Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 16 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

; - iD i 24 umiphadited faland, Dut it had. plcascd God so, to direct | of their muskets, being very faithfn'ly seconded hy tote | them, that the islind was inhabited, snd that the gov- ernor was an Englishman; that he -mivht hang them al! there, if he Peear ds but as he had given them all quarter, he.supposed he would send them to England, to be dealt with there as justice required, except Atkins, whom he was commanded by the governor to advise to prepare for death; for that he would be hanved in the mornigg. Though this waa all a fiction of his own, yet it had ite desired effect: Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the ca tain to intercede with the governor for his life; and al) the rest begued of him, for God's sake, that they might not be sent to England. It now neonrted to me that the time of our deliverance was come, and that it would bea most easy thing to bring these fellows in to be hearty in getting possession of the ship. SoI retired in the dark from them, that they might not see what kind of a governor they had, and called cise captain to me. When I called, as at a good distance, one of the men was ordered to speak again, and say to the captain, ‘* Captain, the commander calls for you;" and presently the captain replied, ** Tell his excellency I am just a-coming.” This most perfectly surprised them ; and they all believed that the commander was just by. with his fifty men. Upon the captain's coming to me, I told him my project for seizing the ship, which he liked wonderfully well, anc resolved to put it in execution the next morning. Bat in order to execute it with more art, and to be se- cure of success, I told him we must divide the prisoners, and that he should go and take Atk’ns and two more of the worst of them, and send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay. This was committed to Friday, and the two men who came on shore with the captain. They conveyed them to the cave as toa prison; and it was indeed a dismal place, especially to men in their condition. The other I ordered to my bower, as I called it, of which I have given a full description ; and as it was fenced in and they pinioned, the place was eecure enough, consid. ering they were upon their behavior. To these, in the morning, I sent the captain, who wa to enter into a parley with them ; in a word, to try them and tell me whether he thonght they might be trusted or no, to vo on board, anc surprise the a He ta-ked te them of the injury done him, of the condition they wore brought to; and that, though the governor had givel. them quarter for their lives. as to the present action, yet if they were sent to England, they would all be hung ir chains, tu be sure; but that if they would join 80 just an attempt, as to recover the ship, he would have the gov ernor’s engagement for their pardon. Any one may guess hvw readily such a proposal would be accepted by men in their condition; they fell down ot their cuees to the | igen and promised with the deepest imprecations, that they would be faithful to him to the at APGD. and that they should owe their lives to him, and would go with him all over the world; that the would own him fors fatherto them as long as they tived. -* Well,” says the captain, “I must go and tell the gov- arnor what you say, and see what I can do to bring him .0 consent to it,” So he brought me an account of the (emper he foynd themin; and that he verily believed they would be faitofnl. However, that we might be very secure, I told him he should go back again, and choose out Ave of them, and ell then that they should see that they did not want men :| ‘put we would take out those five to be his assistants, and chat the governor would keep the other two, and the three that were sent prisoners to the castle, (my cave,) as host- ees for the fidelity of those five ; and that, if they proved 0G pr in chains alive upon the shore. This looked severe, and convinced them that the gov- ernor was in earnest. However, they had no way left them but to accept it; and it was now the business of the eta as much as of the captain, to persnade the other ve to do their duty. Oar etrength was now thus ordered for the expedition : Firet, the captain, his mate, and passenger. Second, the two prisoners of the first gang, to whom, having their characters from the captain, I had given their liberty, and trusted them with arms. Third, the other two, whom I had kept till now in my bower, pinioned; but, npon the pre icy eh motion, had now released. Fourth, these five released at last: so that there were twelve in all, besides five we kvpt prisoners in the cave for hostages. Tasked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands on board the ship; for, as for me and my man Friday, I did not think it was proper for us to stir, hav- ing seven men left behind: and it was employment qnough for us to keep them asunder, and supply them with victuals. | As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast; but Friday went twice a day to them, to supply them with necessaries; and I made the other two carry mo ay to a certain distance, where Friday was to take it. When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the captain, who told them I was the person whom the vernor had ordered to look after them, and that it was e Ne ae pleasure a gore ate not stir anywhere, but by my direction; that if they did, they should be fetched into the castle and laid in irons; 80 that as we never sutfered them to see me as governor, [ now ap- eared as another person, and apoke of the governor, the ariison, the castle and the like, upon all occasions. The captain had now no difficulty before him, but to furnish his two boats, stop the breach of one, and man them. He made his passenger captain of one, with four other men ; and himself, his