effect my object; but
the captain had, it appeared, a compass above his head, in his own
cabin, and being awake, discovered the attempt.

"I made every plausible excuse I could think of, but I felt that I was
suspected, and dared not venture to play the same trick again. I had,
however, another resource, which, dangerous as it was, I determined to
risk. You may well start with horror. It was nothing less than to set
the ship on fire. I then intended with my comrades to carry off the
nurse and children to the coast of Africa, and to dispose of them to
some of the African chiefs a little way in the interior, where no white
man was ever likely to fall in with them. One night, the wind being
from the westward, I managed to set fire to a quantity of combustible
matter among the cargo. I waited till the alarm was given, and then,
hurrying to the Indian nurse and the children, told her that, if she
would trust to me, I would save her. My men had been prepared, and
instantly lowered a boat, in which she and her charges were placed with
two of my accomplices. I had a chart, with a few nautical instruments,
my money, and some provisions, all ready; having thrown a keg of water
and a few biscuits into the boat, I hurried forward to my cabin to get
them. The flames had burned much faster than I expected, and while I
was in my cabin, just about to return aft to the boat, they had reached,
it appeared, the magazine. Suddenly a dreadful noise was heard; I felt
myself lifted off my feet, and then I lost all consciousness of what was
occurring. At length I found myself clinging to a mass of floating
wreck, and in almost total darkness. I could discover no boat near me.
I hailed; but no one answered. Oh, the horrors of that night! It is
impossible to picture them. A laughing fiend kept whispering in my ear
that I had caused all this havoc, that I had destroyed the lives of so
many of my fellow-creatures, and that I should not miss my reward.
Daylight came, and I was alone on the wild waters. A shattered portion
of the mainmast and main-top buoyed me up, and a bag of biscuits I had
had on my arm still hung there. I ate mechanically. The sun came out
with fiery heat and scorched my unprotected head, and I had no water to
quench my burning thirst. Thus for three days I lay drifting, I knew
not where, expecting every moment to be my last, and a prey to my own
bitter recollections. Then conscience for a time usurped its swa