Captain Singleton Read online

an End too as soon as he could; for after this he began to use me ill, and not

  only to straiten my Provisions, but to beat and torture me in a barbarous Manner

  for every Trifle; so that in a Word my Life began to be very miserable.

  The Violence of this Usage of me, and the Impossibility of my Escape from his

  Hands, set my Head a-working upon all Sorts of Mischief; and in particular, I

  resolved, after studying all other Ways to deliver my self, and finding all

  ineffectual; I say, I resolved to murther him. With this Hellish Resolution in

  my Head, I spent whole Nights and Days contriving how to put it in Execution,

  the Devil prompting me very warmly to the Fact. I was indeed entirely at a Loss

  for the Means; for I had neither Gun or Sword, nor any Weapon to assault him

  with. Poison I had my Thoughts much upon, but knew not where to get any; or if I

  might have got it, I did not know the Country Word for it, or by what Name to

  ask for it.

  In this Manner I quitted the Fact intentionally a Hundred and a Hundred Times;

  but Providence, either for his sake, or for mine, always frustrated my Designs,

  and I could never bring it to pass; so I was obliged to continue in his Chains

  till the Ship, having taken in her Loading, set Sail for Portugal.

  I can say nothing here to the Manner of our Voyage; for as I said, I kept no

  Journal; but this I can give an Account of, that having been once as high as the

  Cape of Good Hope, as we call it; or Cabo de bona Speranza, as they call it, we

  were driven back again by a violent Storm from the W. S. W. which held us six

  Days and Nights, a great Way to the Eastward; and after that standing afore the

  Wind for several Days more, we at last came to an Anchor on the Coast of

  Madagascar.

  The Storm had been so violent, that the Ship had received a great deal of

  Damage, and it required some time to repair her; so standing in nearer the

  Shore, the Pilot, My Master, brought the Ship into a very good Harbour, where we

  rid in Twenty six Fathom Water, about Half a Mile from the Shore.

  While the Ship rode here, there happen'd a most desperate Mutiny among the Men,

  upon Account of some Deficiency in their Allowance, which came to that Height,

  that they threaten'd the Captain to set him on Shore, and go back with the Ship

  to Goa. I wish'd they would, with all my Heart, for I was full of Mischief in my

  Head, and ready enough to do any. So, tho' I was but a Boy, as they called me,

  yet I prompted the Mischief all I could, and embarked in it so openly, that I

  escap'd very little being hang'd in the first and most early Part of my Life;

  for the Captain had some Notice, that there was a Design laid by some of the

  Company to murther him; and having partly by Money and Promises, and partly by

  Threatning and Torture, brought two Fellows to confess the Particulars, and the

  Names of the Persons concerned, they were presently apprehended, till one

  accusing another, no less than sixteen Men were seized, and put into Irons,

  whereof I was one.

  The Captain, who was made desperate by his Danger, resolving to clear the Ship

  of his Enemies, try'd us all, and we were all condemned to die. The Manner of

  his Process I was too young to take Notice of; but the Purser and one of the

  Gunners were hang'd immediately, and I expected it with the rest. I do not

  remember any great Concern I was under about it, only that I cry'd very much;

  for I knew little then of this World, and nothing at all of the next.

  However, the Captain contented himself with executing these two; and some of the

  rest, upon their hmble Submission, and Promise of future good Behaviour, were

  pardoned; but five were ordered to be set on Shore on the Island, and left

  there, of which I was one. My Master used all his Interest with the Captain to

  have me excused, but could not obtain it; for somebody having told him that I

  was one of them, who was singled out to have killed him, when my Master desired

  I might not be set on Shore, the Captain told him, I should stay on Board if he

  desired it, but then I should be hang'd; so he might chuse for me which he

  thought best: The Captain, it seems, was particularly provok'd at my being

  concerned in the Treachery, because of his having been so kind to me, and of his

  having singled me me out to serve him, as I have said above; and this perhaps

  obliged him to give my Master such a rough Choice, either to set me on Shore, or

  to have me hang'd on Board: And had my Master indeed known what good Will I had

  for him, he would not ha' been long in chusing for me; for I had certainly

  determined to do him a Mischief the first Opportunity I had had for it. This was

  therefore a good Providence for me, to keep me from dipping my Hands in Blood,

  and it made me more tender afterwards in Matters of Blood, than I believe I

  should otherwise have been. But as to my being one of them that was to kill the

  Captain, that I was wrong'd in, for I was not the Person; but it was really one

  of them that were pardoned, he having the good Luck not to have that Part

  discovered.

