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{123} The rest of Benyowsky's adventures read more like a page from
some pirate romance than sober record of events on the west coast of
America. Barely had the vessel rounded the southern cape of the
peninsula into the Pacific, when Ismyloff, the young Russian trader,
who had been carried on board in irons, rallied round Benyowsky such a
clamor of mutineers, duels were fought on the quarter-deck, the
malcontents clapped in handcuffs again, and the ringleaders tied to the
masts, where knouting enough was laid on to make them sue for peace.
The middle of May saw the vessel anchoring on the west coast of Bering
Island, where a sharp lookout was kept for Russian fur traders, and
armed men must go ashore to reconnoitre before Benyowsky dared venture
from the ship. The Pole's position was chancy enough to satisfy even
his melodramatic soul. Apart from four or five Swedes, the entire crew
of ninety-six was Russian. Benyowsky was for sailing south at once to
take up quarters on some South Sea island, or to claim the protection
of some European power. The Russian exiles, of whom half were
criminals, were for coasting the Pacific on pirate venture, and
compelled the Pole to steer his vessel for the fur hunters' islands of
Alaska.


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