The night before I sailed, Santos and the captain were aboard with me till the small hours.
They promised me that every soul should have every chance; that nothing but unforeseen accident could prevent the boats from making Ascension again in a matter of hours; that as long as the gig was supposed to be lost with all hands, nothing else mattered.

So they promised, and that Harris meant to keep his promise I fully believe.

That was not a wanton ruffian; but the other would spill blood like water, as I told you at the hall, and as no man now knows better than yourself.

He was notorious even in Portuguese Africa on account of his atrocious treatment of the blacks.

It was a favorite boast of his that he once poisoned a whole village; and that he himself tampered with the Lady Jermyn's boats you can take my word, for I have heard him describe how he left it to the last night, and struck the blows during the applause at the concert on the quarter-deck.