"I'd rather have pigs."
"You show sense, but as you cannot have pigs you must take these. You are under bonds to land them in England—how I don't care—only they must have strength enough to stand upright on the gallows, for Jack Ketch must not have too great a task."
The seaman chuckled.
"I've carried lots of cattle afore, and I never lose any, save a few I toss overboard to save trouble. I'll land these or give an account of 'em."
Every word was uttered with a view of enraging the prisoners.
Allen learned afterward that the provocation was intended and deliberate, its object being to get him to commit some overt act so that he could be hanged or shot for insubordination.
The seaman was the captain of a sailing merchantman bound for England, who had been engaged to transport the Americans to that country.
After a list had been made of the prisoners they were marched off the Gaspee onto a barge, which was towed out to a merchantman lying in the bay. Four rowboats were engaged to tow the barge, and just as they started the hawser broke and the barge was adrift.
After several minor accidents the prisoners were landed on the deck of the merchantman, and soon found they had exchanged bad for worse.
A portion of the vessel had been boarded off by white oak planks, making a space about twenty-two feet long by twenty feet wide.