now busy over their wine, Seraphina
went to the captain and entreated that
I might be allowed to go on shore, under
the pretext that many of the inhabitants
had never seen an Englishman;
but the captain was inexorable. After
the dance and after supper, the captain
began to make presents to the guests. To
the priest he gave my chest of linen and
silks: the priest attributing the recent
capture to his incessant prayers to the
Virgin. When the visitors had left, the
captain being drunk, drew his knife, and
ordered me down into the cabin to sleep on
the bare floor.

The next day was appointed for the sale
of the plunder. Seraphina and her father
came aboard early. She shook my hand,
and told me that her father was going to
try to get me sent on shore. Then I told
her that I loved her, but before she could
answer, we were interrupted. I had to
weigh out the coffee and attend to the
steelyards; when that was done, we fired
a gun, and two small schooners came
out from land and took it on board. The
captain then ordered me, before the wearing
apparel was put up for sale, to brew a
strong mixture of wine, rum, gin, brandy,
and porter: this the Spaniards drank
greedily and soon finished. As the guests
got drunk, they bid enormous sums for the
most trifling articles.

I seized an opportunity of giving
Seraphina a glowing description of everything
in England, and I told her that if she would
help me to escape, and would accompany
me thither, I would devote my life to her,
and marry her on our arrival. She was
startled, but by-and-bye relented, and
replied, that should she consent to elope with
me, a thousand obstacles must first be
surmounted. The lower orders of Cubans were
avaricious, and treacherous, and not to be
trusted; and yet without one for a guide in
those immense forests certain destruction
would await her and me, from wild beasts
or starvation. After some further doubts
and fears, she promised, if practicable, to
escape with me to the Havannah and thence
to England.

Just then a desperate fight with knives
took place between two drunken seamen.
Both fought with great skill and caution
until one fell with a severe stab in the left
breast. I was instantly called in as surgeon.
It was in vain for me to protest. Mr.
Lumsden had told them I had saved the
life of a sailmaker who had fallen down the
hold. The moment our visitors were gone,
the captain went below and questioned the
least injured man as to the cause of their
quarrel. The man at last reluctantly owned
that there had been a conspiracy formed by
the chief mate (then in Havannah), to
murder the captain and the whole crew,
when drunk or asleep, and to take possession
of the ship and plunder. The fight
had begun because he had refused to join
the conspirators, and had threatened to
reveal the plot. The captain's eyes flashed
fire at this. Rushing on deck, he told the
crew, who, shouting and cursing, rushed
below, and, without a question, chopped off
legs and arms of the stabbed man with a
hatchet, and threw his body overboard,
cutting to pieces all his clothes and everything
belonging to him.

Next morning a sail was discovered, and
I was ordered aloft with my spy glass. "If
you deceive me," said the captain, "I will
cut off your head. I have already killed
several of your countrymen, and take care
you do not add yourself to the number."
I reported the vessel a merchantman. We
gave chase, but she instantly stood to the
north, suspecting us. We ordered out the
sweeps, and though the wind lulled, made
great way. By nightfall the merchantman
was hull down. The captain said he would
carry on the chase till two in the morning,
and if she were not then visible, he would
steer east. At daybreak when I came on
deck I found every one at a loss to know
where we were. The whole crew had been
drunk all night. There had been no light
in the binnacle, and no log kept, and no one
knew what sail had been set, or what the
ship had been doing. The captain threatened
me with instant death, if I did not give
him at once the bearing of our harbour of
yesterday. Fortunately I was able about
nine o'clock to take a good lunar observation,
and, at noon obtaining the true latitude
by a good observation of the sun's altitude,
I found to my great astonishment that we
were about twenty leagues to the N.N.W.
of Cape Buonavista, two hundred miles to
the westward of where we thought we were.
We saw land that afternoon as I predicted
we should. I should very likely have been
stabbed if we had not.

As we lay in harbour next morning, we
saw a boat full of the chief mate's mutineers
coming towards us. The captain, declaring
he would kill them all, ordered thirty
loaded muskets to be brought on deck.
Two hundred yards off, the men ceased
rowing, and held up a white handkerchief,
and on our showing another, they