“‘I thought for a few minutes, then held out my hand.
“‘“I will go,” I said, and we shook hands.
“‘I was to be a sailor now in earnest.
“‘But little did I know that I was to be a pirate as well.
“‘The Rover was not only a very large ship, but she had a large crew. Both crew and ship were armed in a most formidable way.
“‘She was well found in the matter of provisions, though I should have liked if less rum had been in the hold. This fiery and maddening poison the men drank, forenoon, noon, and night.
“‘The discipline was in some ways lax, in others terribly severe.
“All sorts of coarse songs might be sung fore and aft or down below. The men might speak roughly to each other, and even fight with cudgels or fists; but one day shortly after I joined, a sailor gave an officer an insolent answer. To my astonishment the latter at once drew his sword and ran him through the body. Then wiping his sword on the dead man’s clothing, calmly ordered the poor fellow’s corpse to be tossed overboard.
“‘In five minutes more his body was being torn to pieces by the sharks.
“‘Horrified beyond measure, I at once betook myself to the private cabin of Captain Morgan to report the matter. I found him drinking rum which had simply been heated in a pannikin, and molasses added to it.