The captain now had no difficulty before him but to furnish his two boats, stop the breach of one, and man them: he made his passenger captain of one, with four other men, and himself and his mate and five more, went in the other; and they contrived their business very well, for they came up to the ship about midnight. As soon as they came within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail them, and tell them he had brought off the men and the boat, but that it was a long time before they had found them, and the like, holding them in a chat till they came to the ship’s side; when the captain and the mate, entering first with their arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and carpenter with the butt end of their muskets. Being very faithfully seconded by their men, they secured all the rest that were upon the main and quarter decks, and began to fasten the hatches to keep those down who were below; when the other boat and their men, entering at the fore-chains, secured the forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle, which went down into the cockroom, making three men they found there prisoners.
When this was done, and all safe upon the deck, the captain ordered the mate, with three men, to break into the roundhouse, where the new rebel captain lay, and having taken the alarm, was gotten up, and with two men and a boy, had gotten fire-arms in their hands; and when the mate with a crow split open the door, the new captain and his men fired boldly among them, and wounded the mate with a musket-ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more of the men, but killed nobody.
The mate, calling for help, rushed, however, into the roundhouse, wounded as he was, and with his pistol shot the new captain through the head, the bullets entering at his mouth, and came out again behind one of his ears, so that he never spoke a word; upon which the rest yielded, and the ship was taken effectually without any more lives being lost.
As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain ordered seven guns to be fired, which was the signal agreed upon with me, to give me notice of his success; which, you may be sure, I was very glad to hear, having sat watching upon the shore for it till near two of the clock in the morning.
Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down; and it having been a day of great fatigue to me, I slept very sound till I was something surprised with the noise of a gun; and presently starting up, I heard a man call me by the name of “Governor, governor!” and presently I knew the captain’s voice; when, climbing up to the top of the hill, there he stood, and pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his arms: “My dear friend and deliverer!” says he, “there’s your ship, for she is all yours, and so are we, and all that belong to her.” I cast my eyes to the ship, and there she rode within a little more than half a mile of the shore—for they had weighed her anchor as soon as they were masters of her—and the weather being fair, had brought her to an anchor just against the mouth of a little creek; and the tide being up, the captain had brought the pinnace in near the place where I first landed my rafts, and so landed just at my door.
I was at first ready to sink down with the surprise; for I saw my deliverance indeed visibly put into my hands, all things easy, and a large ship just ready to carry me away whither I pleased to go. At first, for some time, I was not able to answer one word: but as he had taken me in his arms, I held fast by him, or I should have fallen to the ground.
He perceived the surprise, and immediately pulled a bottle out of his pocket, and gave me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose for me: after I drank it, I sat down upon the ground, and though it brought me to myself, yet it was a good while before I could speak a word to him.