a general disorder
and confusion among the people, who were now no longer implicitly obedient.
There were two seamen particularly, who propagated this confusion, they
said they had suffered shipwreck in his majesty's ship the Biddeford, and
received no wages from the day that the ship was lost; that when they were
out of pay, they looked upon themselves as their own masters, and no longer
subjected to command. The people, however, were not altogether infected,
but still continued to pay a dutiful respect to their commander; but when
the captain had rashly shot Mr Cozens, (whose fate the reader will find
particularly related) they then grew very turbulent and unruly; the captain
daily lost the love of the men, who with their affection lost their duty.

Our confining the captain is thought an audacious and unprecedented action,
and our not bringing him home with us is reckoned worse; but the reader
will find that necessity absolutely compelled us to act as we did, and that
we had sufficient reasons for leaving him behind.

Our attempt for liberty, in sailing to the southward through the straits of
Magellan, with such a number of people stowed in a long-boat, has been
censured as a mad undertaking: Desperate diseases require desperate
remedies; had we gone to the northward, there appeared no probability of
escaping the Spaniards, and when we had fallen into their hands, 'tis not
unlikely but they might have employed us as drudges in their mines for
life; therefore we rather chose to encounter all difficulties than to
become slaves to a merciless enemy.

Some persons have objected against our capacity for keeping a journal of
this nature; but several judges of maritime affairs allow this work to be
exact and regular. We think persons with a common share of understanding,
are capable of committing to paper daily remarks of matter worthy their
observation, especially of facts in which they themselves had so large a
share. We only relate such things as could not possibly escape our
knowledge, and what we actually know to be true. We don't set up for
naturalists and men of great learning, therefore have avoided meddling with
things above our capacity.

We are also condemned by many for being too busy and active for persons in
our stations. There was a necessity for action, and a great deal of it too;
and had we been as indolent and regardless for the preservation of the
people as others who were superior in command, there wou