Augustus now suggested that if Peters could contrive to remove,
under any pretext, the piece of chain-cable which lay over the trap
in the stateroom, we might possibly be able to come upon them
unawares by means of the hold; but a little reflection convinced us
that the vessel rolled and pitched too violently for any attempt of
that nature.

By good fortune I at length hit upon the idea of working upon the
superstitious terrors and guilty conscience of the mate. It will be
remembered that one of the crew, Hartman Rogers, had died during the
morning, having been attacked two days before with spasms after
drinking some spirits and water. Peters had expressed to us his
opinion that this man had been poisoned by the mate, and for this
belief he had reasons, so he said, which were incontrovertible, but
which he could not be prevailed upon to explain to us- this wayward
refusal being only in keeping with other points of his singular
character. But whether or not he had any better grounds for
suspecting the mate than we had ourselves, we were easily led to fall
in with his suspicion, and determined to act accordingly.

Rogers had died about eleven in the forenoon, in violent
convulsions; and the corpse presented in a few minutes after death
one of the most horrid and loathsome spectacles I ever remember to
have seen. The stomach was swollen immensely, like that of a man who
has been drowned and lain under water for many weeks. The hands were
in the same condition, while the face was shrunken, shrivelled, and
of a chalky whiteness, except where relieved by two or three glaring
red blotches like those occasioned by the erysipelas: one of these
blotches extended diagonally across the face, completely covering up
an eye as if with a band of red velvet. In this disgusting condition