THE ALLEGED MUTINY, AND THE EXECUTIONS (AS THEY WERE CALLED) ON
BOARD THE UNITED STATES MAN-OF-WAR, SOMERS.
In the beginning of this year the public mind was suddenly astounded
and horrified, at the news of a mutiny on board a national
ship-of-war, with a view to convert it into a pirate, and at the
same time excited to admiration and gratitude at the terrible energy
with which the commander of the ship had suppressed it--hanging
three of the ringleaders on the spot without trial, bringing home
twelve others in irons--and restraining the rest by the undaunted
front which the officers assumed, and the complete readiness in
which they held themselves to face a revolt. It was a season of
profound peace, and the astounding news was like claps of thunder in
a clear sky. It was an unprecedented event in our navy, where it had
been the pride and glory of the seamen to stand by their captain and
their ship to the last man, and to die exultingly to save either.
Unlike almost all mutinies, it was not a revolt against oppression,
real or imagined, and limited to the seizure of the ship and the
death or expulsion of the officers, but a vast scheme of maritime
depredation, in which the man-of-war, converted into a piratical
cruiser, was to roam the seas in quest of blood and plunder, preying
upon the commerce of all nations--robbing property, slaughtering
men, and violating women. A son of a cabinet minister, and himself
an officer, was at the head of the appalling design; and his name
and rank lent it a new aspect of danger. Every aggravation seemed
to attend it, and the horrifying intelligence came out in a way to
magnify its terrors, and to startle the imagination as well as to
overpower the judgment. The vessel was the bearer of her own news,
and arriving on the coast, took a reserve and mystery which lent
a terrific force to what leaked out. She stopped off the harbor
of New York, and remained outside two days, severely interdicting
all communication with the shore. A simple notice of her return
was all that was made public. An officer from the vessel, related
to the commander, proceeded to Washington city--giving out fearful
intimations as he went along--and bearing a sealed report to the
Secretary of the Navy. The contents of that report went direct into
the government official paper, and thence flew resounding through
the land. It was the official and authentic report of the fearful
mutiny. The news being spread from the official source, and the
public mind prepared for his reception, the commander brought his
vessel into port--landed: and landed in such a way as to increase
the awe and terror inspired by his narrative. He went direct, in
solemn procession, at the head of his crew to the nearest church,
and returned thanks to God for a great deliverance. Taken by
surprise, the public mind delivered itself up to joy and gratitude
for a marvellous escape, applauding the energy which had saved
a national ship from mutiny, and the commerce of nations from
piratical depredation. The current was all on one side. Nothing
appeared to weaken its force, or stop its course. The dead who had
been hanged, and sent to the bottom of the sea, could send up no
voice: the twelve ironed prisoners on the deck of the vessel, were
silent as the dead: the officers and men at large actors in what had
taken place, could only confirm the commander's official report.
That report, not one word of which would be heard in a court of
justice, was received as full evidence at the great tribunal of
public opinion. The reported confessions which it contained (though
the weakest of all testimony in the eye of the law, and utterly
repulsed when obtained by force, terror or seduction), were received
by the masses as incontestable evidence of guilt.
The vessel on which all this took place was the United States
man-of-war, Somers--her commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Esq.,
with a crew of 120 all told, 96 of which were apprentice boys under
age. She had gone out on one of those holiday excursions which are
now the resource of schools to make seamen. She had crossed the
Atlantic and was returning to the United States by way of the West
Indies, when this fearful mutiny was discovered. It was communicated
by the purser's steward to the purser--by him to the first
lieutenant--by him to the commander: and the incredulous manner in
which he received it is established by two competent witnesses--the
lieutenant who gave it to him, and the commander himself: and it is
due to each to give the account of this reception in his own words:
and first the lieutenant shall speak:
"I reported the thing (the intended mutiny) to the commander
immediately. He took it very coolly, said the vessel was in a
good state of discipline, and expressed his doubts as to the
truth of the report."
This is the testimony of the lieutenant before the court-martial
which afterwards sat upon the case, and two points are to be
noted in it--_first_, that the commander did not believe it; and,
_secondly_, that he declared the vessel to be in a good state of
discipline: which was equivalent to saying, there was no danger,
even if the information was true. Now for the commander's account of
the same scene, taken from his official report:
"Such was the purport of the information laid before me by
Lieut. Gansevoort, and although he was evidently impressed with
the reality of the project, yet it seemed to me so monstrous, so
improbable, that I could not forbear treating it with ridicule.
I was under the impression that Mr. Spencer had been reading
piratical stories, and had amused himself with Mr. Wales"--(the
informer).
Ridicule was the only answer which the commander deemed due to the
information, and in that he was justified by the nature of the
information itself. A purser's steward (his name Wales) had told the
lieutenant that midshipman Spencer had called him into a safe place
the night before, and asked him right off--"Do you fear death? do
you fear a dead man? are you afraid to kill a man?"--and getting
satisfactory answers to these questions, he immediately unfolded to
him his plan of capturing the ship, with a list of four certain and
ten doubtful associates, and eighteen _nolens volens_ assistants to
be forced into the business; and then roaming the sea with her as a
pirate, first calling at the Isle of Pines (Cuba) for confederates.
It was a ridiculous scheme, both as to the force which was to take
the ship, and her employment as a buccaneer--the state of the ocean
and of navigation being such at that time as to leave a sea-rover,
pursued as he would be by the fleets of all nations, without a sea
to sail in, without a coast to land on, without a rock or corner
to hide in. The whole conception was an impossibility, and the
abruptness of its communication to Wales was evidence of the design
to joke him. As such it appeared to the commander at the time. It
was at 10 o'clock in the morning of the 26th of November, 1842,
approaching the West Indies from the coast of Africa, that this
information was given by the lieutenant to the commander. Both agree
in their account of the ridicule with which it was received; but
the commander, after the deaths of the implicated, and when making
out his official report to the Secretary of the Navy, forgot to add
what he said to the lieutenant--that the vessel was in a good state
of discipline--equivalent to saying it could not be taken. Further,
he not only forgot to add what he said, but remembered to say the
contrary: and on his trial undertook to prove that the state of the
ship was bad, and had been so for weeks; and even since they left
the coast of Africa. In this omission to report to the Secretary
a fact so material, as he had remarked it to his lieutenant, and
afterwards proving the contrary on his trial, there is room for a
pregnant reflection which will suggest itself to every thinking
mind--still more when the silence of the log-book upon this "bad"
state of the crew, corresponds with the commander's account that it
was good. But, take the two accounts in what they agree, and it is
seen that at 10 o'clock in the morning Lieutenant Gansevoort's whole
report of the conspiracy and mutiny, as derived from the purser's
steward (Wales) was received with ridicule--as the romance of a boy
who had been reading piratical stories, and was amusing himself with
the steward--a landsman, of whom the commander gives a bad account
as having bought a double quantity of brandy--twice as much as his
orders justified, before leaving New York;--and afterwards stealing
it on the voyage. By five o'clock in the evening of the same day,
and without hearing any thing additional, the commander became fully
impressed with the truth of the whole story, awfully impressed
with the danger of the vessel, and fully resolved upon a course of
terrible energy to prevent the success of the impending mutiny. Of
this great and sudden change in his convictions it becomes the right
of the commander to give his own account of its inducing causes: and
here they are, taken from his official report:
"In the course of the day, Lieut. Gansevoort informed me that
Mr. Spencer had been in the wardroom examining a chart of the
West Indies, and had asked the assistant surgeon some questions
about the Isle of Pines, and the latter had informed him that it
was a place much frequented by pirates, and drily asked if he
had any acquaintances there.--He passed the day rather sullenly
in one corner of the steerage, as was his usual custom, engaged
in examining a small piece of paper, and writing upon it with
his pencil, and occasionally finding relaxation in working with
a penknife at the tail of a devilfish, one of which he had
formed into a sliding ring for his cravat. Lieut. Gansevoort
also made an excuse of duty to follow him to the foretop, where
he found him engaged in having some love device tattooed on
his arm by Benjamin F. Green, ordinary seaman, and apprentice.
Lieut. Gansevoort also learned that he had been endeavoring for
some days to ascertain the rate of the chronometer, by applying
to Mid. Rodgers, to whom it was unknown, and who referred him to
the master. He had been seen in secret and nightly conferences
with the boatswain's mate, S. Cromwell, and seaman Elisha
Small. I also heard that he had given money to several of the
crew; to Elisha Small on the twelfth of September, the day
before our departure from New York; the same day on which, in
reply to Commodore Perry's injunctions to reformation, he had
made the most solemn promises of amendment; to Samuel Cromwell
on the passage to Madeira; that he had been in the habit of
distributing tobacco extensively among the apprentices, in
defiance of the orders of the navy department, and of my own
often reiterated; that he had corrupted the ward-room steward,
caused him to steal brandy from the ward-room mess, which he,
Mr. Spencer, had drunk himself, occasionally getting drunk when
removed from observation, and had also administered to several
of the crew; that, finally, he was in the habit of amusing
the crew by making music with his jaw. He had the faculty of
throwing his jaw out of joint, and by contact of the bones,
playing with accuracy and elegance a variety of airs. Servile
in his intercourse with me, when among the crew he loaded me
with blasphemous vituperation, and proclaimed that it would be
a pleasing task to roll me overboard off the round-house. He
had some time before drawn a brig with a black flag, and asked
one of the midshipmen what he thought of it; he had repeatedly
asserted in the early part of the cruise, that the brig might
easily be taken; he had quite recently examined the hand of
midshipman Rodgers, told his fortune, and predicted for him a
speedy and violent death."
