rendered
incapable of acting. This accident, together with the crazy condition
of the ship, which was little better than a wreck, prevented her from
getting off to sea, and entangled her more and more with the land;
insomuch, that at day-break next morning, the 15th May, she struck on
a sunken rock, and soon afterwards bilged, and grounded between two
small islands, about musket-shot from the shore.

In this situation the ship continued entire a long time, so that all
the crew might have got safe on shore. But a general confusion ensued;
many of them, instead of consulting their safety, or reflecting
on their calamitous condition, fell to pillaging the ship, arming
themselves with the first weapons that came to hand, and threatening
to murder all who should oppose their proceedings. This frenzy was
greatly heightened by the liquors they found on board, with which they
made themselves so excessively intoxicated, that some fell down into
the hold, where they were drowned, as the water flowed into the wreck.
Having done his utmost, ineffectually, to get the whole crew on shore,
the captain was at last obliged to leave the mutineers behind, and to
follow his officers on shore, with such few men as he could prevail
upon to accompany him; but did not fail to send back the boats, with a
message to those who remained, entreating them to have some regard to
their own preservation. All his efforts, however, were for some time
in vain; but next day, the weather proving stormy, and there being
great danger of the ship going to pieces, the refractory part of the
crew began to be afraid of perishing, and were desirous of getting to
land; and, in their madness, as the boat did not come to fetch them
off so soon as they wished, they pointed a four-pounder from the
quarter-deck, against the hut in which the captain resided on shore,
and fired two shots, which passed just over its roof.

From this specimen of the behaviour of part of the crew, some idea
may be formed of the disorder and anarchy which prevailed when they at
length got all on shore. For the men conceived that the authority of
their officers was at an end, in consequence of the loss of the ship;
and, as they were now upon an inhospitable coast, where scarcely any
other provisions could be got beyond what could be saved from the
wreck, this was another insurmountable source of discord: for the
working upon the wreck, and securing the provisions on shore, so that
they migh