A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before

by Daniel Defoe

wondered much that such measures were taken inthe ship as I heard there were; and that I was not, they might see,unprovided of means to reduce every one of them to their duty by force,and to punish those that were guilty, as they deserved, but that Irather desired to win them with kindness; and that, therefore, I hadresolved, that if any of them had any reason to dislike the voyage, theyshould be safely set on shore, and suffered to go to the second mate andhis comrades: and farther, I told them what circumstances they were inand how effectually they were secured.

  This astonished them, and surprised them exceedingly, and some of theminquired more particularly into the circumstances of the said secondmate and his fellows: I told them they were safe enough, and shouldremain so; for, as I could prove they had all a villanous design to runaway with the ship, and set me on shore, either here, or in a worseplace, I thought that only upon account of my own safety, such men werenot fit to go in the ship, being once capable to entertain such horridmischievous thoughts, or that could be guilty of such a villany; andthat, if any of them were of their minds, they were very welcome, ifthey thought fit, to go to them.

  At this offer, some bold rogues upon the forecastle, which I did notdiscern, by reason of the number that stood there, cried out, _One andall_, which was a cry, at the same time, of mutiny and rebellion, thatwas certain, and in its kind very dangerous.

  However, to let them see I was not to be daunted with it, I called outto one of the men among them, whom I saw upon the forecastle; You Jones,said I, tell me who they are, and come away from them, for I will makean example of them, whoever they are. Will Jones slunk in among therest, and made me no answer, and immediately _One and all_ was criedagain, and a little huzza with it, and some of the men appeared to havefire-arms with them. There was a great many of them, and I presentlyforesaw, that, if I went to the extremity, I should spoil the voyage,though I conquered them; so I bridled my passion with all my power, andsaid calmly, Very well, gentlemen, let me know what you mean by _one andall_? I offered any of you that did not like to go the voyage to quitthe ship; is that what you intend by _one and all_? If so, you arewelcome, and pray take care to do it immediately; as for what chests orclothes you have in the ship, you shall have them all with you. Uponthis I made the chief mate, who was now come to me again, advance alittle with some more men, and get between the men upon the forecastleand those who were upon the main deck; and, as if he had wanted room,when he had gotten between them, he said to them, Stand aft a little,gentlemen, and so crowded them towards me.

  As they came nearer and nearer to where I stood, I had an opportunity tospeak to them singly, which I did calmly and smilingly.

  Why, how now, Tom, says I, to one of them; what are you among themutineers?

  Lord, sir, says Tom, not I, they are mad, I think; I have nothing to sayto them; I care not where I go, not I; I will go round the globe withyou, it's all one to me.

  Well, Tom, says I, but what do you do among them then? come away intothe steerage, and show yourself an honest man.

  So Tom comes in, and after him another, and then two more. Upon mysaying to Tom, What do you do among them? one of the fellows says to oneof the officers that stood at a little distance from me, What does thecaptain mean by saying, among them? What, does he reckon us to be in theplot? He is quite wrong, we are all ignorant, and surprised at it. Heimmediately tells me this, and I was glad, you may be sure, to hear it,and said aloud to the man that he spoke to, If they are honest men, andwould not appear in this villany, let them go down between decks, andget out of the way, that they may have no share in the punishment, ifthey have none in the crime. With all my heart, says one; God bless you,captain, says another, and away they dropt one by one in at the steeragedoor, and down between decks, every one in his hammock or cabin, tillthere were not above five or six of them left.

  By this time, our two boats appeared from the shore, being both mannedwith Dutchmen, viz. the Dutch captain's mate and about twenty of hismen, all the water casks full, but not a man of mine with them, for theywere left on shore in safe custody.

  I waited till they came on board, and then turning to the men on theforecastle, I told them they should go on board the boats immediately,as soon as the butts of water were hoisted in. They still said, _One andall_, they were ready, desired they might go and fetch their clothes.

  No, no, says I, not a man of you shall set your foot any more into theship; but go get you into the boat, and what is your own shall be givenyou into the boat.

