Springing into the fore chains, 'Enery, with boat-hook in hand, caught at the gunwale of the boat as it slowly drifted alongside. He made a sign to a couple of seamen, who, understanding, brought a heavy shot wrapped up in a piece of canvas. Nimbly dropping into the boat, one of the men quickly fastened the weight to the body of the ill-fated wretch; then, staving a plank with an axe, he sprang back into our fore chains.
'Enery disengaged the boat-hook, and ere the Golden Hope had drifted clear the boat sank beneath the waters of the Atlantic, and the body of my father's murderer disappeared from view till the time when the sea shall give up the dead that are in it.
I was glad that 'Enery had behaved thus. He had acted generously to the memory of a man who had done his best to raise his hand against every member of our crew. The rogue had paid the penalty and had received his deserts, though in my calmer moments I rejoiced that he had not met his death at my hands.
Soon after this gruesome incident we picked up a steady breeze that enabled us to make rapid progress, and seven days after leaving Treasure Island we crossed the Tropic of Cancer.
It was all plain sailing till we were within a few hundred miles of the Bermudas, when a heavy gale caused the main topmast of the Golden Hope to spring.
In this crippled condition the brig crawled into the harbour on whose shores the principal settlements are built, but ere we could effect repairs an awful hurricane, the worst I have ever met, or hope to meet, burst over the islands.
The storm came on quite suddenly, and almost before we had time to strike our still-standing fore-topmast, and veer out all our cable. Even in the comparatively sheltered harbour where we lay the sea was churned into a seething cauldron of foam, whilst ashore the damage was terrific. The lightly built huts of the settlers were unroofed and most of the trees blown down; and so great was the havoc wrought that 'twas a matter of difficulty to get our damaged topmast repaired till nearly six weeks after the storm.
While lying in harbour we learnt from an outward bound West Indiaman that things at home were in a very unsettled state, for almost all men were dissatisfied with King James.
Yet--so suspicious had Englishmen become of each other--we could gather no definite information, though many hints were thrown out concerning what we might expect to find on our arrival at home.
At length, on the second day of October, 1688, we weighed and set sail on the last stage of our homeward voyage, and late on the forenoon of the following day the last of the low-lying Bermudas was lost to view.