Surely the historian, as well as the poet may say: To the jealous
mind, trifles light as air are confirmations strong as proofs
from holy writ. Here are fourteen causes of suspected mutiny
enumerated, part of which causes are eminently meritorious in a
young naval officer, as those of studying the chart of the West
Indies (whither the vessel was going), and that of learning the
rate of the chronometer; another part of which is insignificant, as
giving tobacco to the apprentice boys, and giving money to two of
the seamen; others again would show a different passion from that
of piracy, as having love devices tattooed on his arm; others again
would bespeak the lassitude of idleness, as whittling at the tail
of a devilfish, and making a ring for his cravat, and drawing a
brig with a black flag; others again would indicate playfulness and
humor, as examining the palm of young Rodgers' hand, and telling his
fortune, which fortune, of course, was to be startling, as a sudden
and violent death, albeit this young Rodgers was his favorite, and
the only one he asked to see when he was about to be hung up--(a
favor which was denied him); others again are contradicted by
previous statements, as, that Spencer corrupted the purser's steward
and made him steal brandy, the commander having before reported that
steward for the offence of purchasing a double quantity of brandy
before he left New York--a circumstance which implied a sufficient
inclination to use the extra supply he had laid in (of which he
had the custody), without being corrupted by Spencer to steal
it; others of these causes again were natural, and incidental to
Spencer's social condition in the vessel, as that of talking with
the seamen, he being objected to by his four roommates (who were the
commander's relations and connections), and considered one too many
in their room, and as such attempted to be removed to another ship
by the commander himself; another, that occasionally he got drunk
when removed from observation, a fault rather too common (even when
in the presence of observation) to stand for evidence of a design
to commit mutiny on board a man-of-war; another, that blasphemous
vituperation of the commander which, although it might be abusive,
could neither be blasphemous (which only applies to the abuse of
God), nor a sign of a design upon the vessel, but only of contempt
for the commander; finally, as in that marvellous fine music with
the jaw out of joint, playing with skill and accuracy a variety of
elegant airs by the contaction of the luxated ends of the bones.
Taken as true, and this musical habit might indicate an innocency
of disposition. But it is ridiculously false, and impossible, and
as such ridiculous impossibility it was spared the mention even
of contempt during the whole court-martial proceedings. Still it
was one of the facts gravely communicated to the Secretary of the
Navy as one of the means used by Spencer to seduce the crew. While
ridicule, contempt and scorn are the only proper replies to such
absurd presumptions of guilt, there were two of them presented in
such a way as to admit of an inquiry into their truth, namely, the
fortune-telling and the chronometer: Midshipman Rodgers testified
before the court that this fortune-telling was a steerage amusement,
and that he was to die, not only suddenly and violently, but also
a gambler; and that as for the examination of the chronometer, it
was with a view to a bet between himself and Rodgers as to the time
that the vessel would get to St. Thomas--the bet on Spencer's
side, being on eight days. Yet, the diseased mind of the commander
could see nothing in those little incidents, but proof of a design
to kill Rodgers (with the rest) before the ship got to St. Thomas,
and afterwards to run to the Isle of Pines. Preposterous as these
fourteen reasons were, they were conclusive with the commander, who
forthwith acted upon them, and made the arrest of Spencer.
"At evening quarters I ordered through my clerk, O. H. Perry,
doing the duty also of midshipman and aid, all the officers to
lay aft on the quarter deck, excepting the midshipman stationed
on the forecastle. The master was ordered to take the wheel,
and those of the crew stationed abaft sent to the mainmast.
I approached Mr. Spencer, and said to him, 'I learn, Mr.
Spencer, that you aspire to the command of the Somers.' With
a deferential, but unmoved and gently smiling expression, he
replied, 'Oh no, sir.' 'Did you not tell Mr. Wales, sir, that
you had a project to kill the commander, the officers, and a
considerable portion of the crew of this vessel, and to convert
her into a pirate?' 'I may have told him so, sir, but it was in
a joke.' 'You admit then that you told him so?' 'Yes, sir, but
in joke!' 'This, sir, is joking on a forbidden subject--this
joke may cost you your life!'"
This was the answer of innocence: guilt would have denied every
thing. Here all the words are admitted, with a promptitude and
frankness that shows they were felt to be what they purported--the
mere admission of a joke. The captain's reply shows that the life
of the young man was already determined upon. It was certainly
a punishable joke--a joke upon a forbidden subject: but how
punishable? certainly among the minor offences in the navy, offences
prejudicial to discipline; and to be expiated by arrest, trial,
condemnation for breach of discipline, and sentence to reprimand,
suspension; or some such punishment for inconsiderate offences. But,
no. The commander replies upon the spot, '_this joke may cost you
your life_:' and in that he was prophetic, being the fulfiller of
his own prophecy. The informer Wales had reported a criminal paper
to be in the neckcloth of the young man: the next movement of the
commander was to get possession of that paper: and of that attempt
he gives this account:
"'Be pleased to remove your neckhandkerchief.' It was removed
and opened, but nothing was found in it. I asked him what he had
done with a paper containing an account of his project which
he had told Mr. Wales was in the back of his neckhandkerchief.
'It is a paper containing my day's work; and I have destroyed
it.' 'It is a singular place to keep day's work in.' 'It is
a convenient one,' he replied, with an air of deference and
blandness."
Balked in finding this confirmation of guilt, the commander yet
proceeded with his design, and thus describes the arrest:
"I said to him, 'You must have been aware that you could
only have compassed your designs by passing over my dead
body, and after that the bodies of all the officers. You had
given yourself a great deal to do. It will be necessary for
me to confine you.' I turned to Lieutenant Gansevoort and
said, 'Arrest Mr. Spencer, and put him in double irons.' Mr.
Gansevoort stepped forward, and took his sword; he was ordered
to sit down in the stern port, double ironed, and as an
additional security handcuffed. I directed Lieut. Gansevoort
to watch over his security, to order him to be put to instant
death if he was detected speaking to, or holding intelligence
in any way, with any of the crew. He was himself made aware of
the nature of these orders. I also directed Lieut. Gansevoort to
see that he had every comfort which his safe keeping would admit
of. In confiding this task to Lieut. Gansevoort, his kindness
and humanity gave me the assurance that it would be zealously
attended to; and throughout the period of Mr. Spencer's
confinement, Lieut. Gansevoort, whilst watching his person with
an eagle eye, and ready at any moment to take his life should he
forfeit that condition of silence on which his safety depended,
attended to all his wants, covered him with his own grego when
squalls of rain were passing over, and ministered in every way
to his comfort with the tenderness of a woman."
Double-ironed--handcuffed--bagged (for he was also tied up in
a bag), lying under the sun in a tropical clime, and drenched
with squalls of rain--silent--instant death for a word or a
sign--Lieutenant Gansevoort, armed to the teeth, standing over
him, and watching, with "eagle eye," for the sound or motion which
was to be the forfeit of life: for six days and nights, his irons
examined every half hour to see that all were tight and safe, was
this boy (of less than nineteen) thus confined; only to be roused
from it in a way that will be told. But the lieutenant could not
stand to his arduous watch during the whole of that time. His eagle
eye could not resist winking and shutting during all that time. He
needed relief--and had it--and in the person of one who showed
that he had a stomach for the business--Wales, the informer: who,
finding himself elevated from the care of pea-jackets, molasses,
and tobacco, to the rank of sentinel over a United States officer,
improved upon the lessons which his superiors had taught him, and
stood ready, a cocked revolver in hand, to shoot, not only the
prisoners (for by this time there were three), for a thoughtless
word or motion, but also to shoot any of the crew that should make a
suspicious sign:--such as putting the hand to the chin, or touching
a handspike within forty feet of the said Mr. Wales. Hear him, as he
swears before the court-martial:
"I was officer in charge of the prisoners: we were holy-stoning
the decks. I noticed those men who missed their muster kept
congregating round the stern of the launch, and kept talking in
a secret manner. I noticed them making signs to the prisoners
by putting their hands up to their chins: Cromwell was lying on
the starboard arm-chest: he rose up in his bed. I told him if
I saw any more _signs_ passing between them _I should put him
to death: my orders were to that effect_. He laid down in his
bed. I then went to the stern of the launch, found Wilson, and a
number of small holy-stones collected there, and was endeavoring
to pull a gun handspike from the stern of the launch: _what his
intentions were I don't know_. I cocked a pistol, and ordered
him to the lee-gangway to draw water. I told him if I saw him
pulling at the handspike I should blow his brains out."
This comes from Mr. Wales himself, not from the commander's report,
where this handspike-incident is made to play a great part; thus:
"Several times during the night there were symptoms of an
intention to strike some blow. Mr. Wales detected Charles A.
Wilson attempting to draw out a handspike from under the launch,
with an evident purpose of felling him; and when Mr. Wales
cocked his pistol and approached, he could only offer some lame
excuse for his presence there. I felt more anxious than I had
yet done, and remained continually on deck."
Here is a discrepancy. Wales swears before the court that he did not
know what Wilson's intentions were in pulling at the handspike: the
captain, who did not see the pulling, reports to the Secretary of
the Navy that it was done with the evident intent of felling Wales!
while Wales himself, before the court-martial, not only testified
to his ignorance of any motive for that act, but admitted upon
cross-examination, that the handspike was not drawn at all--only
attempted! and that he himself was forty feet from Wilson at the
time! (but, more of this handspike hereafter.) Still the impression
upon the commander's mind was awful. He felt more anxious than ever:
he could not rest: he kept continually on deck. Armed to the teeth
he watched, listened, interrogated, and patrolled incessantly.