  As I spoke this in an angry tone, and with a kind of passion, thatbespoke resentment to a high degree, they began to see they had noopportunity to choose; and some of them slipt down the scuttle into thecook-room. I had ordered the officer who was there, who was one of themidshipmen, to wink at it, and let as many come down as offered it; andthe honest man did more than that, for he went to the scuttle himself,and, as if he had whispered, so that I should not hear him, called themone by one by their names, and argued with them; Prithee, Jack, says heto one of them, do not you be distracted, and ruin yourself to gratify arash drunken humour; if you go into the boat you are undone; you will beseized as soon as you come on shore, as the rest are, and will be sentto England in irons, and there you will be infallibly hanged; why youare certainly all mad.

  Jack replies, he had no design to mutiny, but the second mate drew himin, and he did not know what to do, he wished he had not meddled; heknew he was undone; but now what could he do?

  Do, says the midshipman, leave them for shame, and slip down here, andI will see and get you off if I can.

  Accordingly he pulled him down, and after him so many got out of sightthe same way, that there was not above seventeen or eighteen left uponthe forecastle.

  I seemed to take no notice of that, till at last one of the men that wasleft there, with his hat or cap in his hand, stepping just to the edgeof the forecastle, which was next to me, said, in a very respectfulmanner, that I saw how many had slunk away and made their peace, or atleast obtained pardon, and that I might, perhaps, know that they whowere left were only such as had their duty there, being placed there ofcourse before the mutiny began, and that they had no hand in it, butabhorred it with all their hearts, which he hoped I would consider, andnot join them with those that had offended, merely because they cameupon the forecastle, and mixed there with the men who had the watch.

  I told him, if that was true, it would be in their favour, but Iexpected he would prove it to my satisfaction before I accepted that foran excuse. He told me, it might, perhaps, be hard to prove it, seeingthe boatswain and his mate, and the second mate, were gone, but the restof the ship's crew could all testify that they were a part of the menwhose watch it was, and that they were upon the forecastle by thenecessity of their duty, and no otherwise; and called several men whowere upon duty with them to witness it, who did confirm it.

  Upon this, I found myself under a necessity, in justice to the men, toapprove it; but my own management was a bite upon myself in it; for,though I did allow the midshipman to wink at their slipping away, asbefore, yet I made no question but I should have some left to makeexamples of; but as I could not go back from the promise of mercy whichI had allowed the midshipman to offer in my name, so I tricked myself bytheir mistake into a necessity of pardoning them all, which was very farfrom my design; but there was no remedy.

  However, the men, when they were so happily escaped, desired themidshipman, who had been instrumental to their deliverance, to assureme, that as they were sensible that they had deserved very ill at myhands, and that yet I had treated them thus kindly, they would not onlyreveal to me all the particulars of the conspiracy, and the names ofthose principally concerned in it, but that they would assure me theywould never more dispute any of my measures, but were very ready to dotheir duty as seamen, to what part of the world soever I might think fitto go, or which way I thought fit to carry them, whether outward orhomeward; and that they gave me the tender of their duty in this mannerwith the utmost sincerity and with thankfulness, fo
r my having forgiventhem that conduct which was the worst that a seamen could be guilty of.

  I took this very kindly, and sent them word I did so, and that theyshould see they had taken the wiser course; that I had an entireconfidence in their fidelity; and that they should never find I wouldreproach them with, or use them the worse for, what had past.

  I must confess, I was very glad of this submission of the men; forthough, by the measures I had taken, I was satisfied I should conquerthem, and that I was safe from their attempts; yet, carrying it on byresentment, and doing justice upon the offenders, whatever advantage ithad one way, had this disadvantage in the consequence; viz., that itwould ruin the voyage, for at least half the men were in the plot.

  Having thus conquered them by good usage, I thought my next work was toinquire into the mistakes which had been the foundation of all this: so,before I parted with the men who had returned to their duty, I toldthem, that as I had freely forgiven what was past, so I would keep myword, that I