mate, and five more, went ir the other. And they contrived their business very well; for they came up to the ship abont midnight. As soon as they came within call of the ship, he made Rob- insot. hail them, and tell them he had brought off the men and the boat, and that it was a long time before the had found them, and the like; holding them in a chat til) they came to the ship’s side: when the captain and the e, entering first with their arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and carpenter with the butt-end thful in the execution, the five hostages should bejq,. +r caw my deliverance praese visibl Beadle,s Half-Dime Library. men. They secured all the rest that were upon the main and quarter-decks, ard began to fasten the hatches to Nie troncht me also a box of sugar, a box of floar, » _ bay full of lemons, and two bottles of lime juice, and abundance of other things, But, besides these, and. what keep them down who were below, when the other bent,} was a thousand times more usefitl to me. he broue t me and their men entering at the fore-chains, secured the} six clean, new shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair forecastie of the ship, and the skuttle, which went down} of gloves, one pxir of shoes, a into the cook-room, making the three men they found there prisoners. When this was done, and all safe upon the deck, the captain ordered the mate, with three men, to break into the round-house, where the new rebel captain lay, and, having taken the alarm, was gotten up, and with two men and a boy, were gotten fire-arms in their hands; and when the mate. with a crow, aplit open the door, the new captain and his men fired boldly among them, and wotnded the mate with a musket-bdil, which broke his wes aud wounded two more of the men, but killed no- woody. The mate called for nee. rushed, however, into the ound-honse, wounded as he was, and, with kis pistol. hot the new captain in the head; the bullet entered at rig mouth, and came ont again behind one of his ears: so that he never spoke a word: npon which the rest yielded, and the ship was taken effectually, without any more lives lost. As soon as the ship was thns secured. the captain or- dered seven guns to be fired. which was the signal agreed spon by me, to give me the notice of his success, which, you may be sure, I was very gliud to hear, having sat watching upon the shore for it till near two of the clock in the morning. Having thus heard the signal plainly, IT leid me a. ; and it having been a day of great fatigue to me, ! tlept very sound, till I was something surprised by t2¢ L-ise of a gun; and presetitly starting up, I heard a man cal me by the name of ** Governor, governor :” and presertiy I knew the captain's voice, when, climbing up to the to; of the hill, there he stood, mg mated a to the ship, he embraced me in hisarms. ‘My dear friend aud deliv- erer,”’ says he, ‘there's your ship: for she is all yours, and 8o aie we, and al! that belong to her.”’ I cast my eye to the ship, and there she rode within little more than half a mile of the shore: for they had weighed her anchor as soon as 7 were masters of her, and the weather being fair, had brought her to an anchor just againet the mouth of a little creek: and the tide being up, the captain had bronght the pinnace in near the place where J tirst landed my rafts, and so landed just at my door. I was, at first, ready to sink down with the surprise: put into my hands, all things easy, and a large ship just ready to carry me away, whither I pleased to go. At first, for some time, I was not able to answer one word; but as soon as he had taken me in his arms, I held fast by him, or ] should have fallen to the ground. lle perceived the surprise, and immediately pulls a bot- tle out of bis ket and gave me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose for me, After I drank it, [sat down upon the ground. and though it brought me to inyself, yet it was a good while before I could spuak . word to him. Al .his while the poor man was in as great an ecstacy as I, only not under any surprise, as I was; and he said a thousand kind, tender things to me. to compose and |g bring me to myself: but such was the flood of joy in m breast, that it put all my spirits into confusion: at last it broke out into tears, and a little while after I recovered my epeech, Then I took my turn, and embraced him, as my deliv- erer ; and we rejoiced together. I told him I looked upon him as a man sent frorh heaven to deliver me, and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain uf wonders: that such things as these were the testimonies we had of a secret hand of Providence governing the world, and an evidence that the eyes of an infinite Power could search into the remotest corner of the world, and send help to the miserable whenever he pleased. I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to heaven; and what heart could forbear to bless Him, who had not only, in a miraculous manner, provided for me in such a wilderness, and in sucha desolate condition, but from whom every deliverance must always be ac- knowledged to proceed ? When we had talked a while, thecaptain told me he had brought me some little refreshment, such as the ship af- forded, and such as the wretches, who had been so long his masters, had not plundered him of. Upon this tre cfiled aloud to the boat, anc bade his men bring the things ashore that were for the governor; and indeed it was a present, asif [ had been one, not that was to be car- ried away along with them, bunt as if I had been to dwell upon the island still, and they were to g> without me. First. he had brought me a case of bottles full of excel lent cordial waters, six large bottles of Madcira wine— the bottles held two quarts a»iece—two ponnds of excel lent tobacco, twelve yood pieces of the ship's beef, an¢ six pieces of pork, with a of peas, and about a hun. weight of biscuit. ‘whom