“They’re running off with the _Charles the Second_.”
At once Mr. Druit bellowed for the pinnace to be got out, which, of
course, merely gave the ruffians their cue. Twenty-six men, laden with
their hammocks and sea gear, immediately rushed forth and manned the
pinnace.
“Here--here--” cries Mr. Druit, seeing a wicked game going; but the
rascals had their oars in the water and made off in the dark, swearing
and singing.
Thereupon Captain Humphries, of the _James_, rushed to the rail and
shouted through his speaking-trumpet that his boat was being stolen, to
which Mr. Every, likewise through a trumpet, impertinently answered he
knew that well enough. So they came to our ship and knotted themselves
together with our rascals.
No sooner had the runaways from the _James_ thrown their hammocks to
our deck than light sail was set, and we stood out of the harbor, this
being the motion which had first brought me a-running from my cabin. At
eleven o’clock the topsail was braced back, and we lay to. Mr. Every,
who now called himself captain, sent word about the ship that certain
ones were free to leave in the pinnace of the _James_ if so they chose.
Men of spirit, he said, would stay by the ship and collect their back
pay. And he laughed.
V
Right here is the kernel of the case. Did Mr. Every pick the men who
should go ashore if they wanted, or was that liberty given to any one?
If Mr. Every picked out the people to go, then we who stayed were kept
against our wills, and are innocent; if we could have gone and did not,
then we are guilty.
We had been acquitted on our first trial for piracy of the ship
_Gunsway_, and I am talking now about our second trial, of which the
theft of the _Charles the Second_ was made the charge. Hence the king
must prove that we were parties to this latter crime. All the king’s
evidence swore that any man might go who would,--except the doctor; all
of us prisoners at the bar stuck to it that none could leave but by Mr.
Every’s say-so.
And whom did the king call?
Creagh. This fellow was one who left the ship when the boat went away
for shore. Was he therefore a good, an upright, an honorable man? If
he had been, would he have associated himself afterward with Captain
Vaughan and gone over to the king’s enemies with Vaughan’s ship, for
which very crime he lies manacled with us? How truthful must he be!
Gravet. He too went from our ship; but he was so busy at his going,
begging Mr. Every to let him take his sea coffer and his clothes, that
he had no means of marking much else that went on. How then did he find
time to know so much about my deportment? Says he--
“When we had liberty to go out of the ship, this man May took me by the
hand and wished me well home, and bid me remember him to his wife; and
was very merry and jocund, and knew whither they were going.”
Merry and jocund, and a knowing accomplice! What proof had he that I
knew whither we were going? Who but Mr. Every and his ring knew that?
Creagh and Gravet, these two are all that went to the matter of my part
in the plot, and Creagh may be discounted for a born liar, trying to
serve his ends in his pending treason trial by convicting honest men,
while Gravet--even if he told the fact concerning our parting--offered
no proof beyond his thin statement that I “knew whither they were
going.” Yet when you get down to the bone, I was convicted and handed
to the hangman on those five words.
But, say some, how can you explain your being on a mutiny ship, stolen
and making off for sea? I claim that Sam Parsons can bear me out
touching Mr. Every and me, but Parsons is in Virginia; and there, for
all the king cares, he may stay.
Alas!
My poor old commander, Captain Gibson, was lifted into the pinnace,
where some seventeen or eighteen men were already gone, and who, when
we had tossed them a bailing bucket they cried for, shoved off for town.
Let me ask any man of fair mind this question: How could a hundred men,
had they wanted, have gone off in a ship’s pinnace?
When the boat had left we began the business of the ship and, hauling
into the wind, made haste to leave those parts. I was deposed from
quartermaster and a willing villain put at the whipstaff in my stead.
More than half of us knew nothing but that we must be upon unlawful
occasions.
The ship thieves were not fifty men, all tallied; yet with their
control of our ordnance, fusees and small arms they could terrify the
remaining hundred people into obedience to their horrid designs. Less
than one in ten aboard could read and write, being for the more part
ignorant seamen, easily deceived and commanded. Not only did Mr. Every
and his wicked fellows steal a ship, but they kidnapped a crew.