Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities.Anonymous
History
Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities.
Anonymous
Mutiny; Pirates; Seafaring life; Shipwrecks
When we first landed, I was very active in assisting to get the casks
out of the boat, and in rolling them to the watering-place. Then
taking a hearty draught of water, I strolled along the beach, picking
up stones and shells; but on reaching the distance of a musket-shot
from the party, I began to withdraw towards the skirts of the woods.
In answer to a question by the cooper of whither I was going? I
replied, "for cocoa nuts, as some cocoa trees were just before me;"
and as soon as I was out of sight of my companions, I took to my
heels, running as fast as the thickness of the bushes and my naked
feet would admit. Notwithstanding I had got a considerable way into
the woods, I was still so near as to hear the voices of the party if
they spoke loud, and I lay close in a thicket where I knew they could
not find me.
After my comrades had filled their casks, and were about to depart,
the cooper called on me to accompany them; however, I lay snug in the
thicket, and gave him no answer, though his words were plain enough.
At length, after hallooing loudly, I could hear them say to one
another, "The dog is lost in the woods, and cannot find the way out
again;" then they hallooed once more, and cried "he has run away and
won't come to us;" and the cooper observed, that, had he known my
intention, he would not have brought me ashore. Satisfied of their
inability to find me among the trees and bushes, the cooper at last,
to show his kindness, exclaimed, "If you do not come away presently, I
shall go off and leave you alone." Nothing, however, could induce me
to discover myself; and my comrades seeing it vain to wait any longer,
put off without me.
Thus I was left on a desolate island, destitute of all help, and
remote from the track of navigators; but compared with the state and
society I had quitted, I considered the wilderness hospitable, and the
solitude interesting.
When I thought the whole were gone, I emerged from my thicket, and
came down to a small run of water, about a mile from the place where
our casks were filled, and there sat down to observe the proceedings
of the pirates. To my great joy, in five days their vessels sailed,
and I saw the schooner part from them to shape a different course.
I then began to reflect on myself and my present condition. I was on
an island which I had no means of leaving; I knew of no human being
within many miles; my clothing was scanty, and it was impossible to
procure a supply. I was altogether destitute of provision, nor could
tell how my life was to be supported. This melancholy prospect drew a
copious flood of tears from my eyes; but as it had pleased God to
grant my wishes in being liberated from those whose occupation was
devising mischief against their neighbors, I resolved to account every
hardship light. Yet Low would never suffer his men to work on the
Sabbath, which was more devoted to play; and I have even seen some of
them sit down to read in a good book.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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