lves with arms and ammunition, in order to support them in putting
their mutinous designs in execution, and asserting their claim to a lawless
exemption from the authority of their officers, which they pretended must
cease with the loss of the ship. But of these arms, which we stood in great
need of, they were soon bereaved upon coming ashore, by the resolution of
Captain Cheap and Lieutenant Hamilton of the marines. Among these mutineers
who had been left on board, as I observed before, was the boatswain, who,
instead of exerting the authority he had over the rest, to keep them within
bounds as much as possible, was himself a ringleader in their riot; him,
without respect to the figure he then made, for he was in laced clothes,
Captain Cheap, by a blow well laid on with his cane, felled to the ground.
It was scarce possible to refrain from laughter at the whimsical appearance
these fellows made, who, having rifled the chests of the officers best
suits, had put them on over their greasy trowsers and dirty checked shirts.
They were soon stripped of their finery, as they had before been obliged to
resign their arms.

The incessant rains and exceeding cold weather in this climate, rendered it
impossible for us to subsist long without shelter; and the hut being much
too little to receive us all, it was necessary to fall upon some expedient,
without delay, which might serve our purpose: accordingly the gunner,
carpenter, and some more, turning the cutter keel upwards, and fixing it
upon props, made no despicable habitation. Having thus established some
sort of settlement, we had the more leisure to look about us, and to make
our researches with greater accuracy than we had before, after such
supplies as the most desolate coasts are seldom unfurnished with.
Accordingly we soon provided ourselves with some sea-fowl, and found
limpets, mussels, and other shellfish in tolerable abundance; but this
rummaging of the shore was now becoming extremely irksome to those who had
any feeling, by the bodies of our drowned people thrown among the rocks,
some of which were hideous spectacles, from the mangled condition they were
in by the violent surf that drove in upon the coast. These horrors were
overcome by the distresses of our people, who were even glad of the
occasion of killing the gallinazo (the carrion crow of that country) while
preying on these carcases, in order to make a meal of them. But a provision
by no means proportionable t