to
the strain upon its resources imposed by Chichester's bulky proportions.
The change was effected in good time to allow the two friends to join
the occupants of the poop cabin at supper, where Captain Marshall made
them duly acquainted with his fellow adventurers. These were five in
number, consisting respectively of Mr George Lumley and Mr Thomas
Winter, Marshall's lieutenants, Mr Walter Dyer and Mr Edmund Harvey,
gentlemen adventurers who, with Marshall, had provided the wherewithal
for the fitting out of the expedition, and Mr William Bascomb, the
master aforesaid. They were all fellow Devonians, a genial and hearty
company, in the best of good spirits at the prospect of stirring times
before them, with the chance of returning home made men. It is true
that--not to put too fine a point upon it--they were pirates, of a sort;
but so were Grenvile, Drake, Hawkins, and the rest of their illustrious
contemporaries; and piracy was at that time regarded as a quite
honourable profession--provided that the piracies were perpetrated
solely against the hated Spaniard.

It was by this time dark enough to render necessary the lighting of the
great cabin lamp which swung in the skylight; and the apartment, with
its long table draped with snowy napery and abundantly furnished with
smoking viands flanked with great flagons of foaming ale, presented a
particularly cosy and inviting appearance as Dick and Phil, having been
introduced in due form to the others, took their seats; the more so,
perhaps, from the fact that both of them, having been too eager for
their sail to wait for a meal at the conclusion of their day's labours,
had tasted neither bite nor sup since midday, and were now each in
possession of a truly voracious appetite. Then, the conversation as the
meal progressed--the wonderful, almost incredible, stories of past
adventure related by Marshall and Bascomb, both of whom had already once
visited the Indies, and the confidence with which all anticipated their
return to England laden with wealth unimaginable--exercised an almost
irresistible fascination over the two newcomers, one at least of whom--
Philip Stukely to wit--began to feel, before the meal was over, that he
cared not a jot though he should be compelled by force of circumstances
to join those daredevil adventurers who made it clearly understood that,
so far as the outside world was concerned, they intended to be a law
unto themselves. Marshall's and Basc