MAJOR SEMPLE LISLE. 205 



gerous perfons, and their fafe poiTeflion of their 

 booty rendered our departure highly defireable 

 to them ; nay, even their lives were held by a 

 precarious tenor while we remained on board. 



After the Ihip was given up the mutineers 

 never treated us with cruelty; though fenli-ble 

 of their fituation, they were very cautious : 

 they kept fentries at the cabin door, and they 

 would only permit one or two of us at a time 

 to walk the quarter-deck. 



One day Enfign Prater, having got drunk, 

 entered into converfation with one of the failora 

 publicly on deck, on the facility of retaking 

 the (liip : he was over-heard, and the ring-lead- 

 ers, telling him he fhould be hung in the morn- 

 ing, hand-cuffed him, and put him to bed, 

 obferving, that though he^ (Prater,) was no way 

 formidable, yet, by fpeaking to the failor, he 

 had incurred the penalty pointed out in the or- 

 ders they had publiflied, which forbid any offi- 

 cer to fpeak to a failor or foldier. This ha- 

 rangue effedually fobered Prater, and put an 

 end to his military prowefs ; he lay howling in 

 fuch a manner as was heard to the remoteft 

 parts of the fhip ; and, as the Purfer has ob- 

 ferved in his narrative, utterly prevented all 

 ivho lay near him from fleep. 



On Sunday, Auguft the 14th, 1797, the mu- 

 tineers told us that they intended to give us the 



boat 



