er, which he endeavoured to conceal, by observing,
that these decoys would not do with me, who seemed to be an old
offender. He went on with asking, if I believed in transubstantiation;
but I treated the notion of real presence with such disrespect, that his
patron was scandalised at my impiety, and commanded him to proceed to
the plot. Whereupon this miserable pettifogger told me, there was great
reason to suspect me of being a spy on board, and that I had entered
into a conspiracy with Thompson, and others not yet detected, against
the life of Captain Oakum, which accusation they pretended to support
by the evidence of our boy, who declared he had often heard the deceased
Thompson and me whispering together, and could distinguish the words,
"Oakum, rascal, poison, pistol;" by which expressions it appeared, we
did intend to use sinister means to accomplish his destruction. That the
death of Thompson seemed to confirm this conjecture, who, either feeling
the stings of remorse for being engaged in such a horrid confederacy,
or fearing a discovery, by which he must have infallibly suffered an
ignominious death, had put a fatal period to his own existence. But what
established the truth of the whole was, a book in cyphers found among
my papers, which exactly tallied with one found in his chest, after his
disappearance. This, he observed, was a presumption very near positive
proof, and would determine any jury in Christendom to find me guilty.
In my own defence, I alleged, that I had been dragged on board at first
very much against my inclination, as I could prove by the evidence
of some people now in the ship, consequently could have no design of
becoming spy at that time; and ever since had been entirely out of the
reach of any correspondence that could justly entail that suspicion
upon me. As for conspiring against my captain's life, it could not be
supposed that any man in his right wits would harbour the least thought
of such an undertaking, which he could not possibly perform without
certain infamy and ruin to himself, even if he had all the inclination
in the world. That, allowing the boy's evidence to be true (which I
affirmed was false and malicious), nothing conclusive could be gathered
from a few incoherent words; neither was the fate of Mr. Thompson a
circumstance more favourable for the charge; for I had in my pocket a
letter which too well explained that mystery, in a very different manner
from that which was su