Surely the man's crazy terrors would excite compassion were it not
for the deeds he committed under their influence.--But the paper
that was to have been found in Spencer's cravat, and was not found
there: it was found elsewhere, and the commander in his report gives
this account of it:
"On searching the locker of Mr. Spencer, a small razor-case was
found, which he had recently drawn, with a razor in it, from the
purser. Instead of the razor, the case was found to contain a
small paper, rolled in another; on the inner one were strange
characters, which proved to be Greek, with which Mr. Spencer
was familiar. It fortunately happened that there was another
midshipman on board the Somers who knew Greek--one whose Greek,
and every thing else that he possessed, was wholly devoted to
his country. The Greek characters, converted by midshipman Henry
Rodgers into our own, exhibited well known names among the crew.
The certain--the doubtful--those who were to be kept whether
they would or not--arranged in separate rows; those who were to
do the work of murder in the various apartments, to take the
wheel, to open the arm-chests."
The paper had about thirty names upon it: four under the head of
"certain:" ten under that of doubtful, and the remainder under
the head of _nolens volens_--which was construed by the Latinists
on board to signify men who were to be made to join in the mutiny
whether they would or not: and these _nolens volens_ who were to
be forced were more numerous than those who were to force them.
Eighteen unwilling men to be forced into mutiny and piracy by four
willing and ten uncertain; and of the four willing, one of them the
informer himself! and another not in the ship! and a third Spencer!
leaving but one under Spencer to do the work. The names of all were
spelt with the Greek alphabet. Of course these _nolens volens_ men
could not have been counted in any way among the mutineers; yet
they were always counted to make up the thirty, as, of less than
that number it would not have been seemly for a man-of-war to have
been afraid; yet some of these were brought home in irons. The ten
marked doubtful should not have been held to be guilty upon any
principle of human justice--the humanity of the law always giving
the benefit of the doubt to the suspected criminal. This brings the
inquiry to the four "certain:" and of these four, it turned out that
one of them (Andrews) was a personage not in the vessel! Another
was the veritable Mr. Wales himself! who was the informer, and the
most determined opposer of the mutiny--leaving but two (Spencer and
McKinley) to do the work of murder in the various departments: and
of this McKinley it will eventually be seen with what justice his
name was there. The names of Small and Cromwell, both of whom were
hung with Spencer, were neither of them in this certain list--nor
that of Cromwell in any: in fact, there was nothing against him,
and Small was only included in Wales's information. So that the
"certain" mutineers were reduced to two, both of whom were in irons,
and bagged, and five others out of the doubtful and _nolens volens_
classes. There was no evidence to show that this was Spencer's
razor-case: it was new, and like the rest obtained from the purser.
There was no evidence how it got into Spencer's locker: Wales and
Gansevoort were the finders. There was no evidence that a single
man whose name was in the list, knew it to be there. Justice would
have required these points to have been proven; but with respect to
the writing upon this paper it was readily avowed by Spencer to be
his--an avowal accompanied by a declaration of its joking character,
which the law would require to go with it always, but which was
disregarded.
Small and Cromwell were not arrested with Spencer, but afterwards,
and not upon accusations, but upon their looks and attitudes, and
accident to the sky-sail-mast, which will be noted at the proper
time. The first point is to show the arrestation upon looks and
motions; and of that the commander gave this account in the official
report:
"The following day being Sunday, the crew were inspected
at quarters, ten o'clock. I took my station abaft with the
intention of particularly observing Cromwell and Small. The
third, or master's division, to which they both belonged, always
mustered at morning quarters upon the after part of the quarter
deck, in continuation of the line formed by the crews of the
guns. The persons of both were faultlessly clean. They were
determined that their appearance in this respect should provoke
no reproof. Cromwell stood up to his full stature, his muscles
braced, his battle-axe grasped resolutely, his cheek pale, but
his eye fixed as if indifferently at the other side. He had
a determined and dangerous air. Small made a very different
figure. His appearance was ghastly; he shifted his weight from
side to side, and his battle-axe passed from one hand to the
other; his eye wandered irresolutely, but never towards mine. I
attributed his conduct to fear; I have since been led to believe
that the business upon which he had entered was repugnant to his
nature, though the love of money and of rum had been too strong
for his fidelity."
Here were two men adjudged guilty of mutiny and piracy upon their
looks, and attitude, and these diametrically opposed in each case.
One had a dangerous air--the other a ghastly air. One looked
resolute--the other irresolute. One held his battle-axe firmly
griped--the other shifted his from hand to hand. One stood up
steadily on both legs--the other shifted his weight uneasily from
leg to leg. In one point only did they agree--in that of faultless
cleanliness: a coincidence which the commander's judgment converted
into evidence of guilt, as being proof of a determination that, so
far as clean clothes went, there should be no cause for judging them
pirates: a conclusion to the benefit of which the whole crew would
be entitled, as they were proved on the court-martial to be all
"faultlessly clean" at this Sunday inspection--as they always were
at such inspection--as the regulations required them to be--and for
a fault in which any one of them would have been punished. Yet upon
these looks, and attitudes, suspicions were excited, which, added
to the incident of a mast broken by the blundering order of the
commander's nephew, caused the arrest and death of two citizens.
After the crew had been inspected, divine service was performed, the
crew attending before the time, and behaving well; and the commander
again availed himself of the occasion to examine the countenances
of the men; and, happily, without finding any thing to give him
distrust. He thus describes the scene:
"After quarters the church was rigged. The crew mustered up with
their prayer-books, and took their seats without waiting for
all hands to be called, and considerably before five bells,
or half-past ten--the usual time of divine service. The first
lieutenant reported all ready, and asked me if he should call
all hands to muster. I told him to wait for the accustomed
hour. Five bells were at length struck, and all hands called to
muster. The crew were unusually attentive, and the responses
more than commonly audible. The muster succeeded, and I examined
very carefully the countenances of the crew, without discovering
any thing that gave me distrust."
This Sunday then (Nov. 27th) being the first Sunday, and the first
day after the arrest of Spencer, had passed half by without any
thing discoverable to excite distrust, except the cleanliness,
the looks, and the attitudes of Small and Cromwell at the morning
inspection. At the second ordeal, that of the church service, the
whole crew came out well, and all seemed to be safe and right up to
this time--being twenty-four hours after the arrest of Spencer--the
event which was expected to rouse his accomplices to some outbreak
for his rescue. But that critical day was not destined to pass
away without an event which confirmed all the suspicions of the
commander, and even indicated the particular criminals. Before the
sun had gone down, this event occurred; and as it became the turning
point in the case, and the point of departure in the subsequent
tragic work, the commander shall have the benefit of telling it
himself:
"In the afternoon, the wind having moderated, skysails and
royal studding-sails were set. In going large I had always been
very particular to have no strain upon the light braces leading
forward, as the tendency of such a strain was to carry away the
light yards and masts. Whilst Ward M. Gagely, one of the best
and most skilful of our apprentices, was yet on the main royal
yard, after setting the main skysail, a sudden jerk of the
weather main royal brace given by Small and another, whose name
I have not discovered, carried the topgallant-mast away in the
sheeve hole, sending forward the royal mast with royal skysail,
royal studding sail, main-topgallant staysail, and the head
of the gaff topsail. Gagely was on the royal yard. I scarcely
dared to look on the booms or in the larboard gangways where he
should have fallen. For a minute I was in intense agony: in the
next I saw the shadow of the boy through the topgallant sail,
rising rapidly towards the topgallant yard, which still remained
at the mast head. Presently he rose to view, descended on the
after side to the topgallant-mast cap, and began to examine with
coolness to see what was first to be done to clear the wreck.
I did not dream at the time that the carrying away of this mast
was the work of treachery--but I knew that it was an occasion
of this sort, the loss of a boy overboard, or an accident to
a spar, creating confusion and interrupting the regularity
of duty, which was likely to be taken advantage of by the
conspirators were they still bent on the prosecution of their
enterprise."
The commander did not dream at the time of treachery: did not
dream of it when he saw the mast fall: and well he might not,
for he had given the order himself to set the skysails, the ship
running "large" at the time, _i. e._ with a favorable wind, and
when a slight press of sail might carry away the elevated, light,
and unsupported mast which carried the skysail. He did not dream
of treachery when he saw it fall under an order which himself had
given: but quickly he had that dream, and he must tell himself how
it came to him; thus:
"To my astonishment, all those who were most conspicuously
named in the programme of Mr. Spencer, no matter in what
part of the vessel they might be stationed, mustered at the
main-top masthead--whether animated by some new-born zeal in the
service of their country, or collected there for the purpose of
conspiring, it was not easy to decide. The coincidence confirmed
the existence of a dangerous conspiracy, suspended, yet perhaps
not abandoned."
This is the way the dream began, in astonishment at seeing all those
most conspicuously nominated in the razor-case paper, rush to the
scene of the disaster. Now, for the misfortune of this paragraph, it
came to be proved before the court-martial, and after the men were
dead, that the majority of those who ran forward were not named in
the paper at all! and especially that one of the two was not upon
it who were presently seized as guilty, and whose haste to perform
a duty was the passport to death. The crew ran to the place. This
would seem to be the most natural conduct imaginable. They ran to
the place where the mast and boy were expected to fall. They flew
to the place at which the commander, in his intense agony, did not
dare to look. This haste to such a place was proof of guilt, take
it either way, either as animated by some new-born zeal to hide
past defection, or to collect for a conspiracy. The commander finds
it hard to decide between these two purposes; but take which he
might, it was confirmation of a dangerous conspiracy, and of its
suspension, not abandonment. The sudden running to the place was the
proof of the conspiracy: the jerk which Small, and another whose
name has never yet been discovered, gave to the weather main royal
brace, pointed out the two eminently guilty. What put the seal upon
the confirmation of all this guilt was the strange and stealthy
glances which Spencer, in his irons, and his head then out of the
bag (for the heads were left out in the day time) cast at it. Hear
him:
"The eye of Mr. Spencer travelled perpetually to the masthead,
and cast thither many of those strange and stealthy glances
which I had before noticed."
