GROSVENOR INDIAMAN. 53 
and turbulent spirit at a time when it can be done with im- 
punity, is always ready to overturn every plan that may be 
proposed by his superiors and the considerate few that hap- 
pen to be of the party. 
*• Such must have been, and such we are indeed told was 
the situation of the crew of the Grosvenor subsequent to their 
shipwreck. , 
" Though it may be said to be very easy to see errors 
when their consequences are apparent, it will not surely be 
too much to assert, that when this ship's crew was once safe- 
ly on shore, with the advantage of such articles as they could 
procure from the wreck, their situation, however deplorable, 
could not be considered as hopeless. For, had a chosen body 
of ten or twenty men marched a few days to the northward, 
they must have fallen in with Rio de la Goa, where it seldom 
happens that there is not a French or Portuguese slave ship. 
But allowing that Captain Coxson Vv^as much out of his reck- 
oning, and that*he supposed himself much nearer to the Cape 
than he really was, they might then have existed on the sea- 
coast, in that climate, sheltered by huts, ti]l ready to set out, 
and by preserving order and discipline, and conducting them- 
selves properly in regard to the natives, they might have gra- 
dually proceeded in safety to the territories of the Dutch. 
" Had the crew continued under the orders of their officers, 
either of those objects might have been accomplished by men 
whose minds were not wholly resigned to despair ; or they 
might have subsisted on what provision they could pick up 
from the wreck, together with what they could purchase from 
the natives, till a boat could have been constructed and sent 
to solicit assistance from the Cape. 
" These reflections have been extended by considering the 
circumstances in which the shipwrecked people were placed ; 
fsom all which it may fairly be concluded, that 'the greater 
part might have effected a return to theii native land, had 
they been guided by any idea of the advantages of discipline 
and subordination. 
" It is to be hoped, then, that the fatal consequences attend- 
ing disorderly conduct on these calamitous occasions, will 
impress on the minds of seamen this incontrovertible truth, 
that their only hope of safety must depend upon obedience." 
