You Jones, said I, tell me who they are, and come away from them, for I will make an example of them, whoever they are. Will Jones slunk in among the rest, and made me no answer, and immediately One and all was cried again, and a little huzza with it, and some of the men appeared to have fire-arms with them. There was a great many of them, and I presently foresaw, 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, and said calmly, Very well, gentlemen, let me know what you mean by one and all? I offered any of you that did not like to go the voyage to quit the ship; is that what you intend by one and all? If so, you are welcome, and pray take care to do it immediately; as for what chests or clothes you have in the ship, you shall have them all with you. Upon this I made the chief mate, who was now come to me again, advance a little with some more men, and get between the men upon the forecastle and 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 to speak to them singly, which I did calmly and smilingly.
Why, how now, Tom, says I, to one of them; what are you among the mutineers?
Lord, sir, says Tom, not I, they are mad, I think; I have nothing to say to them; I care not where I go, not I; I will go round the globe with you, it's all one to me.
Well, Tom, says I, but what do you do among them then? come away into the steerage, and show yourself an honest man.
So Tom comes in, and after him another, and then two more. Upon my saying to Tom, What do you do among them? one of the fellows says to one of the officers that stood at a little distance from me, What does the captain mean by saying, among them? What, does he reckon us to be in the plot? He is quite wrong, we are all ignorant, and surprised at it. He immediately 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, and would not appear in this villany, let them go down between decks, and get out of the way, that they may have no share in the punishment, if they 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 steerage door, and down between decks, every one in his hammock or cabin, till there were not above five or six of them left.
By this time, our two boats appeared from the shore, being both manned with Dutchmen, viz. the Dutch captain's mate and about twenty of his men, all the water casks full, but not a man of mine with them, for they were left on shore in safe custody.
I waited till they came on board, and then turning to the men on the forecastle, 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 and all, 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 the ship; but go get you into the boat, and what is your own shall be given you into the boat.
As I spoke this in an angry tone, and with a kind of passion, that bespoke resentment to a high degree, they began to see they had no opportunity to choose; and some of them slipt down the scuttle into the cook-room. I had ordered the officer who was there, who was one of the midshipmen, to wink at it, and let as many come down as offered it; and the 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 them one by one by their names, and argued with them; Prithee, Jack, says he to one of them, do not you be distracted, and ruin yourself to gratify a rash drunken humour; if you go into the boat you are undone; you will be seized as soon as you come on shore, as the rest are, and will be sent to England in irons, and there you will be infallibly hanged; why you are certainly all mad.
Jack replies, he had no design to mutiny, but the second mate drew him in, and he did not know what to do, he wished he had not meddled; he knew he was undone; but now what could he do?
Do, says the midshipman, leave them for shame, and slip down here, and I will see and get you off if I can.
Accordingly he pulled him down, and after him so many got out of sight the same way, that there was not above seventeen or eighteen left upon the forecastle.
I seemed to take no notice of that, till at last one of the men that was left there, with his hat or cap in his hand, stepping just to the edge of the forecastle, which was next to me, said, in a very respectful manner, that I saw how many had slunk away and made their peace, or at least obtained pardon, and that I might, perhaps, know that they who were left were only such as had their duty there, being placed there of course before the mutiny began, and that they had no hand in it, but abhorred it with all their hearts, which he hoped I would consider, and not join them with those that had offended, merely because they came upon 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 I expected he would prove it to my satisfaction before I accepted that for an excuse. He told me, it might, perhaps, be hard to prove it, seeing the boatswain and his mate, and the second mate, were gone, but the rest of the ship's crew could all testify that they were a part of the men whose watch it was, and that they were upon the forecastle by the necessity of their duty, and no otherwise; and called several men who were upon duty with them to witness it, who did confirm it.
Upon this, I found myself under a necessity, in justice to the men, to approve 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, as before, yet I made no question but I should have some left to make examples of; but as I could not go back from the promise of mercy which I had allowed the midshipman to offer in my name, so I tricked myself by their mistake into a necessity of pardoning them all, which was very far from my design; but there was no remedy.
However, the men, when they were so happily escaped, desired the midshipman, who had been instrumental to their deliverance, to assure me, that as they were sensible that they had deserved very ill at my hands, and that yet I had treated them thus kindly, they would not only reveal to me all the particulars of the conspiracy, and the names of those principally concerned in it, but that they would assure me they would never more dispute any of my measures, but were very ready to do their duty as seamen, to what part of the world soever I might think fit to go, or which way I thought fit to carry them, whether outward or homeward; and that they gave me the tender of their duty in this manner with the utmost sincerity and with thankfulness, for my having forgiven them 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 they should see they had taken the wiser course; that I had an entire confidence in their fidelity; and that they should never find I would reproach them with, or use them the worse for, what had past.
I must confess, I was very glad of this submission of the men; for though, by the measures I had taken, I was satisfied I should conquer them, and that I was safe from their attempts; yet, carrying it on by resentment, and doing justice upon the offenders, whatever advantage it had one way, had this disadvantage in the consequence; viz., that it would 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 to inquire 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 told them, that as I had freely forgiven what was past, so I would keep my word, that I would never reproach them with it; but that I thought it was necessary their judgments should be convinced how much they were imposed upon, as well as their tempers be reduced by my kindness to them. That I was of the opinion that they had been abused in the account given them of what I had designed to do, and of the reasons I had to give for doing it; and I would desire them to let me know afterwards, whether they had been
