other word was an oath; their talk was
almost gibberish to my ears with thieves' slang. I wondered to find
not one of them dressed in felon's garb; but on reflection I concluded
that they had plundered the crew and the people who had had charge of
them and of the _Cyprus_, and had forced all those they drove out of
the brig to change clothes before quitting the vessel.

"However, it was my immediate policy to prove my sincerity. I valued
my life, and I had but to look at the men to reckon that it would not
be worth a rushlight if they suspected I was not doing my best to find
them a safe asylum among the islands in the Pacific. Accordingly, I
fetched one of the charts, placed it upon the skylight, where those
who gathered about me could see it, and laid off a course for the
Tonga Islands; telling the men as I pointed to the group upon the
chart that if no island thereabouts satisfied them, we could head for
the Fijis or cruise about the Friendly or Navigator groups, working
our way as far as the Low Archipelago, betwixt which and the first
island we sighted we ought certainly to fall in with the sort of
hiding-place they wanted. My words raised a grin of satisfaction in
every face within reach of my voice.

"I stepped to the helm and headed the brig on a northerly course, and
stood awhile looking at the compass to satisfy myself that the convict
who grasped the spokes understood what to do with the wheel. He
managed fairly well. I then asked Swallow to serve as my chief mate,
and Stevenson to act as second, and calling the rest of the felons
together, I divided them into two watches. My next step was to crowd
the little brig with all the canvas she could spread, and set every
stitch of it properly. Thus passed the first day.

"I have no time to enter minutely into what happened till we made a
small point of land in the neighbourhood of the Friendly Islands.
There was abundance of provisions on board, plenty of fresh water, and
a stock of spirits intended for the commandant and soldiers at
Macquarie Harbour and Norfolk Island; but though the convicts freely
used whatever they found in the brig's hold, never once was there an
instance of drunkenness amongst them. I guessed them all to be as
desperate a set of miscreants as were ever transported for crime upon
crime from a convict establishment; yet they used me very well. Saving
their villainous speech, their behaviour was fairly decorous. They
sprang to my bidding, si