The commander nowhere tells when and how he had previously seen
these sinister glances--certainly not before the revelations of
Wales, as, up to that time, he was anxious before the court-martial
to show that Spencer was kindly regarded by him. But the glances.
What more natural than for Spencer to look at such a startling
scene! a boy falling in the wreck of a broken mast, and tumbling
shrouds, from fifty feet high: and look he did--a fair and
honest look, his eyes steadfastly fixed upon it, as proved by
the commander's own witnesses on the court-martial--especially
midshipman Hays--who testified to the fixed and steady look; and
this in answer to a question from the commander tending to get a
confirmation of his own report. Nor did any one whatever see those
strange and furtive glances which the commander beheld. Now to the
breaking of the mast. This incident was reviewed at the time by two
competent judges--Mr. Fenimore Cooper, the naval historian, and
himself an ex-naval officer, and Captain William Sturgis of Boston,
one of the best navigators that Boston ever bred (and she has bred
as good as the world ever saw). They deemed the breaking of that
slender, elevated, unbraced mast the natural result of the order
which the commander gave to set the skysail, going as the vessel
then was. She was in the trade-winds, running into West Indies from
the coast of Africa, and running "large," as the mariners express
it; that is to say, with the wind so crossing her course as to come
strong upon her beam or quarter, and send her well before it. With
such a wind, these experienced seamen say that the order which
the commander gave might well break that mast. It would increase
the press of sail on that delicate and exposed mast, able to bear
but little at the best, and often breaking without a perceptible
increase of pressure upon it. But the order which he gave was not
the one given to the men. He gave his order to his relation, Mr. O.
H. Perry, to have a small pull on one brace; instead of that the
order given to the men was, to haul, that is, pull hard, on another;
which was directly contrary to the order he had received--one
slacking, the other increasing the press of sail. Under that order
the men with alacrity threw their whole weight on the wrong brace;
and the mast cracked, reeled, and fell immediately. The commander
himself saw all this--saw the fault his nephew had committed--sent
for him--reproved him in the face of the crew--told him it was
his fault--the effect of his inattention. All this was fully
proved before the court-martial. Perry's own testimony admitted
it. Thus--questioned by the judge advocate: "After the mast was
carried away were you sent for by the commander?" Answer: "Yes,
sir." "Who came for you?" A. "I don't recollect the person." "Was
it not McKee?" A. "I don't recollect." "What then occurred between
you and the commander?" A. "He asked me why I did not attend to my
duties better? and said I must do it better in future." "What was
the commander alluding to?" A. "To my not attending to the brace at
the time they were hauling on it." "Did he say to you, '_this is all
your fault, sir?_' or words to that effect?" A. "I don't recollect."
"What reply did you make the commander?" A. "I did not make any. I
said, I think, that I understood the order to haul on the brace."
There was also something else proved there, which, like the other,
was not reported in the commander's account of that portentous
event, which was the immediate cause of a new and terrible line of
conduct. First, there is no mention on the log-book of this rush of
the men aft: secondly, there is no mention in it of any suspected
design to carry away this topgallant mast. The commander was seeing
when he wrote his report what the keeper of the log-book did not
see at the time it should have happened. And this point is here
dismissed with the remark that, in this case (the men coming fast to
the work) was the sign of guilt: in other cases, coming slow was
the same sign: so that, fast or slow, from the time Wales made his
revelation, to the time of hanging, all motions, however opposite
to each other, were equally signs of the same guilt. The account of
this incident being given, the report proceeds:
"The wreck being cleared, supper was piped down before sending
up the new mast. After supper the same persons mustered again
at the mast head, and the topgallant mast was fidded, the light
yards crossed, and the sails set. By this time it was dark, and
quarters had been unavoidably dispensed with: still I thought,
under all the circumstances, that it was scarcely safe to leave
Cromwell at large during the night. The night was the season of
danger. After consulting Lieutenant Gansevoort, I determined to
arrest Cromwell. The moment he reached the deck, an officer was
sent to leeward to guard the lee-rigging; and the main stays
were also thought of, though not watched. As his voice was heard
in the top, descending the rigging, I met him at the foot of
Jacob's ladder, surrounded by the officers, guided him aft to
the quarter-deck, and caused him to sit down. On questioning
him as to the secret conversation he had held the night before
with Mr. Spencer, he denied its being he. He said; 'It was not
me, sir, it was Small!' Cromwell was the tallest man on board,
and Small the shortest. Cromwell was immediately ironed; and
Small, then pointed out by an associate to increased suspicion,
was also sent for, interrogated, and ironed. Increased vigilance
was now enjoined upon all the officers; henceforward, all were
perpetually armed. Either myself, or the first lieutenant was
always on deck; and, generally, both of us were."
Two more were now arrested, and in giving an account of these
arrests, as of all others (fifteen in the whole), the commander
forgets to tell that the arrested persons were bagged, as well as
double-ironed and handcuffed, and their irons ordered to be examined
every half hour day and night--a ceremony which much interfered with
sleep and rest. And now for the circumstances which occasioned these
arrests: and first of Cromwell. There are but two points mentioned;
first, "under all the circumstances." These have been mentioned, and
comprise his looks and attitudes at the morning inspection, and his
haste in getting to the scene of the wreck when the mast fell. The
next was his answer to the question upon his secret conversation
with Spencer the night before. This "night before," seems to be a
sad blunder in point of time. Spencer was in irons on the larboard
arm-chest at that time, a guard over him, and holding his life from
minute to minute by the tenure of silence, the absence of signs,
and the absence of understanding looks with any person. It does
not seem possible that he could have held a conversation, secret
or public, with any person during that night, or after his arrest
until his death; nor is any such any where else averred: and it is
a stupid contradiction in itself. If it was secret, it could not
be known: if it was open, both the parties would have been shot
instantly. Upon its stupid contradiction, as well as upon time, the
story is falsified. Besides this blunder and extreme improbability,
there is other evidence from the commander himself, to make it quite
sure that nobody could have talked with Spencer that night. The men
were in the hammocks, and the ship doubly guarded, and the officers
patrolling the deck with pistols and cutlasses. Of this, the
report says: "That night the officers of the watch were armed with
cutlasses and pistols, and the rounds of both decks made frequently,
to see that the crew were in their hammocks, and that there were no
suspicious collections of individuals about the deck." Under these
circumstances, it would seem impossible that the previous night's
conversation could have been held by any person with Mr. Spencer.
Next, supposing there was a secret conversation. It might have
been innocent or idle; for its subject is not intimated; and its
secret nature precludes all knowledge of it. So much for Cromwell:
now for Small. His case stands thus: "Pointed out by an associate
to increased suspicion." Here association in guilt is assumed; a
mode of getting at the facts he wanted, almost invariable with the
commander, Mackenzie. Well, the answer of Cromwell, "It was not
me, it was Small!" would prove no guilt if it was true; but it is
impossible to have been true. But this was only cause of "increased"
suspicion: so that there was suspicion before; and all the causes of
this had been detailed in the official report. First, there were the
causes arising at inspection that morning--faultless cleanliness,
shifting his battle-axe from one hand to the other, resting
alternately on the legs, and a ghastly look--to wit: a ghostly look.
He was interrogated: the report does not say about what: nor does
it intimate the character of the answers. But there were persons
present who heard the questions and the answers, and who told both
to the court-martial. The questions were as to the conversation
with Spencer, which Wales reported; and the answers were, yes--that
he had foolish conversations with Spencer, but no mutiny. Still
there was a stumbling block in the way of arresting Small. His name
was nowhere made out as certain by Spencer. This was a balk: but
there was the name of a man in the list who was not in the vessel:
and this circumstance of a man too few, suggested an idea that there
should be a transaction between these names; and the man on the list
who had no place in the ship, should give place to him who had a
place in the ship, and no place on the list: so Small was assumed to
be Andrews; and by that he was arrested, though proved to be Small
by all testimony--that of his mother inclusive.
The three prisoners were bagged, and how that process was performed
upon them, they did not live to tell: but others who had undergone
the same investment, did: and from them the operation will be
learnt. With the arrest of these two, the business of Sunday closed;
and Monday opened with much flogging of boys, and a speech from the
commander, of which he gives an abstract, and also displays its
capital effects:
"The effect of this (speech of the 28th) upon the crew was
various: it filled many with horror at the idea of what they had
escaped from: it inspired others with terror at dangers awaiting
them from their connection with the conspiracy. The thoughts of
returning to that home, and those friends from whom it had been
intended to cut them off for ever, caused many of them to weep.
I now considered the crew tranquillized and the vessel safe."
Now, whether this description of the emotions excited by the
captain's oratory, be reality or fancy, it is still good for one
thing: it is good for evidence against himself! good evidence, at
the bar of all courts, and at the high tribunal of public opinion.
