most abusive manner, and affirmed
he had poisoned himself out of pure fear, dreading to be brought to
a court-martial for mutiny; for which reason he would not suffer the
service of the dead to be read over his body before it was thrown
overboard.

Nothing but a speedy deliverance could have supported me under the
brutal sway of this bashaw, who, to render my life more irksome,
signified to my messmates a desire that I should be expelled from their
society. This was no sooner hinted, than they granted his request; and
I was fain to eat in a solitary manner by myself during the rest of the
passage, which, however, soon drew to a period.

We had been seven weeks at sea, when the gunner told the captain that,
by his reckoning, we must be in soundings, and desired he would order
the lead to be heaved. Crampley swore he did not know how to keep the
ship's way, for we were not within a hundred leagues of soundings,
and therefore he would not give himself the trouble to cast the lead.
Accordingly we continued our course all that afternoon and night,
without shortening sail, although the gunner pretended to discover
Scilly light; and next morning protested in form against the captain's
conduct, for which he was put in confinement, We discovered no land all
that day, and Crampley was still so infatuated as to neglect sounding;
but at three o'clock in the morning the ship struck, and remained fast
on a sand-bank. This accident alarmed the whole crew; the boat was
immediately hoisted out, but as we could not discern which way the shore
lay, we were obliged to wait for daylight. In the meantime, the wind
increased, and the waves beat against the sloop with such violence, that
we expected she would have gone to pieces. The gunner was released and
consulted: he advised the captain to cut away the mast, in order to
lighten her; this expedient was performed without success: the sailors,
seeing things in a desperate situation, according to custom, broke
up the chests belonging to the officers, dressed themselves in their
clothes, drank their liquors without ceremony, and drunkenness, tumult,
and confusion ensued.

In the midst of this uproar, I went below to secure my own effects,
and found the carpenter's mate hewing down the purser's cabin with his
hatchet, whistling all the while with great composure. When I asked his
intention in so doing, he replied, very calmly, "I only want to taste
the purser's rum, that's all, master." At t