and; which certainly was a disconsolate place
enough, especially for people who were always ready to make a poor mouth
over everything that did not please them. As the sailors who were with
Captain Amber sided with the colonists in this matter, he had no choice
but to consent; and as his vessel was fairly sea-worthy, he and his
people had departed, in the hope of meeting some ship to bring all
succour. Captain Marmaduke was, it seems, most loath to depart while we
were in such a plight on board of the Royal Christopher; but there was
no help for it, for his men were almost in open mutiny, and would have
carried him on board would he or no. So he had sailed away and the
colonists were all hopeful, in their silly, simple way, that he would
soon return in a great ship and carry them to a land as lovely as a
dream, where all their wishes would be fulfilled for the asking, and
where each man would have his bellyful of good things without the
working for it. For that was, it seems, the notion most of these fellows
had in their heads of poor Captain Amber's Utopia.

I had begun to perceive by this time that a very large number of those
that had come out with Captain Amber aboard of the Royal Christopher
were but weak-spirited creatures, and such as might be called
fair-weather friends. So long as all was going well and there was a
prospect before them of a prosperous future and everything they wanted,
they were supple enough and loud to laud the good gentleman who was
conveying them to comfort. But with the break in our luck their praises
and their patience went in a whiff, and they showed themselves to be
such a parcel of wrong-headed, grumbling, disheartened and dispiriting
knaves as ever helped to shake a good man's courage. They were as ready
to imprecate Captain Amber now as they had been to load him with praises
before, and in this they were supported by all the worser sort--and
these were the greater part--among the sailors that had stayed with the
colonists. But with Lancelot's arrival upon the island he soon put a
stop to all loudly expressed grumbling--or at least to all grumbling
that was loudly expressed in his hearing. There were some good fellows
amongst the colonists, and the old soldiers were staunch and sturdy
fellows, who adored Captain Amber, and Lancelot after him. So, as we had
these with us, we made the grumblers keep civil tongues in their heads,
aye and work too to the bettering of our conditions. The fi