It shows that the captain, only two days before the hanging, was
perfect master of his ship--that the crew was tranquillized,
and the vessel safe! and all by the effect of his oratory: and
consequently, that he had a power within himself by which he
could control the men, and mould them into the emotions which he
pleased. The 28th day came. The commander had much flogging done,
and again made a speech, but not of such potency as the other. He
stopped Spencer's tobacco, and reports that, "the day after it was
stopped, his spirits gave way entirely. He remained the whole day
with his face buried in the gregoe and when it was raised, it was
bathed in tears." So passed the 28th. "On the 29th (continues the
report) all hands were again called to witness punishment," and the
commander made another speech. But the whole crew was far from being
tranquillized. During the night seditious cries were heard. Signs of
disaffection multiplied. The commander felt more uneasy than he had
ever done before. The most seriously implicated collected in knots.
They conferred together in low tones, hushing up, or changing the
subject when an officer approached. Some of the petty officers had
been sounded by the first lieutenant, and found to be true to their
colors: they were under the impression that the vessel was yet far
from being safe--that there were many still at liberty that ought to
be confined--that an outbreak, having for its object the rescue of
the prisoners, was seriously contemplated. Several times during the
night there were symptoms of an intention to strike some blow. Such
are a specimen of the circumstances grouped together under vague and
intangible generalities with which the day of the 29th is ushered
in, all tending to one point, the danger of a rescue, and the
necessity for more arrests. Of these generalities, only one was of
a character to be got hold of before the court-martial, and it will
take a face, under the process of judicial examination of witnesses,
very different from that which it wore in the report. After these
generalities, applying to the mass of the crew, come special
accusations against four seamen--Wilson, Green, McKee, McKinley: and
of these special accusations, a few were got hold of by the judge
advocate on the court-martial. Thus:
1. _The handspike sign._--"Mr. Wales detected Charles A. Wilson
attempting to draw out a handspike from under the launch, with
an evident purpose of felling him; and when Wales cocked his
pistol, and approached, he could only offer some lame excuse for
his presence there."
This is the amount of the handspike portent, as reported to the
Secretary of the Navy among the signs which indicated the immediate
danger of the rising and the rescue. This Wales, of course, was a
witness for the commander, and on being put on the stand, delivered
his testimony in a continued narrative, covering the whole case. In
that narrative, he thus introduces the handspike incident:
"I then went to the stern of the launch, found Wilson had a
number of small holystones collected there, and was endeavoring
to pull a gun handspike from the stern of the launch: what his
intentions were I don't know. I cocked a pistol, and ordered him
in the gangway to draw water. I told him if I saw him pulling on
the handspike, I should blow his brains out."
"I then went to the stern," &c. This period of time of going to the
stern of the launch, was immediately after this Wales had detected
persons making signs to the prisoners by putting their hands to
their chins, and when he told Cromwell if he saw any more signs
between them he should put him to death. It was instantly after this
detection and threat, and of course at a time when this purser's
steward was in a good mood to see signs and kill, that he had this
vision of the handspike: but he happens to swear that he does not
know with what intent the attempt to pull it out was made. Far from
seeing, as the commander did when he wrote the report, that the
design to fell him was evident, he does not know what the design was
at all; but he gives us a glimpse at the inside of his own heart,
when he swears that he would blow out the brains of Wilson if he saw
him again attempting to pull out the handspike, when he did not know
what it was for. Here is a murderous design attributed to Wilson
on an incident with Wales, in which Wales himself saw no design
of any kind; and thus, upon his direct examination, and in the
narrative of his testimony, he convicts the commander of a cruel and
groundless misstatement. But proceed to the cross-examination: the
judge advocate required him to tell the distance between himself and
Wilson when the handspike was being pulled by Wilson? He answered
forty feet, more or less! and so this witness who had gone to the
stern of the launch, was forty feet from that stern when he got
there.
2. _Missing their muster._--"McKinley, Green, and others, missed
their musters. Others of the implicated also missed their
musters. I could not contemplate this growth of disaffection
without serious uneasiness. Where was this thing to end?
Each new arrest of prisoners seemed to bring a fresh set of
conspirators forward to occupy the first place."
The point of this is the missing the musters; and of these the men
themselves give this account, in reply to questions from the judge
advocate:
"It was after the arrest (of Spencer), me and McKee (it is
McKinley speaks) turned in and out with one another when the
watch was called: we made a bargain in the first of the cruise
to wake one another up when the watches were called. I came up
on deck, awaked by the noise of relieving guards, 15 minutes too
late, and asked McKee why he did not call me? He told me that
the officer would not let him stir: that they were ordered to
lie down on the deck, and when he lay down he fell asleep, and
did not wake up: that was why I missed my muster, being used to
be waked up by one another."
Such is the natural account, veracious upon its face, which McKinley
gives for missing, by 15 minutes, his midnight muster, and which
the commander characterized as a lame excuse, followed by immediate
punishment, and a confirmed suspicion of mutiny and piracy. All the
others who missed musters had their excuses, true on their face,
good in their nature, and only varying as arising from the different
conditions of the men at the time.
3. _The African knife sign._--"In his sail-bag (Wilson's) was
found an African knife of an extraordinary shape--short, and
gradually expanding in breadth, sharp on both sides. It was of
no use for any honest purpose. It was only fit to kill. It had
been secretly sharpened, by his own confession, the day before
with a file to a perfect edge."
The history of this knife, as brought out before the court-martial
was this (McKinley, the witness):
"I was ashore on the coast of Africa--I believe it was at
Monrovia that I went ashore, I having no knife at the time. I
went ashore there, and saw one of the natives with a knife. I
spoke to Mr. Heiskill (the purser) about buying it for me. He
sent me aboard the brig (Somers) with some things in the second
cutter. When I came back Warner had bought the knife I looked
at, and Mr. Heiskill bought an African dirk instead of that, and
gave it to me. I came on board with the knife, and wore it for
two or three days. Wilson saw it, and said he wanted to buy it
as a curiosity to take to New York. I would not let him have it
then. I went up on the topgallant yard, and it nearly threw me
off. It caught in some of the rigging. When I came down, I told
Wilson he might have it for one dollar. He promised to give a
dollar out of the first grog money, or the first dollar he could
get."
So much for this secret and formidable weapon in the history of its
introduction to the ship--coming through the purser Heiskill, one
of the supporters of Commander Mackenzie in all the affairs of these
hangings--given as a present to McKinley, a cot-boy, _i. e._ who
made up the cots for the officers, who had been a waiter at Howard's
Hotel (N. Y.), and who was a favorite in the ship's crew. As for the
uses to which it could only be put--no honest use, and only fit to
kill--it was proved to be in current use as a knife, cutting holes
in hammocks, shifting their numbers, &c.
4. _The battle-axe alarm._--"He had begun also to sharpen his
battle-axe with the same assistant (the file): one part of it he
had brought to an edge."
The proof was the knife and the battle-axe were publicly sharpened
as often as needed, and that battle-axes, like all other arms, were
required to be kept in perfect order; and that, sharp and shining
was their desired condition. Every specified sign of guilt was
cleared up before the court-martial--one only excepted; and the
mention of that was equally eschewed by each party. It was the sign
of music from the luxated jaw! Both parties refrained from alluding
to that sign on the trial--one side from shame, the other from pity.
Yet it was gravely reported to the Secretary of the Navy as fact,
and as a means of seducing the crew. Returning to generalities, the
informer Wales, presents himself prominently on this day--this 29th
of November, memorable for its resolves; and groups a picture which
was to justify all that was to be done in two days more, and of
which the initiation and preliminary steps were then taken.
"The crew still continued very much dissatisfied, grumbling
the whole time. The master-at-arms was sick at the time, and I
attended to his duties, and had charge of the berth deck. Their
manner was so insulting that I had to bring three or four up for
punishment (with the cat-and-nine-tails.) The dissatisfaction
continued to increase (this was the 30th I think), and continued
till the execution took place, when I noticed a marked change in
their manner: those who were the most unruly and insolent were
the first to run and obey an order: they seemed to anticipate
an order."--"Before that, an order had to be given two or three
times before it was executed, and when they did execute it, they
would go growling along, as though they did not care whether it
was done or not. They went slow."
This swearing of Wales tallies with the report of the commander
in bringing the mutiny up to the bursting point on the 29th of
November. That was a point necessary to be reached, as it will be
seen hereafter, and to be reached on that day. There was one other
point necessary to be made out, and that was, the mutiny was to
break forth before they arrived at the island of St. Thomas, as at
that place the mutineers could be landed, or transhipped, and so
the whole thing evaporate. They were now within less than four days
of that island. Spencer had bet just before they would be there in
eight days--a bet which seemed to say that he had no thought of
preventing her from arriving there. But it was now necessary to have
the mutiny to take place before they got to that island: and this
essential point was established by Wales, by an addition to his
previous testimony fixing that point. This addition to his testimony
caused an inquiry to be put to him by the judge advocate before the
court: "When did you first swear that Mr. Spencer told you that the
mutiny would break out shortly before your arrival at St. Thomas?"
Answer: "At the examination of officers, and of men by the officers.
I forget what day, but I think it was on the 30th of November." This
was corroborated in the view of the commander by the fortune-telling
of the young Rodgers' fate--to die suddenly, i.e. in the mutiny
before they got to St. Thomas, without adding the remainder of the
prediction, that he was to die a gambler; and without adding the
essential fact, that Spencer had a bet that she would arrive there
by a given day.
