command over them as
usual, which still remained in as much force as ever; and then ordered them
all to return to their respective tents, with which order they instantly
complied. Now we had saved our long-boat from the wreck, and got it in our
possession, there was nothing that seemed so necessary towards the
advancing our delivery from this desolate place as the new-modelling this
vessel, so as to have room for all those who were inclined to go off in
her, and to put her in a condition to bear the stormy seas we must of
course encounter. We therefore hauled her up, and having placed her upon
blocks, sawed her in two, in order to lengthen her about twelve feet by the
keel. For this purpose, all those who could be spared from the more
immediate task of procuring subsistence, were employed in fitting and
shaping timber as the carpenter directed them; I say, in procuring
subsistence, because the weather lately having been very tempestuous, and
the wreck working much, had disgorged a great part of her contents, which
were every where dispersed about the shore.

We now sent frequent parties up the lagoons, which sometimes succeeded in
getting some sea-fowl for us. The Indians appearing again in the offing, we
put off our yawl in order to frustrate any design they might have of going
up the lagoon towards the deserters, who would have availed themselves of
some of their canoes to have got upon the main. Having conducted them in,
we found that their intention was to settle among us, for they had brought
their wives and children with them, in all about fifty persons, who
immediately set about building themselves wigwams, and seemed much
reconciled to our company; and, could we have entertained them as we ought,
they would have been of great assistance to us, who were extremely put to
it to subsist ourselves, being a hundred in number; but the men, now
subject to little or no controul, endeavoured to seduce their wives, which
gave the Indians such offence, that in a short time they found means to
depart, taking every thing along with them; and we, being sensible of the
cause, never expected to see them return again. The carpenter having made
some progress in his work upon the long-boat, in which he was enabled to
proceed tolerably, by the tools and other articles of his business
retrieved from the wreck, the men began to think of the course they should
take to get home; or rather, having borrowed Sir John Narborough's voyage
of