  I was now to enter upon a Part of independent Life, a thing I was indeed very

  ill prepared to manage; for I was perfectly loose and dissolute in my Behaviour,

  bold and wicked while I was under Government, and now perfectly unfit to be

  trusted with Liberty; for I was as ripe for any Villainy, as a young Fellow that

  had no solid Thought ever placed in his Mind could be supposed to be. Education,

  as you have heard, I had none; and all the little Scenes of Life I had pass'd

  thro', had been full of Dangers and desperate Circumstances; but I was either so

  young, or so stupid, that I escaped the Grief and Anxiety of them, for want of

  having a Sense of their Tendency and Consequences.

  This thoughtless, unconcern'd Temper had one Felicity indeed in it; that it made

  me daring and ready for doing any Mischief, and kept off the Sorrow which

  otherwise ought to have attended me when I fell into any Mischief; that this

  Stupidity was instead of a Happiness to me, for it left my Thoughts free to act

  upon Means of Escape and Deliverance in my Distress, however ever great it might

  be; whereas my Companions in the Misery, were so sunk by their Fear and Grief,

  that they abandoned themselves to the Misery of their Condition, and gave over

  all Thought but of their perishing and starving, being devoured by wild Beasts,

  murthered, and perhaps eaten by Cannibals, and the like.

  I was but a young Fellow about 17 or 18; but hearing what was to be my Fate, I

  received it with no Appearance of Discouragement; but I asked what my Master

  said to it, and being told that he had used his utmost Interest to save me, but

  the Captain had answered I should either go on Shore or be hanged on Board,

  which he pleased; I then gave over all Hope of being received again: I was not

  very thankful in my Thoughts to my Master for his solliciting the Captain for

  me, because I knew that what he did was not in Kindness to me, so much as in

  Kindness to himself; I mean to preserve the Wages which he got for me, which

  amounted to above six Dollars a Month, including what the Captain allowed him

 
for my particular Service to him.

  When I understood that my Master was so apparently kind, I asked if I might not

  be admitted to speak with him, and they told me I might, if my Master would come

  down to me, but I could not be allowed to come up to him; so then I desired my

  Master might be spoke to to come to me, and he accordingly came to me; I fell on

  my Knees to him, and begg'd he would forgive me what I had done to displease

  him; and indeed the Resolution I had taken to murther him, lay with some Horrour

  upon my Mind just at that Time, so that I was once just a-going to confess it,

  and beg him to forgive me, but I kept it in: He told me he had done all he could

  to obtain my Pardon of the Captain, but could not; and he knew no Way for me but

  to have Patience, and submit to my Fate; and if they came to speak with any Ship

  of their Nation at the Cape, he would endeavour to have them stand in, and fetch

  us off again if we might be found.

  Then I begg'd I might have my Clothes on Shore with me. He told me he was afraid

  I should have little Need of Clothes, for he did not see how we could long

  subsist on the Island, and that he had been told that the Inhabitants were

  Cannibals or Men-eaters (tho' he had no Reason for that Suggestion) and we

  should not be able to live among them. I told him I was not so afraid of that,

  as I was of starving for want of Victuals; and as for the Inhabitants being

  Cannibals, I believed we should be more likely to eat them, than they us, if we

  could but get at them: But I was mightily concerned, I said, we should have no

  Weapons with us to defend our selves, and I begg'd nothing now, but that he

  would give me a Gun and a Sword, with a little Powder and Shot.

