ound, in order to go
to the boat. One or two of the men began to importune me to go; and when
I refused, began to grumble, and say they were not under my command, and
they would go. "Come, Jack," says one of the men, "will you go with me?
I'll go for one." Jack said he would--and then another--and, in a word,
they all left me but one, whom I persuaded to stay, and a boy left in the
boat. So the supercargo and I, with the third man, went back to the
boat, where we told them we would stay for them, and take care to take in
as many of them as should be left; for I told them it was a mad thing
they were going about, and supposed most of them would have the fate of
Tom Jeffry.

They told me, like seamen, they would warrant it they would come off
again, and they would take care, &c.; so away they went. I entreated
them to consider the ship and the voyage, that their lives were not their
own, and that they were entrusted with the voyage, in some measure; that
if they miscarried, the ship might be lost for want of their help, and
that they could not answer for it to God or man. But I might as well
have talked to the mainmast of the ship: they were mad upon their
journey; only they gave me good words, and begged I would not be angry;
that they did not doubt but they would be back again in about an hour at
furthest; for the Indian town, they said, was not above half-a mile off,
though they found it above two miles before they got to it.

Well, they all went away, and though the attempt was desperate, and such
as none but madmen would have gone about, yet, to give them their due,
they went about it as warily as boldly; they were gallantly armed, for
they had every man a fusee or musket, a bayonet, and a pistol; some of
them had broad cutlasses, some of them had hangers, and the boatswain and
two more had poleaxes; besides all which they had among them thirteen
hand grenadoes. Bolder fellows, and better provided, never went about
any wicked work in the world. When they went out their chief design was
plunder, and they were in mighty hopes of finding gold there; but a
circumstance which none of them were aware of set them on fire with
revenge, and made devils of them all.

When they came to the few Indian houses which they thought had been the
town, which was not above half a mile off, they were under great
disappointment, for there were not above twelve or thirteen houses, and
where the town was, or how big, they knew not