84 WHALING 



being so unanswerable the man performed the service, anchoring 

 the ship where a point of land lay between her and the sloops. 

 This being done, the boat was dismissed and the men returned 

 to their vessels. The Nantucket captains now held a consul- 

 tation as to what course should be pursued. Those who had 

 been on board the ship noticed that the men seemed to be all 

 armed. They also observed, walking alone in the cabin, a 

 man. The conclusion arrived at was that the ship was in the 

 hands of pirates and that the man in the cabin was the former 

 captain, and measures were immediately inaugurated to secure 

 the vessel and crew. To this end an invitation was extended 

 to the usurping captain, his officers, and passengers to dine on 

 board one of the sloops. The courtesy was accepted, and the 

 pirate captain and his boatswain, with the displaced captain as 

 representative of the passengers, repaired on board the sloop. 

 After a short time he became uneasy and proposed to return 

 to his own vessel, but he was seized by the whalemen and bound 

 fast and his intentions frustrated. The actual captain now 

 explained the situation: the ship sailed from Bristol to the 

 coast of Africa, from thence carrying a cargo of slaves to the 

 West Indies, and was on her return home with a cargo of sugar 

 when the mutiny occurred, it being the intention of the muti- 

 neers to become pirates, a business at that time quite thrifty 

 and promising. Our fishermen now told the boatswain that 

 if he would go on board the ship and bring the former mate, who 

 was in irons, and aid in recapturing the vessel, they would en- 

 deavour to have him cleared from the penalties of the law, 

 and they prudently intimated to him that there was a man-of- 

 war within two hours' sail from which they could obtain force 

 enough to overpower his associates. As a further act of pru- 

 dence they told him they would set a certain signal when they 

 had secured help from the ship of war. 



"The boatswain not returning according to the agreement 

 made, one sloop weighed anchor and stood toward the pirate- 

 ship as though to pass on one side of her. As she approached, 

 the mutineers shifted their guns over to the side which it seemed 

 apparent she would pass and trained them so as to sink her 



