by Daniel Defoe
it proved of excellent use to us through the wholevoyage; for we kept some of it till we came to England, but it was thenso hard, that a good hatchet would hardly cut it.
While we lay here, it came into my thoughts, that now was a good time toexecute justice upon my prisoners; so I called up the officers to a kindof council of war, and proposed it to them in general terms, not lettingthem know my mind as to the manner of it. They all agreed it wasnecessary, and the second mate, boatswain, and gunner, had so muchintelligence of it from the men, that they prepared for death as much asif I had signed a dead-warrant for their execution, and that they wereto be hanged at the yard-arm.
But, in the midst of those resolves, I told the council of officers, mydesign was to the north part of the island, where a gang of pirates weresaid to be settled, and that I was persuaded I might get a good shipamong them, and as many men as we desired, for that I was satisfied thegreatest part of them were so wearied of their present situation, thatthey would be glad of an opportunity to come away, and especially suchas had, either by force, or rash, hasty resolutions, been, as it were,surprised into that sort of life; that I had been informed they werevery far from being in such a formidable posture as they had beenrepresented to us in Europe, or anything near so numerous; but that, onthe contrary, we should find them poor, divided, in distress, andwilling to get away upon any terms they could.
Some of the officers of the ship differed from me in my opinion. Theyhad received such ideas of the figure those people made in Madagascar,from the common report in England, that they had no notion of them, butas of a little commonwealth of robbers; that they were immensely rich;that Captain Avery was king of the Island; that they were eight thousandmen; that they had a good squadron of stout ships, and that they wereable to resist a whole fleet of men of war; having a harbour so wellfortified at the entrance into it, that there was no coming at themwithout a good army for land-service, to assist in the enterprise.
I convinced them how impossible this was to be true, and told them allthe discourse I had with the Dutchman, at the place where I now was, whohad received a full account of the particulars from several of them whohad come down to St. Augustine's in little boats in order to make theirescape from their comrades, and to get passage for Europe; that he hadalways assisted, and got them off, whenever any ship touched at thatport; and that they all agreed in their relation of their state andcondition, which was indeed miserable enough, saving that they wantednot for victuals.
In a word, I soon brought them to enter into the reason of it, and to beof my opinion; and, accordingly, I ordered to get ready, and in threedays' time weighed anchor, and stood away for the north of the island,taking care not to communicate our debates and resolves to the menbefore the mast, as had been done before, we having had enough of thatalready.
While we were thus coasting the island to the north, and in the channelor sea between the island and the main of Africa, it came into mythoughts, that I might now make use of my traitors to my advantage andtheir own too, and that I might, if they were honest, gain my end, andget a full intelligence of the people I had my eye upon; and, if theywere still traitors, they would desert and go over to the pirates, and Ishould be well rid of them, without the necessity of bringing them tothe yard-arm; for I was very uneasy in my mind about hanging them, norcould I ever have been brought to do it, I believe, whatever risk I hadrun from their mutinous disposition.
I was now got in the latitude of fifteen degrees and a half south of theline, and began to think of standing in for the shore; when I orderedthe second mate, who lay in irons in the brigantine, to be brought onboard the great ship, and to be called up into the great cabin. He camein great concern, though he was of himself a very bold and resolutefellow, yet, as he made no doubt that he was sent for to execution, heappeared thoroughly softened, and quite another man than he was before.
When he was brought in, I caused him to be set down in a nook of thecabin where he could not stir to offer any violence to me, had he beenso inclined, two large chests being just before him; and I ordered allmy people to withdraw, except Captain Merlotte and the supercargo; andthen, turning myself to the criminal, I told him, as he knew hiscircumstances, I need not repeat them, and the fact for which he wasbrought into that condition; that I had hitherto, from time to time,delayed his execution, contrary to the opinion of the rest of the chiefofficers, who in full council had unanimously condemned him; that asudden thought had come into my mind, which, if he knew how to meritmercy, and to retrieve his circumstances by his future fidelity, mightonce again put it into his power, not only to save his life, but to betrusted in the ship again, if he inclined to be honest; that, however,if he had no inclination to merit by his service, I would put it to hischoice, either to undertake with courage and fidelity what I had topropose to him, in which case he might expect to be very well treated,or, if not, I would pardon him as to the death he had reason to expect,and he with his two fellow-criminals should be set on shore to gowhither they pleased.
He waited, without offering to speak a word, till I made a full stop,and then asked me if I gave him leave to answer.
I told him he might say whatever he thought proper.
Then he asked if I gave him leave to speak freely, and would not takeoffence at what he might say? I replied, he should speak as freely as ifhe had never offended; and that, as I had given him his life, I nowwould give him my word, nothing he could say should revoke the grant;and that he should not only go freely on shore, (for I expected by hiswords that he had made that choice) but I would give him the lives ofhis two fellow-prisoners; and would give them arms and ammunition, andanything else that was reasonable for them to ask, or necessary to theirsubsisting on shore in such a country.
He told me then, that had it been any other part of the world than atMadagascar, he would readily have chosen to have gone on shore; nay,though the place had been really desolate and uninhabited; that he didnot object because my offer was not very generous and kind, and that itwould be always with regret that he should look back upon the mercy heshould have received, and how ill he had deserved it at my hands.
But that as it was at this place that I mentioned setting him atliberty, he told me, that though he had been mutinous and disorderly,for which he had acknowledged he had deserved to die, yet he hoped Icould not think so ill of him as to believe he could turn pirate; andbegged that, rather than entertain such hard thoughts of him, I wouldexecute the worst part of the sentence, and send him out of the world apenitent and an honest man, which he should esteem far better than togive him his life in a condition in which he could preserve it upon noother terms than those of being the worst of villains. He added, that ifthere was anything he could do to deserve so much mercy as I intendedhim, he begged me that I would give him room to behave himself as becamehim, and he would leave it wholly to me to use him as he should deserve,even to the recalling the pardon that I had granted him.
I was extremely satisfied with what he said, and more particularly withthe manner of his speaking it; I told him I was glad to see that he hada principle of so much honesty at the bottom of a part so unhappy as hehad acted; and I would be very far from prompting him to turn pirate,and much more from forcing him to do so, and that I would, according tohis desire, put an opportunity into his hands to show himself a new man,and, by his fidelity, to wipe out all that was past. And then, withoutany more ceremony, I told him my whole design, which was, to send him,and four or five more men with him, on shore among the pirates as spies,to see what condition they were in, and to see whether there were anyapprehensions of violence from them, or whether they were in the meancircumstances that I had reason to believe they were in; and, lastly,whether they had any ship or vessel which might be bought of them, andwhether men might be had to increase our company; that is to say, suchmen as, being penitent for their rogueries and tired with theirmiseries, would be glad of the opportunity of turning honest men beforethey were brought to it by distress and the gallows.
He emb
raced the offer with the greatest readiness, and gave me all theassurances that I could desire of his fidelity. I then asked him whetherhe thought his two fellow-prisoners might be trusted upon the sameconditions.
In reply, he asked me if I would take it for a piece of sincerity, if,after a trial, he should tell me his mind, and would not be displeasedif he declined speaking his thoughts till he had talked with them.
I told him he should be at liberty to give his farther answer after hehad proposed it to them; but I insisted upon his opinion first, becauseit was only his opinion that I asked now; whereas, if he reported it tothem, then he had no more to do but to report their answer.
He then asked me if I would please to grant him one thing, that,whatever his opinion should be, what he should say should be noprejudice to them in their present condition.
I told him it was a reasonable caution in him, and I would assure himthat, whatever he said should not do them any prejudice; and, toconvince him of it, I gave