t to stay.
The former stole some of the cargo, which they sent on shore to
purchase arrack and honey to make punch, with which they became drunk
and quarrelsome.

Captain Swan might at once have put a stop to these disorders, had he
exerted his authority; but, as he and the supercargo were always living
on shore, nothing was done. The mutiny was brought to a head by the
discovery of the captain's journal, in which he inveighed against the
crew, and especially a man named Reed.

Captain Tait, who had before behaved ill and been punished by Captain
Swan, took advantage of this state of discontent to advise the men to
turn him out, hoping to be chosen in his stead to command the ship.

They would have sailed at once, had not the surgeon and his mate been on
shore. To get them off, the mutineers dispatched John Cookworthy, a
follower of their party, who was directed to say that one of the men had
broken his leg, and required their assistance. The surgeon replied that
he intended to return next day, but sent his mate, Herman Coppinger.
Dampier, who had been on shore, accompanied Coppinger off to the ship,
and then discovered the trick that had been played, and the treacherous
projects of the crew. He immediately on this sent to the captain, who,
however, not believing that his men would run away, remained on shore.

The next day he did not appear, and on the morning of the 13th the
mutineers, firing a gun, weighed anchor, and were standing out to sea,
when Mr Nelly, the chief mate, pulled after them and got on board. He
advised them again to anchor, which they did; but Captain Swan, either
from cowardice or reluctance to leave the island, still refused to
return on board.

The mutineers would allow no one to visit on shore, so Dampier and
Coppinger were kept prisoners. Losing patience, they once more weighed
and steered for Mindanao, leaving the captain and thirty-six men on
shore, besides those who had run off. Sixteen had been buried there,
most of whom had died from the effects of poison administered to them by
the natives. Several others succumbed from the same cause, after they
had been some weeks at sea, the surgeon being unable to counteract the
effects of the noxious drugs they had swallowed.

The _Cygnet_ left Mindanao on the 14th of January, 1687, directing her
course to Manilla, in the neighbourhood of which place it was intended
to cruise, in the hopes of capturing the galleon. On the 3rd of
Febru