“The Master and Gunner said, They heard the Boys say, they were willing to take their Chance with their Master, let it be what it would. Nay, then, says Russel, it’s fit they should. I suppose their Master has made them as religious and as conscientious as himself. However, Master, says Russel, (speaking to me) I would have you eat and drink heartily, and talk no more about changing your allotted Chance; because, as I told you before, it is all in vain; besides, it may be a Means of Provocation to serve you worse.
“Gentlemen, says I, I have done: I will say no more; you can do no more than God is pleas’d to permit you; and I own, for that Reason, I ought to take it patiently.
“Well, well, says Russel, if it be done by God’s Permission, you need not fear that he will permit any Thing hurtful to befall so good a Man as you are.
“About ten a-Clock at Night, he order’d to call the Sloop’s Boat, which was brought by some of the Pirates of his own Clan, who were station’d on Board of her, and ask’d them, If they had done as he had order’d them, viz. to clear the Sloop of every Thing? And they said Yes, raping out a great Oath or two, adding, She had nothing on Board except Ballast and Water. Z—ds, said Russel, did not I bid you have all the Casks that had Water in them on Board? So we did, said they; but the Water that we spoke of was Salt-water, leak’d in by the Vessel, and is now above the Ballast; for we have not pump’d her we do not know when.
“Said Russel, Have you brought away the Sails I told you of? They said, All but the Mainsail that was bent, for the other old Mainsail that he had order’d to be left, was good for nothing but to cut up for Parceling, and hardly for that, it was so rotten; besides, it was so torn, that it could not be brought too, and was past mending, and for that Reason they let it lie, and would not unbend the other Mainsail.
“Z—ds, says Russel, we must have it, for I want it to make us a Mainsail. D—n it, said the Men, then you must turn the Man adrift in the Sloop without a Mainsail.
“Pish, said Russel, the same miraculous Power that is to bring him Provisions, can also bring him a Sail.
“What a Devil, is he a Conjurer? said one of them.
“No, no, says Russel, but he expects Miracles to be wrought for him, or he never would have chosen what he hath.
“Nay, nay, said they, if he be such a one, he will do well enough; but I doubt, says one of them, he will fall short of his Expectation; for if he be such a mighty Conjurer, how the Devil was it that he did not conjure himself clear of us?