The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 — page 178: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

562 THE MUTINY ON THE FLYING CLOUD. of the mutinéers and their two prisoners in the retreat which Captain Josh Williams had christened Island Harbor. In accordance with Williams’ plans the Cloud’s cargo was in due time discharged and warehoused on shore in the newly built stores; the ship her- self stripped, hove down, scrubbed, and repainted from her keel up; her in- terior rearranged—particularly the forecastle, which was extended sufficiently to accomimodate a hundred men; the upper spars replaced by new ones, somewhat higher in the hoist, cut on the island ; her canvas altered to fit the new spars ; the bulwarks strengthened and pierced ; the breech loading guns, twelve in number, mounted on carriages and placed in position. In short, the ship was made to look as like a man of war as possible, though she as much resembled the old fashioned sailing sloop which then still performed duty on our more distant stations, as a swan does a goose, her sailing powers far exceeding those of the fastest of them, while Williams’ alterations only had the effect of imparting to her an extremely rakish and wicked appear- ance. In due time—not a very long time either, taking into consideration the amount of work done—the ship was once more ready for sea, and, ballasted carefully down to her very best sailing trim, she left Island Harbor for an extensive piratical cruise. It is not necessary to describe in detail where she went, or the various ad- ventures met with by her crew ; suffice it to say that the cruise proved won~ derfully successful, several very valuable prizes being taken—no less than three being vessels with large amounts of specie on board.. When Williams first mooted to the crew his proposal to seize the ship and convert her into a pirate, he had met the strongest objection made by the more scrupulous of the men by asserting that he hada plan whereby all blood- shed could be avoided; this plan being no less than to practically enslave such portions of the crews of the prospective prizes as refused to become pirates, and to confine them at Island Harbor, there to perform the large amount of work necessary to the complete furtherance of Williams’ ambitious schemes. 3 But, as may be supposed, the plan when put to a practical test failed. Capture was not in all cases tamely submitted to—resistance was offered, and blood was shed in the conflict. And when this had once happened all scru- ples vanished. ‘The worst passions of the men asserted themselves, and, breaking loose from all restraint, speedily converted their possessors into very demons. Sibyl Stanley was daily and hourly in peril during the latter part of that dreadful cruise. Still, thanks to the compact with Ned Wilson and the hold which he still had upon the crew, the unhappy girl had so far escaped direct threats and open insult. But toward the end of the cruise matters had reached such a stage that she saw the absolute necessity of effecting her escape immediately upon the arrival of the ship again at Island Harbor. ‘The state of horror and terror into which she was continually thrown was such that death itself seemed preferable to a further continuance of such a life as she was then living. Eomichbooks S|