On the 30th day of November, at nine o'clock in the morning, a
letter was delivered by the commander to Lieutenant Gansevoort,
Surgeon Leecock and Purser Heiskill, and four midshipmen, stating
the dangers of the ship, and calling upon them to enlighten the
commander with their opinion as to what should be done with Spencer,
Small and Cromwell. The letter was not addressed to any of the
acting midshipmen, the reason why being thus stated: "Though they
had done men's duty in the late transaction, they were still boys:
their opinion could add but little force to that of the other
officers: it would have been hard, at their early age, to call
upon them to say whether three of their fellow-creatures should
live or die." So reasoned the commander with respect to the acting
midshipmen. It would seem that the same reasoning should have
excused the four midshipmen on whom this hard task was imposed. The
letter was delivered at 9 o'clock in the morning: the nominated
officers met in (what was called) a council: and proceeded
immediately to take, what they called testimony, to be able to give
the required opinion. Thirteen seamen were examined, under oath--an
extra-judicial oath of no validity in law, and themselves punishable
at common law for administering it: and this testimony written down
in pencil on loose and separate slips of paper--the three persons
whose lives were to be passed upon, having no knowledge of what was
going on. Purser Heiskill being asked on the court-martial, why, on
so important occasion pen and ink was not used, answered, he did
not know--"that there were no lawyers there:" as if lawyers were
necessary to have pen and ink used. The whole thirteen, headed by
Wales, swore to a pattern: and such swearing was certainly never
heard before, not even in the smallest magistrate's court, and
where the value of a cow and calf was at stake: hearsays, beliefs,
opinions; preposterous conclusions from innocent or frivolous
actions: gratuitous assumptions of any fact wanted: and total
disregard of every maxim which would govern the admissibility of
evidence. Thus:
HENRY KING: "Believed the vessel was in danger of being taken
by them: thinks Cromwell the head man: thinks they have been
engaged in it ever since they left New York: thinks if they
could get adrift, there would be danger of the vessel being
taken: thinks Spencer, Small, Cromwell and Wilson were the
leaders: thinks if Golderman and Sullivan could get a party
among the crew now that they would release the prisoners and
take the vessel, and that they are not to be trusted."--CHARLES
STEWART: "Have seen Cromwell and Spencer talking together
often--talking low: don't think the vessel safe with these
prisoners on board: this is my deliberate opinion from what I've
heard King, the gunner's mate, say (that is) that he had heard
the boys say that there were spies about: I think the prisoners
have friends on board who would release them if they got a
chance. I can't give my opinion as to Cromwell's character: I
have seen him at the galley getting a cup of coffee now and
then."--CHARLES ROGERS: "I believe Spencer gave Cromwell 15
dollars on the passage to Madeira--Cromwell showed it to me and
said Spencer had given it to him. If we get into hard weather
I think it will be hard to look out for all the prisoners: I
believe if there are any concerned in the plot, it would not
be safe to go on our coast in cold or bad weather with the
prisoners: I think they would rise and take the vessel: I think
if Cromwell, Small, and Spencer were disposed of, our lives
would be much safer. Cromwell and Small understand navigation:
these two are the only ones among the prisoners capable of
taking charge of the vessel."--ANDREW ANDERSON: "Have seen
Spencer and Cromwell often speaking together on the forecastle,
in a private way: never took much notice: I think it's plain
proof they were plotting to take this vessel out of the hands
of her officers: from the first night Spencer was confined, and
from what I heard from my shipmates, I suspected that they were
plotting to take the vessel: I think they are safe from here to
Saint Thomas (West Indies), but from thence home I think there
is great danger on account of the kind of weather on the coast,
and squalls."--OLIVER B. BROWNING: "I would not like to be on
board the brig if he (Cromwell) was at large: I do not bear him
any ill will: I do not know that he bears me any ill will: I do
not think it safe to have Cromwell, Spencer and Small on board:
I believe that if the men were at their stations taking care of
the vessel in bad weather, or any other time when they could
get a chance, they would try and capture the vessel if they
could get a chance: to tell you God Almighty's truth, I believe
some of the cooks about the galley, I think they are the main
backers."--H. M. GARTY: "Believes Spencer, Small and Cromwell
were determined on taking the brig: he supposes to turn pirates
or retake slavers: on or about the 11th of October heard Spencer
say the brig could be taken with six men: I think there are some
persons at large who would voluntarily assist the prisoners if
they had an opportunity: thinks if the prisoners were at large
the brig would certainly be in great danger: thinks there are
persons adrift yet who would, if any opportunity offered, rescue
the prisoners: thinks the vessel would be safer if Cromwell,
Spencer, and Small were put to death."--GEORGE W. WARNER: "Have
seen Cromwell and Spencer sitting together frequently: have
heard Spencer ask Cromwell what sort of a slaver this vessel
would make? he replied, he thought she would make a nice slaver:
have no doubt he had joined Spencer in the project of taking
this vessel: thinks Cromwell would have taken the vessel to the
north west coast: Cromwell was in a slaver and taken a year
since at Cuba: has seen Spencer give Cromwell cigars: thinks
Cromwell deserves to be hung: thinks he is the most dangerous
man in the ship: if I had my way I would hang him."--VAN VELSON:
"A good while since Spencer said he would like to have a ship
to go to the north-west coast: Cromwell and him was thick:
should think Cromwell meant to join Spencer to take this vessel:
Spencer thought he could raise money to get a ship. My reason
for thinking that Cromwell meant to join Spencer in taking
this vessel, is because I have frequently seen them in close
conversation."
The drift of all this swearing was to show that the men ought not
only to be put to death, but immediately, to prevent a rescue,
and before they got to St. Thomas, and to make an excuse for not
bringing them to the United States, pleading the difficulty to guard
them in bad weather on the coast of the United States. (Among the
persons examined, and one of those who "thinks the vessel would be
safer if Cromwell, Spencer, and Small were put to death," was one
Garty--Sergeant Michael H. Garty--who will be especially noticed
hereafter.) The examination of these persons, though commenced
immediately on receiving the commander's letter, was not finished
until nine o'clock of the next morning, December the first; and then
upon the pressing application of Gansevoort (who was absent much of
the time), and telling the council that the commander was waiting
for it. The answer was soon prepared, and delivered, declaring
Spencer, Cromwell, and Small to be guilty of mutiny according to
the evidence which had come to their knowledge, and that they were
leagued with others still at large; and then goes on to say--"We
are convinced that it would be impossible to carry them to the
United States, and that the safety of the public property, the lives
of ourselves, and of those committed to our charge, require that
(giving them sufficient time to prepare) they should be put to death
in a manner best calculated to make a beneficial impression upon the
disaffected." And this recommendation was signed by the whole seven
to whom the commander's letter had been addressed--among them two
names illustrious in the annals of our navy. The heart grieves over
that view, but draws a veil over the names, and absolves the boys
from the guilt of the transaction. We know the power of the quarter
deck. The midshipman must be born a Cato, or a Macon (and such men
are only born once in ages) to be able to stand up against the
irresistible will of that deck. History refuses to see these boys
as agents in the transaction. Mackenzie, Gansevoort, Leecock and
Heiskill, are the persons with whom she deals.
The narrative, thus far following the commander's report, is here
suspended for the purpose of bringing in some circumstances not
related in that report, and which came out before the court-martial;
and the relation of which is due to the truth of history. 1. That
the three persons whose lives were thus passed upon were, during
this whole time, lying on the deck in their multiplied irons,
and tied up in strong tarpaulin bags, wholly unconscious of any
proceeding against them, and free from fear of death, as they had
been made to understand by the commander that they were to be
brought home to the United States for trial; and who reported that
to have been his first intention. 2. While this examination was
going on, and during the first day of it, Gansevoort (the head of
the council) went to Spencer (telling him nothing of his object),
for the purpose of getting proofs of his guilt, to be used against
him whereof he got none; and thus tells his errand in answer to a
question before the court-martial: "I am under the impression it
was the 30th (of November), for the purpose of his proving more
clearly his guilt. I took him the paper (razor-case paper), that
he might translate it so I could understand it. My object was to
obtain from him an acknowledgment of his guilt." 3. That it had
been agreed among the upper officers two days before that, if any
more prisoners were made, the three first taken should suffer
immediate death on account of the impossibility of guarding more
than they had. This dire conclusion came out upon question and
answer, from one of the midshipmen who was in the council. "Had you
any discussion on the 28th of November, as to putting the three
prisoners to death?" Answer: "I don't recollect what day Gansevoort
asked me my opinion, if it became necessary to make more prisoners,
if we should be able to guard them? I told him no." "Did you _then_
give it as your opinion that Cromwell, Small, and Spencer should
be put to death?" Answer: "Yes, sir." Four more officers of the
council were ascertained to have been similarly consulted at the
same time, and to have answered in the same way: so that the deaths
of the three men were resolved upon two days before the council was
established to examine witnesses, and enlighten the commander with
their opinions. 4. That it had been resolved that, if more prisoners
were taken, the three already in the bags must be put to death;
and, accordingly, while the council was sitting, and in the evening
of their session, and before they had reported an opinion, four
more arrests were made: so that the condition became absolute upon
which the three were to die before the council had finished their
examination.
This is, perhaps, the first instance in the annals of military or
naval courts, in which the commander fixed a condition on which
prisoners were to be put to death--which condition was to be an act
of his own, unknown to the prisoners, but known to the court, and
agreed to be acted upon before it was done: and which was done and
acted upon!
