Porto Rico. No attention was paid to Augustus, who was untied and
suffered to go about anywhere forward of the cabin companion-way.
Dirk Peters treated him with some degree of kindness, and on one
occasion saved him from the brutality of the cook. His situation was
still one of the most precarious, as the men were continually
intoxicated, and there was no relying upon their continued good-humor
or carelessness in regard to himself. His anxiety on my account be
represented, however, as the most distressing result of his
condition; and, indeed, I had never reason to doubt the sincerity of
his friendship. More than once he had resolved to acquaint the
mutineers with the secret of my being on board, but was restrained
from so doing, partly through recollection of the atrocities he had
already beheld, and partly through a hope of being able soon to bring
me relief. For the latter purpose he was constantly on the watch;
but, in spite of the most constant vigilance, three days elapsed
after the boat was cut adrift before any chance occurred. At length,
on the night of the third day, there came on a heavy blow from the
eastward, and all hands were called up to take in sail. During the
confusion which ensued, he made his way below unobserved, and into
the stateroom. What was his grief and horror in discovering that the
latter had been rendered a place of deposit for a variety of
sea-stores and ship-furniture, and that several fathoms of old
chain-cable, which had been stowed away beneath the companion-ladder,
had been dragged thence to make room for a chest, and were now lying
immediately upon the trap! To remove it without discovery was
impossible, and he returned on deck as quickly as he could. As be
came up, the mate seized him by the throat, and demanding what he had
been doing in the cabin, was about flinging him over the larboard
bulwark, when his life was again preserved through the interference
of Dirk Peters. Augustus was now put in handcuffs (of which there