I will go for one." Jack said he
would; and another followed, and then another; and, in a word, they all
left me but one, whom, with much difficulty too, I persuaded to stay; so
the supercargo and I, with one man, went back to the boat, where, I
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 run the fate of
Thomas Jeffrys.

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 it to God and man. I said a great deal more
to them on that head, but I might as well have talked to the main-mast
of the ship; they were mad upon their journey; only they gave me good
words, and begged I would not be angry; said they would be very
cautious, and they did not doubt but they would be back again in about
an hour at farthest; 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 as above; 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 warily as well as boldly. They were
gallantly armed, that is true; for they had every man a fusil or musket,
a bayonet, and every man a pistol; some of them had broad cutlasses,
some of them hangers, and the boatswain and two more had pole-axes;
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 were not above half a mile off, they were under
a great disappointment; for there were not above twelve or thirteen
houses; and where the town was, or how big, they knew not. They
consulted therefore what to do, and were some time before they could
resolve; for if they fell upon