come on board: but no boat
stirred; and they fired several times, making other signals for the
boat. At last, when all their signals and firing proved fruitless, and
they found the boat did not stir, we saw them, by the help of my
glasses, hoist another boat out, and row towards the shore; and we
found, as they approached, that there were no less than ten men in her;
and that they had fire-arms with them.

As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full view of
them as they came, and a plain sight even of their faces; because the
tide having set them a little to the east of the other boat, they rowed
up under shore, to come to the same place where the other had landed,
and where the boat lay; by this means, I say, we had a full view of
them, and the captain knew the persons and characters of all the men in
the boat, of whom, he said, there were three very honest fellows, who,
he was sure, were led into this conspiracy by the rest, being
overpowered and frightened; but that as for the boatswain, who, it
seems, was the chief officer among them, and all the rest, they were as
outrageous as any of the ship's crew, and were no doubt made desperate
in their new enterprise; and terribly apprehensive he was that they
would be too powerful for us. I smiled at him, and told him that men in
our circumstances were past the operation of fear; that seeing almost
every condition that could be was better than that which we were
supposed to be in, we ought to expect that the consequence, whether
death or life, would be sure to be a deliverance, I asked him what he
thought of the circumstances of my life, and whether a deliverance were
not worth venturing for? "And where, Sir," said I, "is your belief of my
being preserved here on purpose to save your life, which elevated you a
little while ago? For my part," said I, "there seems to me but one thing
amiss in all the prospect of it."--"What is that?" says he. "Why," said
I, "it is, that as you say there are three or four honest fellows among
them, which should be spared, had they been all of the wicked part of
the crew I should have thought God's providence had singled them out to
deliver them into your hands; for depend upon it, every man that comes
ashore are our own, and shall die or live as they behave to us." As I
spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful countenance, I found it
greatly encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our business.

We had, upon the first