These are four essential circumstances, overlooked by the commander
in his report, but brought out upon interrogatories before the
court. The new arrests are duly reported by the commander. They
were: Wilson, Green, McKinley, McKee. The commander tells how the
arrests were made. "These individuals were made to sit down as they
were taken, and when they were ironed, I walked deliberately round
the battery, followed by the first lieutenant; and we made together
a very careful inspection of the crew. Those who (though known to be
very guilty) were considered to be the least dangerous, were called
out and interrogated: care was taken not to awaken the suspicions of
such as from courage and energy were really formidable, unless it
were intended to arrest them. Our prisoners now amounted to seven,
filling up the quarter deck, and rendering it very difficult to keep
them from communicating with each other, interfering essentially
with the management of the vessel." This is the commander's account
of the new arrests, but he omits to add that he bagged them as fast
as taken and ironed; and as that bagging was an investment which
all the prisoners underwent, and an unusual and picturesque (though
ugly) feature in the transaction, an account will be given of it
in the person of one of the four, which will stand for all. It is
McKinley who gives it, and who was bagged quite home to New York,
and became qualified, to give his experience of these tarpaulin
sacks, both in the hot region of the tropics and the cold blasts
of the New York latitude in the dead of winter. Question by the
judge advocate: "When were you put in the bags?" Answer: "After the
examination and before we got to St. Thomas." "How were the bags
put on you?" Answer: "They were laid on deck, and we got into them
as well as we could, feet foremost." "Was your bag ever put over
your head?" Answer: "Yes, sir. The first night it was tied over my
head." "Who was the person who superintended, and did it?" Answer;
"_Sergeant Garty was always there when we were put into the bags._ I
could not see. I could not say who tied it over my head. He (Garty)
was there then." "Did you complain of it?" Answer: "After a while
the bag got very hot. Whoever was the officer I don't know. I told
him I was smothering. I could not breathe. He came back with the
order that I could not have it untied. I turned myself round as well
as I could, and got my mouth to the opening of the bag, and staid so
till morning." Question by a member of the court: "Did you find the
bag comfortable when not tied over your head?" Answer: "No, sir. It
was warm weather: it was uncomfortable. On the coast (of the United
States in December) they would get full of rain water, nearly up
to my knees." Catching at this idea of comfort in irons and a bag,
Commander Mackenzie undertook to prove them so; and put a leading
question, to get an affirmative answer to his own assertion that
this bagging was done for the "comfort" of the prisoners--a new
conception, for which he seemed to be entirely indebted to this hint
from one of the court. The mode of McKinley's arrest, also gives an
insight into the manner in which that act was performed on board a
United States man-of-war; and is thus described by McKinley himself.
To the question, when he was arrested, and how, he answers: "On the
30th of November, at morning quarters I was arrested. The commander
put Wilson into irons. When he was put in irons the commander cried,
'Send McKinley aft.' I went aft. The commander and Gansevoort held
pistols at my head, and told me to sit down. Mr. Gansevoort told
King, the gunner, to stand by to knock out their brains if they
should make a false motion. I was put in irons then. He ordered
Green and McKee aft: he put them in irons also. Mr. Gansevoort
ordered me to get on all fours, and creep round to the larboard
side, as I could not walk." And that is the way it was done!
The three men were thus doomed to death, without trial, without
hearing, without knowledge of what was going on against them;
and without a hint of what had been done. One of the officiating
officers who had sat in the council, being asked before the court
if any suggestion, or motion, was made to apprise the prisoners of
what was going on, and give them a hearing, answered that there was
not. When Governor Wall was on trial at the Old Bailey for causing
the death of a soldier twenty years before at Goree, in Africa, for
imputed mutiny, he plead the sentence of a drum-head court-martial
for his justification. The evidence proved that the men so tried
(and there were just three of them) were not before that court, and
had no knowledge of its proceedings, though on the ground some forty
feet distant--about as far off as were the three prisoners on board
the Somers, with the difference that the British soldiers could see
the court (which was only a little council of officers); while the
American prisoners could not see their judges. This sort of a court
which tried people without hearing them, struck the British judges;
and when the witness (a foot soldier) told how he saw the Governor
speaking to the officers, and saw them speaking to one another for a
minute or two, and then turning to the Governor, who ordered the man
to be called out of the ranks to be tied on a cannon for punishment:
when the witness told that, the Lord Chief Baron McDonald called
out--"Repeat that." The witness repeated it. Then the Chief Baron
inquired into the constitution of these drum-head courts, and to
know if it was their course to try soldiers without hearing them:
and put a question to that effect to the witness. Surprised at the
question, the soldier, instead of answering it direct, yes or no,
looked up at the judge, and said: "My Lord, I thought an Englishman
had that privilege every where." And so thought the judge, who
charged the jury, accordingly, and that even if there was a mutiny;
and so thought the jury, who immediately brought in a verdict for
murder; and so thought the King (George III.), who refused to pardon
the Governor, or to respite him for longer than eight days, or to
remit the anatomization of his dead body. There was law then in
England against the oppressors of the humble, and judges to execute
it, and a king to back them.
The narrative will now be resumed at the point at which it was
suspended, and Commander Mackenzie's official report will still be
followed for the order of the incidents, and his account of them.
It was nine o'clock on the morning of the first of December, that
Gansevoort went into the ward-room to hurry the completion of the
letter which the council of officers was drawing up, and which,
under the stimulating remark that the commander was waiting for it,
was soon ready. Purser Heiskill, who had been the pencil scribe of
the proceedings, carried the letter, and read it to the commander.
In what manner he received it, himself will tell:
"I at once concurred in the justice of their opinion, and in the
necessity of carrying its recommendation into immediate effect.
There were two others of the conspirators almost as guilty, so
far as the intention was concerned, as the three ringleaders who
had been first confined, and to whose cases the attention of the
officers had been invited. But they could be kept in confinement
without extreme danger to the ultimate safety of the vessel.
The three chief conspirators alone were capable of navigating
and sailing her. By their removal the motive to a rescue, a
capture, and a carrying out of their original design of piracy
was at once taken away. Their lives were justly forfeited to
the country which they had betrayed; and the interests of that
country and the honor and security of its flag required that the
sacrifice, however painful, should be made. In the necessities
of my position I found my law, and in them also I must trust to
find my justification."
The promptitude of this concurrence precludes the possibility of
deliberation, for which there was no necessity, as the deaths
had been resolved upon two days before the council met, and as
Gansevoort communicated with the commander the whole time. There was
no need for deliberation, and there was none; and the rapidity of
the advancing events proves there was no time for it. And in this
haste one of the true reasons for hanging Small and Cromwell broke
forth. They were the only two of all the accused (Spencer excepted)
who could sail or navigate a vessel! and a mutiny to take a ship,
and run her as a roving pirate, without any one but the chief to
sail and navigate her, would have been a solecism too gross even
for the silliest apprehension. Mr. M. C. Perry admitted upon his
cross-examination that this knowledge was "one of the small reasons"
for hanging them--meaning among the lesser reasons. Besides, three
at least, may have been deemed necessary to make a mutiny. Governor
Wall took that number; and riots, routs, and unlawful assemblies
require it: so that in having three for a mutiny, the commander
was taking the lowest number which parity of cases, though of
infinitely lower degree, would allow. The report goes on to show the
commander's preparations for the sacrifice; which preparations, from
his own showing, took place before the assembling of the council,
and in which he showed his skill and acumen.
"I had for a day or two been disposed to arm the petty
officers. On this subject alone the first lieutenant differed
from me in opinion, influenced in some degree by the opinions of
some of the petty officers themselves, who thought that in the
peculiar state of the vessel the commander and officers could
not tell whom to trust, and therefore had better trust no one. I
had made up my own mind, reasoning more from the probabilities
of the case than from my knowledge of their characters, which
was necessarily less intimate than that of the first lieutenant,
that they could be trusted, and determined to arm them. I
directed the first lieutenant to muster them on the quarter
deck, to issue to each a cutlass, pistol and cartridge-box, and
to report to me when they were armed. I then addressed them as
follows: 'My lads! you are to look to me--to obey my orders, and
to see my orders obeyed! Go forward!'"
This paragraph shows that the arming of the petty officers for the
crisis of the hangings had been meditated for a day or two--that it
had been the subject of consultation with the lieutenant, and also
of him with some of the petty officers; and it was doubtless on
this occasion that he took the opinions of the officers (as proved
on the court-martial trial) on the subject of hanging the three
prisoners immediately if any more arrests were made. The commander
and his lieutenant differed on the question of arming these petty
officers--the only instance of a difference of opinion between them:
but the commander's calculation of probabilities led him to overrule
the lieutenant--to make up his own mind in favor of arming: and to
have it done. The command at the conclusion is eminently concise,
and precise, and entirely military; and the ending words remind us
of the French infantry charging command: "En avant, mes enfans!" in
English--"Forward, my children."
The reception of the council recommendation, and the order for
carrying it into effect, were simultaneous: and carried into effect
it was with horrible rapidity, and to the utmost letter--all
except in one particular--which forms a dreadful exception. The
council had given the recommendation with the Christian reservation
of allowing the doomed and helpless victims "sufficient time to
prepare"--meaning, of course, preparation for appearance at the
throne of God. That reservation was disregarded. Immediate execution
was the word! and the annunciation of the death decree, and the
order for putting it in force, were both made known to the prisoners
in the same moment, and in the midst of the awful preparations for
death.
"I gave orders to make immediate preparation for hanging the
three principal criminals at the mainyard arms. All hands
were now called to witness the punishment. The afterguard and
idlers of both watches were mustered on the quarterdeck at the
whip (the halter) intended for Mr. Spencer: forecastle-men and
foretop-men at that of Cromwell, to whose corruption they had
been chiefly exposed. The maintop of both watches, at that
intended for Small who, for a month, had filled the situation of
captain of the maintop. The officers were stationed about the
decks, _according to the watch bill I had made out the night
before_, and the petty officers were similarly distributed, with
orders to cut down whoever should let go the whip (the rope)
with even one hand; or fail to haul on (pull at the rope) when
ordered."
Here it is unwittingly told that the guard stations at the hangings
were all made out the night before.
