I was melted to tears, I confess; but my men heard him with the most stoical unconcern.  Two of them threw him over to the opposite side of the deck; and before he could recover from the violence of the fall, pushed me into the boat, and shoved off.  The wretched man had by this time crawled over to the side we had just left; and throwing himself on his knees, again screamed out, “Oh, mercy, mercy, mercy!—­For God’s sake, have mercy, if you expect any!—­Oh, God! my wife and babes!”

His prayers, I lament to say, had no effect on the exasperated seamen.  He then fell into a fit of cursing and blasphemy, evidently bereft of his senses; and in this state he continued for some minutes, while we lay alongside, the bowman holding on with the boat-hook only.  I was secretly determined not to leave him, although I foresaw a mutiny in the boat in consequence.  At length, I gave the order to shove off.  The unhappy captain, who, till that moment, might have entertained some faint hope from the lurking compassion which he perceived I felt for him, now resigned himself to despair of a more sullen and horrible aspect.  He sat himself down on one of the hen-coops, and gazed on us with a ghastly eye.  I cannot remember ever seeing a more shocking picture of human misery.

While I looked at him, the black man, Mungo, who belonged to the ship, sprang overboard from the boat, and swam back to the wreck.  Seizing a rope which hung from the gangway, he ascended the side, and joined his master.  We called to him to come back, or we should leave him behind.

“No, massa,” replied the faithful creature; “me no want to lib:  no takee Massa Green, no takee me!  Mungo lib good many years wi massa cappen.  Mungo die wi massa, and go back to Guinea!”

I now thought we had given the captain a sufficient lesson for his treachery and murderous intentions.  Had I, indeed, ever seriously intended to leave him, the conduct of poor Mungo would have awakened me to a sense of my duty.  I ordered Thompson, who was steering the boat, to put the helm a-starboard, and lay her alongside again.  No sooner was this command given, than three or four of the men jumped up in a menacing attitude, and swore that they would not go back for him; that he was the cause of all their sufferings; and that if I chose to share his fate, I might, but into the boat he should not come.  One of them, more daring than the rest, attempted to take the tiller out of Thompson’s hand; but the trusty seaman seized him by the collar, and in an instant threw him overboard.  The other men were coming aft to avenge this treatment of their leader; but I drew my sword, and pointing it at the breast of the nearest mutineer, desired him, on pain of instant death, to return to his seat.  He had heard my character, and knew that I was not to be trifled with.

A mutineer is easily subdued with common firmness.  He obeyed, but was very sullen, and I heard many mutinous expressions among the men.  One of them said that I was not their officer—­that I did not belong to the frigate.