A Book of American ExplorersHigginson, Thomas Wentworth
History
A Book of American Explorers
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth
America -- Discovery and exploration; United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
Then I asked Henry Greene whom he would put out with the master. He
said, the carpenter, John King, and the sick men. I said they should
not do well to part with the carpenter, what need soever they should
have. Why the carpenter was in no more regard amongst them was,
first, for that he and John King were condemned for wrong done in the
victual.[368] But the chiefest cause was for that the master loved
him, and made him his mate, upon his return out of our wintering place,
thereby displacing Robert Billet; whereat they did grudge, because he
could neither write nor read. “And therefore,” said they, “the master
and his ignorant mate would carry the ship whither the master pleased;”
the master forbidding any man to keep account or reckoning, having
taken from all men whatsoever served for that purpose. Well, I obtained
of Henry Greene and Wilson that the carpenter should stay, by whose
means I hoped, after they had satisfied themselves, that the master and
the poor man might be taken into the ship again. Or I hoped that some
one or other would give some notice, either to the carpenter, John King,
or the master; for so it might have come to pass by some of them that
were the most forward....
In the mean time, Henry Greene and another went to the carpenter, and
held him with a talk till the master[369] came out of his cabin, which
he soon did; then came John Thomas and Bennet before him, while Wilson
bound his arms behind him. He asked them what they meant. They told
him he should know when he was in the shallop. Now Juet, while this
was a-doing, came to John King into the hold, who was provided for him;
for he had got a sword of his own, and kept him at a bay, and might
have killed him; but others came to help him: and so he came up to the
master. The master called to the carpenter, and told him that he was
bound; but I heard no answer he made. Now Arnold Lodlo and Michael Bute
railed at them, and told them their knavery would show itself. Then was
the shallop hauled up to the ship-side; and the poor, sick, and lame
men were called upon to get them out of their cabins into the shallop.
The master called to me, who came out of my cabin as well as I could,
to the hatchway, to speak with him, where, on my knees, I besought them,
for the love of God, to remember themselves, and to do as they would be
done unto. They bade me keep myself well, and get me into my cabin, not
suffering the master to speak with me. But when I came into my cabin
again, he called to me at the horn[370] which gave light into my cabin,
and told me that Juet would overthrow us all. “Nay,” said I, “it is
that villain Henry Greene;” and I spake it not softly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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