As to their Behaviour after they were taken, it was found that they had great Inclinations to rebel, if they could have laid hold of any Opportunity. For they were very uneaſy under Reſtraint, having been lately all Commanders themſelves; nor could they brook their Diet, or Quarters, without curſing and ſwearing, and upbraiding each other, with the Folly that had brought them to it.
So that to ſecure themſelves againſt any mad deſperate Undertaking of theirs, they ſtrongly barricado’d the Gun-Room, and made another Priſon before it; an Officer, with Piſtols and Cutlaſhes, doing Duty, Night and Day, and the Priſoners within, manacled and ſhackled.
They would yet in theſe Circumſtances be impudently merry, ſaying, when they viewed their Nakedneſs, that they had not left them a halfpenny, to give old Charon, to ferry them over Stix
: And at their thin Commons, they would obſerve, that they fell away ſo faſt, that they ſhould not have Weight left to hang them. Sutton uſed to be very prophane; he happening to be in the ſame Irons with another Priſoner, who was more ſerious than ordinary, and read and pray’d often, as became his Condition; this Man Sutton uſed to ſwear at, and ask him, what he propoſed by ſo much Noiſe and Devotion?
Heaven,
ſays the other, I hope.
Heaven, you Fool,
ſays Sutton, did you ever hear of any Pyrates going thither? Give me Hll, it’s a merrier Place: I’ll give Roberts a Salute of 13 Guns at Entrance.
And when he found ſuch ludicrous Expreſſions had no Effect on him, he made a formal Complaint, and requeſted that the Officer would either remove this Man, or take his Prayer-Book away, as a common Diſturber.
A Combination and Conſpiracy was formed, betwixt Moody, Aſhplant, Magnes, Mare, and others, to riſe, and kill the Officers, and run away with the Ship. This they had carried on by Means of
