proved to be possessed of the loyalty and shrewdness
of the Yankee, together with a touch of the blarney of the genuine
Irishman. He listened to the complaints of the mutineers, sympathized
with their grievances, entered heartily into their plans, and by his
apparent interest in the conspiracy soon became looked upon as one of
the chief ringleaders.

He learned that the plan of the conspirators was to assemble on deck
about daylight on a certain day when one of the conspirators should be
posted in the tops as lookout. This man was to raise the cry of "Sail,
ho!" when the officers and passengers would of course come to the
quarter-deck unarmed. The mutineers would commence operations by
seizing them in a body. Then, separating into four parties, the
conspirators would seize upon the ship. On the forecastle were mounted
four nine-pound guns. These were usually kept charged with blank
cartridge only; but a gunner's mate, who was one of the ringleaders,
had quietly slipped a charge of canister into each gun. Should the
officers show signs of resistance, these cannon were to be trained
aft, and the quarter-deck swept by their discharge. Discipline on a
man-of-war requires that the crew should be kept disarmed, except in
time of battle; the cutlasses, pikes, and pistols being given over to
the armorer. But a sergeant of marines had done the cause of the
mutineers good service, by purloining some muskets, and handing them
over to t