aid they would be slaves no longer,
but would do as the rest did. In the midst of these confusions, I
ordered my son to secure my commission in some dry place among the woods
or rocks, remembering how Captain Dampier had been served in these
seas.

At length, I one afternoon missed all the people, except Mr Adamson the
surgeon, Mr Hendric the agent, my son, and Mr Dodd, lieutenant of
marines, which last feigned lunacy, for some reason best known to
himself. I learnt at night that they had been all day assembled at the
great tree, in deep consultation, and had framed a new set of
regulations and articles, by which the owners in England were excluded
from any share in what we might take for the future, divested me of all
authority as captain, and regulated themselves according to the _Jamaica
discipline_.[269] Even the chief officers, among the rest, had concurred
in electing one Morphew to be their champion and speaker, who addressed
the assembly to the following purport: "That they were now their own
masters, and servants to none: and as Mr Shelvocke, their former
captain, took upon him still to command, he ought to be informed, that
whoever was now to be their commander, must be so through their own
courtesy. However, that Mr Shelvocke might have the first offer of the
command, if the majority thought fit, but not otherwise. That Mr
Shelvocke carried himself too lofty and arbitrarily for the command of a
privateer, and ought to have continued in men-of-war, where the people
were obliged to bear all hardships quietly, whether right or wrong."

[Footnote 269: This expression is not explained, but seems to have been,
according to the model of the Buccaneers, all prizes to be divided among
the captors.--E.]

Some persons present, who had a regard for me, represented, "That they
had never seen or known me treat any one unjustly or severely; and that
however strict I might be, they had no one else to depend upon, and that
they ought all to consider how many difficulties I had already brought
them through. That, although they were not now in the hands of our
enemies, no one could tell how soon others might come upon them: and, if
they ever looked to get back to England, there was no other way but by
going round the world, for which there was no one capable of undertaking
the charge except Captain Shelvocke. They ought also to consider his
commission, and the respect due to him on that account; besides the
protection that w