e all
become liable to death for mutiny. The pardon offered by the King has
been refused, and fresh demands are made. There, I think, a real wrong
has been done by our people. The Ariadne is well supplied with food and
water. It is the only ship with sufficiency. And why? Because at
the beginning we got provisions from the shore in time; also we got
permission from Richard Parker to fill our holds from two stopped
merchant-ships. Well, the rest of the fleet know what our food and drink
fitment is. They know how safe we are, and to-day orders have come to
yield our provisions to the rest of the fleet. That is, we, who have
taken time by the forelock, must yield up our good gettings to bad
receivers. I am not prepared to do it.

"On shore the Admiralty have stopped the supply of provisions to us and
to all the fleet. Our men have been arrested at Gravesend, Tilbury, and
Sheerness. The fleet could not sail now if it wished; but one ship can
sail, and it is ours. The fleet hasn't the food to sail. On Richard
Parker's ship, the Sandwich, there is food only for a week. The others
are almost as bad. We are in danger of being attacked. Sir Erasmus
Gower, of the Neptune, has a fleet of warships, gunboats, and amateur
armed vessels getting ready to attack us. The North Sea fleet has come
to help us, but that doesn't save us. I'll say this--we are loyal men
in this fleet, otherwise our ships would have joined the enemy in the
waters of France or Holland. They can't go now, in any case. The men
have lost heart. Confidence in our cause has declined. The government
sent Lords of the Admiralty here, and they offered pardon if we accepted
the terms of the Spithead settlement. We declined the terms. That was a
bad day for us, and put every one of our heads in a noose.

"For the moment we have a majority in men and ships; but we can't
renew our food or drink, or ammunition. The end is sure against us. Our
original agitation was just; our present obduracy is madness. This ship
is suspected. It is believed by the rest of the fleet--by ships like the
Invincible--that we're weak-kneed, selfish, and lacking in fidelity to
the cause. That's not true; but we have either to fight or to run, and
perhaps to do both.

"Make no mistake. The government are not cowards; the Admiralty are
gentlemen of determination. If men like Admiral Howe support the
Admiralty--Howe, one of the best friends the seaman ever had--what do
you think the end will be? H