  He smiled and said, they would signify nothing to us, for it was impossible for

  us to pretend to preserve our Lives among such a populous and desperate Nation

  as the People of the Island were. I told him, that however it would do us this

  Good, for we should not be devoured or destroy'd immediately; so I begged hard

  for the Gun. At last he told me, he did not know whether the Captain would give

  him Leave to give me a Gun, and if not, he durst not do it; but he promised to

  use his Interest to obtain it forme, which he did, and the next Day he sent me a

  Gun, with some Ammunition, but told me, the Captain would not suffer the

  Ammunition to be given us, till we were set all on Shore, and till he was just

  going to set Sail. He also sent me the few Clothes I had in the Ship, which

  indeed were not many.

  Two Days after this we were all carried on Shore together; the rest of my

  Fellow-Criminals hearing I had a Gun, and some Powder and Shot, sollicited for

  Liberty to carry the like with them, which was also granted them; and thus we

  were set on Shore to shift for our selves.

  At our first coming into the Island, we were terrified exceedingly with the

  Sight of the barbarous People; whose Figure was made more terrible to us than

  really it was, by the Report we had of them from the Seamen; but when we came to

  converse with them a while, we found they were not Cannibals, as was reported,

  or such as would fall immediately upon us and eat us up; but they came and sat

  down by us, and wondered much at our Clothes and Arms, and made Signs to give us

  some Victuals, such as they had, which was only Roots and Plants dug out of the

  Ground, for the present, but they brought us Fowls and Flesh afterwards in good

  Plenty.

  This encouraged the other four Men that were with me very much, for they were

  quite dejected before; but now they began to be very familiar with them, and

  made Signs, that if they would use us kindly, we would stay and live with them;

  which they seemed glad of, tho' they knew little of the Necessity we were under

  to do so, or how much we were afraid of them.

  However, upon other Thoughts, we resolved that we would only stay in that Part

  so long as the Ship rid in the Bay, and then making them believe we were gone

  with the Ship, we would go and place our selves, if possible, where there were

  no Inhabitants to be seen, and so live as we could, or perhaps watch for a Ship

  that might be driven upon the Coast, as we were.

  The Ship continued a Fortnight in the Road repairing some Damage which had been

  done her in the late Storm, and taking in Wood and Water; and during this time

  the Boat coming often on Shore, the Men brought us several Refreshments, and the

  Natives believing we only belong'd to the Ship, were civil enough. We lived in a

  kind of a Tent on the Shore, or rather a Hut, which we made with the Boughs of

  Trees, and sometimes in the Night retired to a Wood a little out of their Way,

  to let them think we were gone on board the Ship. However, we found them

  barbarous, treacherous, and villainous enough in their Nature, only civil for

  Fear, and therefore concluded we should soon fall into their Hands when the Ship

  was gone.

  The Sense of this wrought upon my Fellow-Sufferers even to Distraction; and one

  of them, being a Carpenter, in his mad Fit, swam off to the Ship in the Night,

  tho' she lay then a League to Sea, and made such pitiful Moan to be taken in,

  that the Captain was prevailed with at last to take him in, tho' they let him

  lye swimming three Hours in the Water before he consented to it.

  Upon this, and his humble Submission, the Captain received him, and, in a word,

  the Importunity of this Man (who for some time petition'd to be taken in, tho'

  they hanged him as soon as they had him) was such as could not be resisted; for,

  after he had swam so long about the Ship, he was not able to have reached the

  Shore again; and the Captain saw evidently that the Man must be taken on Board,

  or suffered to drown, and the whole Ship's Company offering to be bound for him

  for his good Behaviour, the Captain at last yielded, and he was taken up, but

  almost dead with his being so long in the Water.

