days; but it was very much to our satisfaction, and I was thankful when I
set my foot on shore, resolving, and my partner too, that if it was
possible to dispose of ourselves and effects any other way, though not
profitably, we would never more set foot on board that unhappy vessel.
Indeed, I must acknowledge, that of all the circumstances of life that
ever I had any experience of, nothing makes mankind so completely
miserable as that of being in constant fear. Well does the Scripture
say, "The fear of man brings a snare"; it is a life of death, and the
mind is so entirely oppressed by it, that it is capable of no relief.

Nor did it fail of its usual operations upon the fancy, by heightening
every danger; representing the English and Dutch captains to be men
incapable of hearing reason, or of distinguishing between honest men and
rogues; or between a story calculated for our own turn, made out of
nothing, on purpose to deceive, and a true, genuine account of our whole
voyage, progress, and design; for we might many ways have convinced any
reasonable creatures that we were not pirates; the goods we had on board,
the course we steered, our frankly showing ourselves, and entering into
such and such ports; and even our very manner, the force we had, the
number of men, the few arms, the little ammunition, short provisions; all
these would have served to convince any men that we were no pirates. The
opium and other goods we had on board would make it appear the ship had
been at Bengal. The Dutchmen, who, it was said, had the names of all the
men that were in the ship, might easily see that we were a mixture of
English, Portuguese, and Indians, and but two Dutchmen on board. These,
and many other particular circumstances, might have made it evident to
the understanding of any commander, whose hands we might fall into, that
we were no pirates.

But fear, that blind, useless passion, worked another way, and threw us
into the vapours; it bewildered our understandings, and set the
imagination at work to form a thousand terrible things that perhaps might
never happen. We first supposed, as indeed everybody had related to us,
that the seamen on board the English and Dutch ships, but especially the
Dutch, were so enraged at the name of a pirate, and especially at our
beating off their boats and escaping, that they would not give themselves
leave to inquire whether we were pirates or no, but would execute us off-
hand, without