s; but I
reflected that as they had not suffered the harrowing experience of the
five escaped men, they would probably be still in much too insubordinate
a frame of mind to be of any use, and I therefore determined to leave
them where they were for the present. I reckoned, however, that not a
man would leave the village, either to attack the ship or for any other
purpose, until the gruesome sport upon which they were at that moment
engaged had been played out to an end; and I therefore came to the
conclusion that I should be quite justified in throwing the balance of
strength into the land expedition. I accordingly divided my force into
two equal parts, placing Simpson in charge of the ship and entrusting
him with her defence, with a small crew composed of the surgeon, the
four stewards, the cook, Jenkins the steerage passenger, Messrs. Morton,
Fielder, Acutt, Boyne, Pearson, and Taylor, and one of my own men named
Sharland, whose wounds rendered him useless for arduous land service,
although he might be made very useful at a pinch aboard the ship. This
left, for the landing expedition, the general, Carter, myself, and seven
_Sharks_, and the five men who had escaped in the longboat. Thus each
force consisted of fifteen men. But I considered that the landing force
was far the more formidable of the two, since we numbered among us nine
trained fighting men; while, in the improbable event of an attack upon
the ship, the party left on board her would have the advantage of the
deck as a fighting platform, and, if hard pressed, the saloon and
deckhouses to which to retreat. I also left them all the muskets and
boarding pikes, as well, of course, as their own personal firearms, and
the two brass carronades. As for us, the general and I each had a
sword, the _Sharks_ carried a cutlass apiece, and every man of us also
had a brace of pistols in his belt, and a pocketful of cartridges. But
what I most trusted to for the creation of a good, wholesome panic among
the savages was a dozen signal rockets which I had found in the ship's
magazine.

Our arrangements being now complete, the general bade a hasty good-bye
to his wife and daughter, who bore themselves very bravely upon the
occasion, and we all tumbled down over the side into the longboat--into
which Briggs had already, with commendable forethought, passed a large
basket of provisions for the sustenance of ourselves and such of the
mutineers as we might be fortunate e