  When this Man was got in, he never left Importuning the Captain and all the rest

  of the Officers in Behalf of us that were behind, but to the very last Day the

  Captain was inexorable; when, at the time their Preparations were making to

  fail, and Orders given to hoist the Boats into the Ship, all the Seamen in a

  Body came up to the Rail of the Quarter-Deck, where the Captain was walking with

  some of his Officers, and appointing the Boatswain to speak for them, he went

  up, and falling on his Knees to the Captain, begged of him in the humblest

  manner possible, to receive the four Men on Board again, offering to answer for

  their Fidelity, or to have them kept in Chains till they came to Lisbon, and

  there to be delivered up to Justice, rather than, as they said, to have them

  left to be murthered by Savages, or devoured by wild Beasts. It was a great

  while e'er the Captain took any Notice of them, but when he did he ordered the

  Boatswain to be seized, and threatned to bring him to the Capstern for speaking

  for them.

  Upon this Severity, one of the Seamen, bolder than the rest, but still with all

  possible Respect to the Captain, besought his Honour, as he called him, that he

  would give Leave to some mo
re of them to go on Shore, and die with their

  Companions, or, if possible, to assist them to resist the Barbarians. The

  Captain, rather provoked than cowd with this, came to the Barricado of the

  Quarter-Deck, and speaking very prudently to the Men, (for, had he spoken

  roughly, two Thirds of them would have left the Ship, if not all of them) he

  told them, it was for their Safety as well as his own, that he had been obliged

  to that Severity; that Mutiny on board a Ship was the same thing as Treason in

  the King's Palace, and he could not answer it to his Owners and Employers to

  trust the Ship and Goods Committed to his Charge, with Men who had entertained

  Thoughts of the worst and blackest Nature; that he wished heartily that it had

  been any where else that they had been set on Shore, where they might have been

  in less Hazard from the Savages; that if he had designed they should be

  destroyed, he could as well have executed them on board as the other two; that

  he wished it had been in some other Part of the World, where he might have

  delivered them up to the Civil Justice, or might have left them among

  Christians; but that it was better their Lives were put in Hazard, than his

  Life, and the Safety of the Ship; and that tho' he did not know that he had

  deserved so ill of any of them, as that they should leave the Ship, rather than

  do their Duty; yet if any of them were resolved to do so unless he would consent

  to take a Gang of Traytors on board, who, as he had proved before them all, had

  conspired to murther him, he would not hinder them, nor, for the present, would

  he resent their Importunity; but if there was no body left in the Ship but

  himself, he would never consent to take them on board.

  This Discourse was delivered so well, was in it self so reasonable, was managed

  with so much Temper, yet so boldly concluded with a Negative, that the greatest

  Part of the Men were satisfied for the present: However, as it put the Men into

  Juncto's and Cabals, and they were not composed for some Hours; the Wind also

  slackening towards Night, the Captain ordered not to weigh till next Morning.

  The same Night 23 of the Men, among whom was the Gunner's Mate, the Surgeon's

  Assistant, and two Carpenters, applying to the Chief Mate, told him, that as the

  Captain had given them Leave to go on Shore to their Comerades, they begged,

  that he would speak to the Captain not to take it ill that they were desirous to

  go and die with their Companions; and that they thought they could do no less in

  such an Extremity, than go to them; because if there was any way to save their

  Lives, it was by adding to their Numbers, and making them strong enough to

  assist one another in defending themselves against the Savages, till perhaps

  they might one time or other find Means to make their Escape, and get to their

  own Country again.

  The Mate told them in so many Words, that he durst not speak to the Captain upon

  any such Design, and was very sorry they had no more Respect for him, than to

  desire him to go of such an Errand; but if they were resolved upon such an

  Enterprize, he would advise them to take the Long-Boat in the Morning betimes,

  and go off, seeing the Captain had given them Leave, and leave a civil Letter

  behind them to the Captain, and to desire him to send his Men on Shore for the

  Boat, which should be delivered very honestly, and he promised to keep their

  Counsel so long.

  Accordingly an Hour before Day, those 23 Men, with every Man a Fire-lock and

  Cutlass, with some Pistols, three Halbards or Half-Pikes, and good Store of

  Powder and Ball, without any Provision but about Half an Hundred of Bread, but

  with all their Chests and Clothes, Tools, Instruments, Books, &c. embarked

  themselves so silently, that the Captain got no Notice of it till they were

  gotten half the Way on Shore.