that they must have thought themselves enabled to survey them all at
a glance. They had now been at sea twenty-four days, without holding
more than a speaking communication with any vessel whatever. The
whole of the crew, too- at least all whom they had the most remote
reason for suspecting to be on board- were assembled in the cabin,
with the exception of Allen, the watch; and his gigantic stature (be
was six feet six inches high) was too familiar in their eyes to
permit the notion that he was the apparition before them to enter
their minds even for an instant. Add to these considerations the
awe-inspiring nature of the tempest, and that of the conversation
brought about by Peters; the deep impression which the loathsomeness
of the actual corpse had made in the morning upon the imaginations of
the men; the excellence of the imitation in my person, and the
uncertain and wavering light in which they beheld me, as the glare of
the cabin lantern, swinging violently to and fro, fell dubiously and
fitfully upon my figure, and there will be no reason to wonder that
the deception had even more than the entire effect which we had
anticipated. The mate sprang up from the mattress on which he was
lying, and, without uttering a syllable, fell back, stone dead, upon
the cabin floor, and was hurled to the leeward like a log by a heavy
roll of the brig. Of the remaining seven, there were but three who
had at first any degree of presence of mind. The four others sat for
some time rooted apparently to the floor, the most pitiable objects
of horror and utter despair my eyes ever encountered. The only
opposition we experienced at all was from the cook, John Hunt, and
Richard Parker; but they made but a feeble and irresolute defence.
The two former were shot instantly by Peters, and I felled Parker
with a blow on the head from the pump-handle which I had brought with
me. In the meantime, Augustus seized one of the muskets lying on the
floor and shot another mutineer Wilson through the breast. There