get our man again, by way of exchange.
We landed without any noise, and divided our men into two bodies,
whereof the boatswain commanded one and I the other. We neither
saw nor heard anybody stir when we landed: and we marched up, one
body at a distance from another, to the place. At first we could
see nothing, it being very dark; till by-and-by our boatswain, who
led the first party, stumbled and fell over a dead body. This made
them halt a while; for knowing by the circumstances that they were
at the place where the Indians had stood, they waited for my coming
up there. We concluded to halt till the moon began to rise, which
we knew would be in less than an hour, when we could easily discern
the havoc we had made among them. We told thirty-two bodies upon
the ground, whereof two were not quite dead; some had an arm and
some a leg shot off, and one his head; those that were wounded, we
supposed, they had carried away. When we had made, as I thought, a
full discovery of all we could come to the knowledge of, I resolved
on going on board; but the boatswain and his party sent me word
that they were resolved to make a visit to the Indian town, where
these dogs, as they called them, dwelt, and asked me to go along
with them; and if they could find them, as they still fancied they
should, they did not doubt of getting a good booty; and it might be
they might find Tom Jeffry there: that was the man’s name we had
lost.
Had they sent to ask my leave to go, I knew well enough what answer
to have given them; for I should have commanded them instantly on
board, knowing it was not a hazard fit for us to run, who had a
ship and ship-loading in our charge, and a voyage to make which
depended very much upon the lives of the men; but as they sent me
word they were resolved to go, and only asked me and my company to
go along with them, I positively refused it, and rose up, for I was
sitting on the ground, in order to go to the boat. One or two of
the men began to importune me to go; and when I refused, began to
grumble, and say they were not under my command, and they would go.
“Come, Jack,” says one of the men, “will you go with me? I’ll go
for one.” Jack said he would – and then another – and, in a word,
they all left me but one, whom I persuaded to stay, and a boy left
in the boat. So the supercargo and I, with the third man, went
back to the boat, where we 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 have the fate of Tom Jeffry.
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 for it
to God or man. But I might as well have talked to the mainmast of
the ship: they were mad upon their journey; only they gave me good
words, and begged I would not be angry; that they did not doubt but
they would be back again in about an hour at furthest; 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, and though the attempt was desperate, and
such as none but madmen would have gone about, yet, to give them