[The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe]@TWC D-Link bookThe Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe CHAPTER X--HE IS LEFT ON SHORE 4/10
The boatswain, the gunner, the carpenter, and all the inferior officers, as soon as I was gone off in the boat, came up, and desired to speak with the captain; and then the boatswain, making a long harangue, and repeating all he had said to me, told the captain that as I was now gone peaceably on shore, they were loath to use any violence with me, which, if I had not gone on shore, they would otherwise have done, to oblige me to have gone.
They therefore thought fit to tell him that as they shipped themselves to serve in the ship under his command, they would perform it well and faithfully; but if I would not quit the ship, or the captain oblige me to quit it, they would all leave the ship, and sail no further with him; and at that word _all_ he turned his face towards the main-mast, which was, it seems, a signal agreed on, when the seamen, being got together there, cried out, "_One and all_! _one and all_!" My nephew, the captain, was a man of spirit, and of great presence of mind; and though he was surprised, yet he told them calmly that he would consider of the matter, but that he could do nothing in it till he had spoken to me about it.
He used some arguments with them, to show them the unreasonableness and injustice of the thing, but it was all in vain; they swore, and shook hands round before his face, that they would all go on shore unless he would engage to them not to suffer me to come any more on board the ship. This was a hard article upon him, who knew his obligation to me, and did not know how I might take it.
So he began to talk smartly to them; told them that I was a very considerable owner of the ship, and that if ever they came to England again it would cost them very dear; that the ship was mine, and that he could not put me out of it; and that he would rather lose the ship, and the voyage too, than disoblige me so much: so they might do as they pleased.
However, he would go on shore and talk with me, and invited the boatswain to go with him, and perhaps they might accommodate the matter with me.
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