though he never changed his opinion, was yet obliged to give way to the torrent, and in appearance to acquiesce in this resolution, whilst he endeavoured underhand to give it all the obstruction he could, particularly in the lengthening of the long-boat, which he contrived should be of such a size that, though it might serve to carry them to Juan Fernandez, would yet, he hoped, appear incapable of so long a navigation as that to the coast of Brazil.

AN UNHAPPY ACCIDENT.

But the captain, by his steady opposition at first to this favourite project, had much embittered the people against him, to which, likewise, the following unhappy accident greatly contributed.  There was a midshipman whose name was Cozens, who had appeared the foremost in all the refractory proceedings of the crew.  He had involved himself in brawls with most of the officers who had adhered to the captain’s authority, and had even treated the captain himself with great abuse and insolence.  As his turbulence and brutality grew every day more and more intolerable, it was not in the least doubted but there were some violent measures in agitation in which Cozens was engaged as the ringleader, for which reason the captain and those about him constantly kept themselves on their guard.  But at last the purser having, by the captain’s order, stopped the allowance of a fellow who would not work, Cozens, though the man did not complain to him, intermeddled in the affair with great eagerness, and grossly insulting the purser, who was then delivering our provisions just by the captain’s tent, and was himself sufficiently violent, the purser, enraged by his scurrility, and perhaps piqued by former quarrels, cried out—­“A mutiny!” adding “that the dog had pistols,” and then himself fired a shot at Cozens, which, however, missed him.  But the captain, on this outcry and the report of the pistol, rushed out of his tent, and, not doubting but it had been fired by Cozens as the commencement of a mutiny, he immediately shot him in the head without further deliberation, and though he did not kill him on the spot, yet the wound proved mortal, and he died about fourteen days after.

This incident, however displeasing to the people, did yet for a considerable time awe them to their duty, and rendered them more submissive to the captain’s authority.  But at last, when towards the middle of October the long-boat was nearly completed and they were preparing to put to sea, the additional provocation he gave them by covertly traversing their project of proceeding through the Straits of Magellan, and their fears that he might at length engage a party sufficient to overturn this favourite measure, made them resolve to make use of the death of Cozens as a reason for depriving him of his command, under pretence of carrying him a prisoner to England to be tried for murder, and he was accordingly confined under a guard.  But they never intended to carry him with them, as they too well knew what they had to apprehend on their return to England if their commander should be present to confront them, and therefore, when they were just ready to put to sea, they set him at liberty, leaving him and the few who chose to take their fortunes with him no other embarkation but the yawl, to which the barge was afterwards added by the people on board her being prevailed on to return back.