ed me out of my sleep, but I was once afraid I should have lost two
of my fingers.

Another apprehension I had, was, of the cruel usage we should meet with
from them, if we fell into their hands: then the story of Amboyna came
into my head, and how the Dutch might, perhaps, torture us, as they did
our countrymen there; and make some of our men, by extremity of torture,
confess those crimes they never were guilty of; own themselves, and all
of us, to be pirates; and so they would put us to death, with a formal
appearance of justice; and that they might be tempted to do this for the
gain of our ship and cargo, which was worth four or five thousand
pounds, put all together.

These things tormented me, and my partner too, night and day; nor did we
consider that the captains of ships have no authority to act thus; and
if we had surrendered prisoners to them, they could not answer the
destroying us, or torturing us, but would be accountable for it when
they came into their own country. This, I say, gave me no satisfaction;
for, if they will act thus with us, what advantage would it be to us
that they would be called to an account for it? or, if we were first to
be murdered, what satisfaction would it be to us to have them punished
when they came home?

I cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections I now had upon the
past variety of my particular circumstances; how hard I thought it was,
that I, who had spent forty years in a life of continued difficulties,
and was at last come, as it were, at the port or haven which all men
drive at, viz. to have rest and plenty, should be a volunteer in new
sorrows, by my own unhappy choice; and that I, who had escaped so many
dangers in my youth, should now come to be hanged, in my old age, and in
so remote a place, for a crime I was not in the least inclined to, much
less guilty of; and in a place and circumstance, where innocence was not
like to be any protection at all to me.

After these thoughts, something of religion would come in; and I would
be considering that this seemed to me to be a disposition of immediate
Providence; and I ought to look upon it, and submit to it as such: that
although I was innocent as to men, I was far from being innocent as to
my Maker; and I ought to look in, and examine what other crimes in my
life were most obvious to me, and for which Providence might justly
inflict this punishment as a retribution; and that I ought to submit to
this, just as