about seven o'clock
We could not imagine what the meaning of it should be ; but , as it was but a boat , we thought there could be no great harm in it to let them come on board ; and if it appeared they came only to inquire who we were , we would give them a full account of our business , by taking them along with us , seeing we wanted men as much as anything . But they saved us the labour of being in doubt how to dispose of them ; for it seems our Portuguese seamen , who went for water , had not been so silent at the watering-places as we thought they would have been . But the case , in short , was this : Captain -- -LRB- I forbear his name at present , for a particular reason -RRB- , captain of an East India merchant-ship , bound afterwards for China , had found some reason to be very severe with his men , and had handled some of them very roughly at St Helena ; insomuch , that they threatened among themselves to leave the ship the first opportunity , and had long wished for that opportunity . Some of these men , it seems , had met with our boat at the watering-place , and inquiring of one another who we were , and upon what account , whether the Portuguese seamen , by faltering in their account , made them suspect that we were out upon the cruise , or whether they told it in plain English or no -LRB- for they all spoke English enough to be understood -RRB- , but so it was , that as soon as ever the men carried the news on board , that the ships which lay by to the eastward were English , and that they were going upon the _ account _ , which , by they way , was a sea term for a pirate ; I say , as soon as ever they heard it , they went to work , and getting all things ready in the night , their chests and clothes , and whatever else they could , they came away before it was day , and came up with us about seven o'clock . When they came by the ship 's side which I commanded we hailed them in the usual manner , to know what and who they were , and what their business . They answered they were Englishmen , and desired to come on board . We told them they might lay the ship on board , but ordered they should let only one man enter the ship till the captain knew their business , and that he should come without any arms .