close Conferences about the Manner and Figure in which we should make the Attempt, and we had some very great Difficulties appear’d in our Way: First, to have fitted up a small Vessel, it would be of no Service to us, but be the same Thing as the Sloop we came in; and if we pretended to a great Ship, our Money would not hold out; so we were quite at a Stand in our Councils what to do, or what Course to take, till at length our Money still wasting, we grew less able to execute any Thing we should project.
This made us all desperate; when as desperate Distempers call for desperate Cures, I started a Proposal which pleas’d them all, and this was, that I would endeavour among my Acquaintance, and with what Money I had left, (which was still sixteen or seventeen hundred Pound) to get the Command of a good Ship, bearing a quarter Part, or thereabout, myself; and so having gat into the Ship, and got a Freight, the rest of our Gang should all enter on Board as Seamen, and whatever Voyage we went, or wheresoever we were bound, we would run away with the Ship and all the Goods, and so go to our Friends as we had promis’d.
I made several Attempts of this Kind, and once bought a very good Ship, call’d, The Griffin, of one Snelgrove a Shipwright, and engag’d the Persons concern’d to hold a Share in her and fit her out, on a Voyage for Leghorn and Venice; when it was very probable the Cargo, to be shipp’d on Board casually by the Merchant, would be very rich; but Providence, and the good Fortune of the Owner prevented this Bargain, for without any Objection against me, or Discovery of my Design in the least, he told me afterwards his Wife had an ugly Dream
or two about the Ship; once, that it was set on Fire by Lightning, and he had lost all he had in it; another Time, that the Men had mutiny’d and conspir’d to kill him; and that his Wife was so averse to his being concern’d in it, that it had always been an unlucky Ship, and that therefore his Mind was chang’d; that he would sell the whole Ship, if I would, but he would not hold any Part of it himself.
Tho’ I was very much disappointed at this, yet I put a very good Face upon it, and told him, I was very glad to hear him tell me the Particulars of his Dissatisfaction; for if there was any Thing in Dreams, and his Wife’s Dream had any Signification at all, it seem’d to concern me (more than him) who was to go the Voyage, and command the Ship; and whether the Ship was to be burnt, or the Men to mutiny, tho’ Part of the Loss might be his, who was to stay on Shore, all the Danger was to be mine, who was to be at Sea in her; and then, as he had said, she had been an unlucky Ship to him, it was very likely she would be so to me; and therefore I thank’d him for the Discovery, and told him I would not meddle with her.
The Man was uneasy, and began to waver in his Resolution, and had it not been for the continu’d Importunities of his Wife, I believe would have come on again; for People generally encline to a Thing that is rejected, when they would reject the same Thing when profer’d: But I knew it was not my Business to let myself be blow’d upon, so I kept to my Resolution, and wholly declin’d that Affair, on Pretence of its having got an ill Name for an unlucky Ship; and that Name stuck so to her, that the Owners could never sell
her, and, as I have been inform’d since, were oblig’d to break her up at last.
It was a great while I spent with hunting after a Ship, but was every Way disappointed, till Money grew short, and the Number of my Men lessen’d apace, and at last we were reduc’d to seven, when an Opportunity happen’d in my Way to go Chief-Mate on Board a stout Ship bound from London to . . . . . .
[N. B. In Things so modern, it is no Way convenient to write to you particular Circumstances and Names of Persons, Ships, or Places, because those Things being in themselves criminal, may be call’d up in Question in a judicial Way; and therefore I warn the Reader to observe, that not only all the Names are omitted, but even the Scene of Action in this criminal Part, is not laid exactly as Things were acted; least I should give Justice a Clew to unravel my Story by, which no Body will blame me for avoiding.]
It is enough to tell the Reader, that being put out to Sea, and being for Conveniency of Wind and Weather come to an Anchor on the Coast of Spain, my seven Companions having resolv’d upon our Measures, and having brought three more of the Men to confederate with us, we took up Arms in the middle of the Night, secur’d the Captain, the Gunner, and the Carpenter, and after that, all the rest of the Men, and declar’d our Intention: The Captain and nine Men refus’d to come into our projected Roguery, (for we gave them their Choice to go with us, or go on Shore) so we put them on Shore very civilly, gave the Master his Books, and every Thing he could carry with him; and all the rest of the Men agreed to go along with us.