on to defend ourselves,
the first thing we did was to give everyone his hand that we would not
separate from one another, but that we would live and die together, that
we would be in all things guided by the majority, that we would appoint
a captain among us to be our leader, and that we would obey him on pain
of death.

_II.--A Mad Venture_

For two years we remained on the island of Madagascar, for at the
beginning we had no vessel large enough to pass the ocean.

I never proposed to speak in the general consultations, but one day I
told the company that our best plan was to cruise along the coast in
canoes, and seize upon the first vessel we could get that was better
than our own, and so from that to another, till perhaps we might at last
get a good ship to carry us wherever we pleased to go.

"Excellent advice," says one of them. "Admirable advice," says another.
"Yes, yes," says the third (which was a gunner), "the English dog has
given excellent advice, but it is just the way to bring us all to the
gallows. To go a-thieving, till from a little vessel we come to a great
ship, and so shall we turn downright pirates, the end of which is to be
hanged."

"You may call us pirates," says another, "if you will, and if we fall
into bad hands we may be used like pirates; but I care not for that.
I'll be a pirate or anything, rather than starve here!"

And so they cried all, "Let us have a canoe!"

The gunner, overruled by the rest, submitted; but as we broke up the
council, he came to me and very gravely. "My lad," says he, "thou art
born to do a world of mischief; thou hast commenced pirate very young;
but have a care of the gallows, young man; have a care, I say, for thou
wilt be an eminent thief."

I laughed at him, and told him I did not know what I might come to
hereafter; but as our case was now, I should make no scruple to take the
first ship I came at to get our liberty. I only wished we could see one,
and come at her.

When we had made three canoes of some size, we set out on as odd a
voyage as ever man went. We were a little fleet of three ships, and an
army of between twenty and thirty as dangerous fellows as ever lived. We
were bound somewhere and nowhere, for though we knew what we intended to
do, we really did not know what we were doing.

We cruised up and down the coast, but no ship came in sight, and at
last, with more courage than discretion, more resolution than judgment,
we launched for