I left a letter, and made them prom at, and one pair - inves. and a verv good suit of -lothes of sf gyal ee had been worn very little: in a word, he clothed me from head to foot. It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one may imugine, to one in my circnistances; but never was anything in the wold of that kind so unpleasant, awk- ward, and uneasy as it Was to me to wear such clothes at their firet putting on. After these ceremonies were past, and after all hie good things were brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was tu be done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering, whether we might venture to take them away with us or no, especially two of them, whom we knew to be incorrigible and refrac- tury, to the last devree; and the captain said he knew that they were such rogues, that there was no obliging them ; and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, as malefactors, to be delivered over to justice, at the first English colony he could comeat; aud I toaad the captain himself was very anxious about it. jpon this, I told him, that if he desired it, I duret un- dertake to bring the two men he spoke of, to make it their own request that he should leave them upon the island. “I should be very glad of that,’’ says the cap- tain. * with all my heart,” “Well,” said I, “I will send for them, and talk with thera for you.’’ So I caused Friday and the two hostages, for they were now discharged, their comrades having perfurmed their promise; I say, I caused them to go to the cave, and bring up the five men pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep them there till I came. After some time, I came thither, dressed in my new habit, and now I was called governor again. Being all met, aud the captain with me, I caused the men to be brought before me, and I told them thacI had had a full account of their villainous behaviour to the captain, and how they had run away with the ship, and were prepar- ing to commit further robberies; but that Providence had ensnared them in their own ways, and that they had fallen into the pit which they had digved for others. Ll let them Know that, by my direction, the ship had been seized; that she lay now in the road; and they might see by-and-by that their new captain had received che reward of his villainy; for that they might see him hanging at the yard-arm. That us to them, I wanted to know what they had to say, why I should not execute thein as pirates, taken in the fact,as by my commission they could not doubt I had authority to do. One of them auswered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing to say but this, that when they were vaken, the captain had promised them their lives, and they humbly implored tor®mercy. But I told them I knew not what mercy to show them: for, as for myself. {had resolved to quit the island with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to yo to Kngland; and as for the captain he could not carry them to Eng- cand, other than as prisoners in irons, to be tried for mutiny and running away with the ship; the conse- quence of which, they must needs know, would be the vallows: #0 that I could not tell which was best for them, unleas they had «a mind to take their fate in the ‘S210 Fe desired that I did not care, as I had lib- erty to :eave it. I had some inclination to give them their lives if they could shift on shore. They seemed very thankful for it; said they wonld much rather ven- ture to stay there, than to be carried to England to be hanged: 80 I left it on that issue. Hewever, the captain seemed to make some difficult of it, as if he durst not leave them there. Upon this seeined a little angry with the captain, and told. him that they were my prisoners, not his; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it, I would set them at liberty as ! found them ; and if he did not like that. he mivht take them again, if he could catch them. j Upon this they appeared very thankfau, and I accord- ingly set them at liberty, and bade them retire into the woods, to the place whence they came, and I would leave them some fire-arms, some ammununition, and some directions how they should live very well, if they thought t. Upon this I prepared to go an board the ship: bu ‘old the captain that I would stay that night to Kepate my things, and desired him to go on board in the mean time, and keep all right in the ship, and send the boat on shore the next day for me; ordering him in the mean time to cause the new captain who was Killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that these men = see him. When the captain was gone, I vent for the men up to me in my apartment, an entered seriously into dis- course with them of their circumstances. I told them. I thought they had made a right choice; that if the cap- tain carried them away, they would certainly be hanged [ showed them the new captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told them they had nothing less to ex pect. When they had all declared their willingness to atay, |} then told them, I would lex them into the story of my living there, and put them into the way of making ft easy tothem, Accordingly I gave them the whole his tory of the place, and of my coming to it; showed them my fortifications, the way fee @ my bread, planted my corn, cured my grapee; and, in a word, all that was ey to make them easy. I told them the story also of the sixteen Spaniards that were to be expect ; for ( € to treat them in common with themselves. I left t! y_ fire-arms; viz., five muskets, three fowling-pieces, and three swords. I bad about a barrel and a half of powder left; for after the first year or twol used but little, and wasted none. I gave them a de «cription of the way I managed the goats, and directions to milk and futten them, to mike both butter and cheese. In a word. I gave them every part of my own story; EGboo com (E(0)