For the information of the unlearned in nautical language, it may be
told that what is called the whip at sea, is not an instrument of
flagellation, but of elevation--a small tackle with a single rope,
used to hoist light bodies; and so called from one of the meanings
of the word whip, used as a verb, then signifying to snatch up
suddenly. It is to be hoped that the sailors appointed to haul on
this tackle had been made acquainted (though the commander's report
does not say so) with the penalty which awaited them if they failed
to pull at the word, or let go, even with one hand. The considerate
arrangement for hanging each one at the spot of his imputed worst
conduct, and under an appropriate watch, shows there had been
deliberation on that part of the subject--deliberation which
requires time--and for which there was no time after the reception
of the council's answer; and which the report itself, so far as the
watch is concerned, shows was made out the night before. The report
continues:
"The ensign and pennant being bent on, and ready for hoisting,
I now put on my full uniform, and proceeded to execute the
most painful duty that has ever devolved on an American
commander--_that of announcing to the criminals their fate_."
It has been before seen that these victims had no knowledge of the
proceedings against them, while the seven officers were examining,
in a room below, the thirteen seamen whose answers to questions
(or rather, whose thoughts) were to justify the fate which was
now to be announced to them. They had no knowledge of it at the
time, nor afterwards, until standing in the midst of the completed
arrangements for their immediate death. They were brought into the
presence of death before they knew that any proceedings had been
had against them, and while under the belief, authorized by the
commander himself, that they were to be brought home for trial.
Their fate was staring them in the face before they knew it had
been doomed. The full uniform of a commander in the American navy
had been put on for the occasion, with what view is not expressed;
and, in this imposing costume,--feathers and chapeau, gold lace
and embroidery, sword and epaulettes--the commander proceeded to
announce their fate to men in irons--double irons on the legs, and
iron cuffs on the hands--and surrounded by guards to cut them down
on the least attempt to avoid the gallows which stood before them.
In what terms this annunciation, or rather, these annunciations
(for there was a separate address to each victim, and each address
adapted to its subject) were made, the captain himself will tell.
"I informed Mr. Spencer that when he had been about to take my
life, and to dishonor me as an officer when in the execution
of my rightful duty, without cause of offence to him, on
speculation, it had been his intention to remove me suddenly
from the world, in the darkness of the night, without a moment
to utter one murmur of affection to my wife and children--one
prayer for their welfare. His life was now forfeited to his
country; and the necessities of the case growing out of his
corruption of the crew, compelled me to take it. I would not,
however, imitate his intended example. If there yet remained
one feeling true to nature, it should be gratified. _If he had
any word to send to his parents, it should be recorded, and
faithfully delivered._ Ten minutes should be granted him for
this purpose; and Midshipman Egbert Thompson was called to note
the time, and inform me when the ten minutes had elapsed."
Subsequent events require this appeal to Spencer, and promise to
him, to be noted. He is invoked, in the name of Nature, to speak to
his parents, and his words promised delivery. History will have to
deal with that invocation, and promise.
This is the autographic account of the annunciation to Spencer; and
if there is a parallel to it in Christendom, this writer has yet to
learn the instance. The vilest malefactors, convicts of the greatest
crimes, are allowed an interval for themselves when standing
between time and eternity; and during that time they are left,
undisturbed, to their own thoughts. Even pirates allow that much to
vanquished and subdued men. The ship had religious exercises upon
it, and had multiplied their performance since the mutiny had been
discovered. The commander was a devout attendant at these exercises,
and harangued the crew morally and piously daily, and in this crisis
twice or thrice a day. He might have been of some consolation to the
desolate youth in this supreme moment. He might have spoken to him
some words of pity and of hope: he might at least have refrained
from reproaches: he might have omitted the comparison in which he
assumed to himself such a superiority over Spencer in the manner of
taking life. It was the Pharisee that thanked God he was not like
other men, nor like that Publican. But the Pharisee did not take the
Publican's life, nor charge him with crimes. Besides, the comparison
was not true, admitting that Spencer intended to kill him in his
sleep. There is no difference of time between one minute and ten
minutes in the business of killing; and the most sudden death--a
bullet through the heart in sleep--would be mercy compared to the
ten minutes' reprieve allowed Spencer: and that time taken up (as
the event proved) in harassing the mind, enraging the feelings, and
in destroying the character of the young man before he destroyed
his body. It is to be hoped that the greater part of what the
commander says he said to Spencer, was not said: it would be less
discreditable to make a false report in such cases than to have said
what was alleged; and there were so many errors in the commander's
report that disbelief of it becomes easy, and even obligatory. It is
often variant or improbable in itself, and sometimes impossible; and
almost entirely contradicted by the testimony. In the vital--really
vital--case of holding the watch, he is contradicted. He says
Midshipman Thompson was called to note the time, and to report its
expiration. Mr. O. H. Perry swore in the court that the order was
given to him--that he reported it--and that the commander said,
"very well." This was clear and positive: but Mr. Thompson was
examined to the same point, and testified thus: That he heard him
(the commander) say something about ten minutes--that he told Mr.
Perry, he thinks, to note the time--that Perry and himself both
noted it--thinks he reported it--don't recollect what the commander
said--is under an impression he said "very good." So that Mr. Perry
was called to note the time, and did it, and reported it, and did
not know that Thompson had done it. To the question, "What did Mr.
Thompson say when he came back from reporting the time?" the answer
is: "I did not know that he reported it." At best, Mr. Thompson was
a volunteer in the business, and too indifferent to it to know what
he did. Mr. O. H. Perry is the one that had the order, and did the
duty. Now it is quite immaterial which had the order: but it is
very material that the commander should remember the true man.--The
manner in which the young man received this dreadful intelligence,
is thus reported:
"This intimation quite overpowered him. He fell upon his knees,
and said he was not fit to die."
"Was not fit to die!" that is to say, was not in a condition to
appear before his God. The quick perishing of the body was not the
thought that came to his mind, but the perishing of his soul, and
his sudden appearance before his Maker, unpurged of the sins of this
life. Virtue was not dead in the heart which could forget itself and
the world in that dread moment, and only think of his fitness to
appear at the throne of Heaven. Deeply affecting as this expression
was--am not fit to die--it was still more so as actually spoken, and
truly stated by competent witnesses before the court. "When he told
him he was to die in ten minutes, Spencer told him he was not fit
to die--that he wished to live longer to get ready. The commander
said, I know you are not, but I cannot help it."--A remark which was
wicked in telling him he knew he was not fit to die, and false, in
saying he could not help it. So far from not being able to help it,
he was the only man that could prevent the preparation for fitness.
The answer then was, an exclamation of unfitness to die, and a wish
to live longer to get ready. But what can be thought of the heart
which was dead to such an appeal? and which, in return, could occupy
itself with reproaches to the desolate sinner; and could deliver
exhortations to the trembling fleeting shadow that was before
him, to study looks and attitudes, and set an example of decorous
dying to his two companions in death? for that was the conduct of
Mackenzie: and here is his account of it:
"I repeated to him his own catechism, and begged him at least to
let the _officer_ set to the men he had corrupted and seduced,
the example of dying with decorum."
"The men whom he had corrupted and seduced,"--outrageous words,
and which the commander says, "immediately restored him to entire
self-possession." But they did not turn away his heart from the only
thing that occupied his mind--that of fitting himself, as well as
he could, to appear before his God. He commenced praying with great
fervor, and begging from Heaven that mercy for his soul which was
denied on earth to his body.
The commander then went off to make the same annunciation to the
other two victims, and returning when the ten minutes was about
half out--when the boy had but five minutes to live, as he was made
to believe--he soon made apparent the true reason which all this
sudden announcement of death in ten minutes was in reality intended
for. It was to get confessions! it was to make up a record against
him! to excite him against Small and Cromwell! to take advantage of
terror and resentment to get something from him for justification in
taking his life! and in that work he spent near two hours, making up
a record against himself of revolting atrocity, aggravated and made
still worse by the evidence before the court. The first movement was
to make him believe that Cromwell and Small had informed upon him,
and thus induce him to break out upon them, or to confess, or to
throw the blame upon the others. He says:
"I returned to Mr. Spencer. I explained to him how Cromwell had
made use of him. I told him that remarks had been made about the
two, and not very flattering to him, and which he might not care
to hear; and which showed the relative share ascribed to each of
them in the contemplated transaction. He expressed great anxiety
to hear what was said."
It is to be borne in mind that Spencer was in prayer, with but five
minutes to go upon, when Mackenzie interrupts him with an intimation
of what Small and Cromwell had said of him, and piques his curiosity
to learn it by adding, "which he might not care to hear"--artfully
exciting his curiosity to know what it was. The desire thus excited,
he goes on to tell him that one had called him a damn fool, and the
other had considered him Cromwell's tool: thus:
"One had told the first lieutenant: 'In my opinion, sir, you
have the damned fool on the larboard arm-chest, and the damned
villain on the starboard.' And another had remarked, that after
the vessel should have been captured by Spencer, Cromwell might
allow him to live, provided he made himself useful; he would
probably make him his secretary."
Spencer was on the larboard arm-chest; Cromwell on the starboard: so
that Small was the speaker, and the damned fool applied to Spencer,
and the damned villain to Cromwell: and Spencer, who had all along
been the chief, was now to be treated as an instrument, only
escaping with his life if successful in taking the vessel, and, that
upon condition of making himself useful; and then to have no higher
post on the pirate than that of Cromwell's secretary. This was a
hint to Spencer to turn States' evidence against Cromwell, and throw
the whole blame on him. The commander continues, still addressing
himself to Spencer--
"_I think this would not have suited your temper._"