the others were very well armed. I resolved to wait, to see if
they did not separate; and therefore, to make sure of them, I drew my
ambuscade nearer, and ordered Friday and the captain to creep upon their
hands and feet, as close to the ground as they could, that they might not
be discovered, and get as near them as they could possibly before they
offered to fire.

They had not been long in that posture when the boatswain, who was the
principal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shown himself the most
dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards them, with
two more of the crew; the captain was so eager at having this principal
rogue so much in his power, that he could hardly have patience to let him
come so near as to be sure of him, for they only heard his tongue before:
but when they came nearer, the captain and Friday, starting up on their
feet, let fly at them. The boatswain was killed upon the spot: the next
man was shot in the body, and fell just by him, though he did not die
till an hour or two after; and the third ran for it. At the noise of the
fire I immediately advanced with my whole army, which was now eight men,
viz. myself, generalissimo; Friday, my lieutenant-general; the captain
and his two men, and the three prisoners of war whom we had trusted with
arms. We came upon them, indeed, in the dark, so that they could not see
our number; and I made the man they had left in the boat, who was now one
of us, to call them by name, to try if I could bring them to a parley,
and so perhaps might reduce them to terms; which fell out just as we
desired: for indeed it was easy to think, as their condition then was,
they would be very willing to capitulate. So he calls out as loud as he
could to one of them, "Tom Smith! Tom Smith!" Tom Smith answered
immediately, "Is that Robinson?" for it seems he knew the voice. The
other answered, "Ay, ay; for God's sake, Tom Smith, throw down your arms
and yield, or you are all dead men this moment." "Who must we yield to?
Where are they?" says Smith again. "Here they are," says he; "here's our
captain and fifty men with him, have been hunting you these two hours;
the boatswain is killed; Will Fry is wounded, and I am a prisoner; and if
you do not yield you are all lost." "Will they give us quarter, then?"
says Tom Smith, "and we will yield." "I'll go and ask, if you promise to
yield," said Robinson: so he asked the captain, and the captain himself