ars and despair. I asked him how he thought they would receive a
proposal from me, which might tend towards an escape; and whether, if
they were all here, it might not be done. I told him with freedom, I
feared mostly their treachery and ill usage of me, if I put my life in
their hands; for that gratitude was no inherent virtue in the nature of
man, nor did men always square their dealings by the obligations they
had received, so much as they did by the advantages they expected. I
told him it would be very hard that I should be the instrument of their
deliverance, and that they should afterwards make me their prisoner in
New Spain, where an Englishman was certain to be made a sacrifice, what
necessity, or what accident soever brought him thither; and that I had
rather be delivered up to the savages, and be devoured alive, than fall
into the merciless claws of the priests, and be carried into the
Inquisition. I added, that otherwise I was persuaded, if they were all
here, we might, with so many hands, build a bark large enough to carry
us all away, either to the Brazils, southward, or to the islands, or
Spanish coast, northward; but that if, in requital, they should, when I
had put weapons into their hands, carry me by force among their own
people, I might be ill used for my kindness to them, and make my case
worse than it was before.

He answered, with a great deal of candour and ingenuousness, that their
condition was so miserable, and that they were so sensible of it, that,
he believed, they would abhor the thought of using any man unkindly that
should contribute to their deliverance; and that if I pleased, he would
go to them with the old man, and discourse with them about it and return
again, and bring me their answer; that he would make conditions with
them upon their solemn oath, that they should be absolutely under my
leading, as their commander and captain; and that they should swear upon
the holy sacraments and gospel, to be true to me, and go to such
Christian country as that I should agree to, and no other, and to be
directed wholly and absolutely by my orders, till they were landed
safely in such country as I intended; and that he would bring a contract
from them, under their hands, for that purpose. Then he told me he would
first swear to me himself, that he would never stir from me as long as
he lived, till I gave him orders; and that he would take my side to the
last drop of his blood, if there should happ