arefully, one by one. For this purpose
he took some of his best men aside, and confided to them,
privately, that the present voyage was to be out of the ordinary,
and that he needed not only stout fellows but willing and cheerful
ones: men who would take hardships without grumbling, and who, with
a prospect of good reward in addition to their pay, would go
without question where they were told, and do as they were
ordered--were it to singe the beard of the Grand Turk, himself, in
his own palace. He charged them, therefore, to find for him men of
this kind, among their relations, or men who had sailed with him.

"I would rather," he said, "have landsmen, providing they are
strong and stout hearted, than sailors, however skillful, who are
given to grumbling and disaffection. We shall have plenty of good
sailors on board, and the others will soon learn their business;
therefore, choose you not for seamanship, but rather for
willingness and good temper. And broach not the subject to any
unless you feel assured, beforehand, that they will be willing to
join; for I want not the matter talked about. Therefore those who
join are to keep the matter private, and are not to come on board
until the night before we get up our anchors. We are taking a much
stronger crew than usual, for we have many guns that need working,
if it comes to fighting."

As these instructions were given separately, none of the twelve men
he spoke to knew that the others had received similar instructions;
and that instead of forty men, as usual, the Swan was to carry
nearly ninety.

As to the officers, Reuben Hawkshaw needed none others than those
who had before sailed with him. The two mates had each been with
him for upwards of ten years, and had learned their business under
his eye; and he intended, although he had not as yet told him so,
to rate Roger as third mate. His boatswain would go in the same
capacity as before; and he shipped, as gunner, one who had served
for some years in a king's ship in that rank, and was well
acquainted with the working of ordnance.

Mistress Mercy had, of course, heard from her gossips of the talk
that was going on, concerning the unusual preparations that were
being made, by her husband, for the forthcoming voyage of the Swan;
and the trader was often put to his wits' end by her questions on
the subject. His professions of benevolence towards the crew, and
his explanations of his reasons for her powerful armament h