Being thus Mannd, the Sloop riggd, and having cleard her Bottom, and laid in Provisions enough for a long Voyage, we set Sail the 3d of January 1694, for the Cape of Good Hope . We very honestly left our Money, as I said, behind us, only that we had about the Value of 2000 Pound in Pieces of Eight allowd us on Board for any Exigence that might happen at Sea.
We made no Stop at the Cape , or at St. Helena , tho we passd in Sight of it, but stood over to the Caribbee Islands directly, and made the Island of Tobago the 18th of February , where we took in fresh Water, which we stood in great Need of, as you may judge by the Length of the Voyage. We sought no Purchase, for I had fully convincd our Men, that our Business was not to appear, as we were used to be, upon the Cruise, but as Traders; and to that End I proposd to go away to the Bay of Campeachy , and load Logwood, under the Pretence of selling of which we might go any where.
It is true, I had another Design here, which was to recover the Money which my Comrade and I had buryd there; and having the Man on Board with me to whom I had communicated my Design, we found an Opportunity to come at our Money with Privacy enough, having so conceald it, as that it would have lain there to the general Conflagration, if we had not come for it our selves.
My next Resolution was to go for England , only that I had too many Men, and did not know what to do with them: I told them we could never pretend to go with a Sloop loaden with Logwood to any Place, with 40 Men on Board, but we should be discoverd; but if they would resolve to put 15 or 16 Men on Shore as private Seamen, the rest might do well enough; and if they thought it hard to be set on Shore, I was content to be one, only that I thought it was very reasonable that whoever went on Shore should have some Money given them, and that all should agree to rendezvous in England , and so make the best of our Way thither, and there perhaps we might get a good Ship to go fetch off our Comrades and our Money. With this Resolution, sixteen of our Men had three hundred Pieces of Eight a Man given them, and they went off thus; the Sloop stood away North, thro the Gulph of Florida , keeping under the Shore of Carolina and Virginia ; so our Men droppd off as if they had deserted the Ship; three of the sixteen run away there, five more went off at Virginia, three at New York , three at Road Island , and myself and one more at New England ; and so the Sloop went away for England with the rest. I got all my Money on Shore with me, and conceald it as well as I could; some I got Bills for, some I bought Molosses with, and turnd the rest into Gold; and dressing myself not as a common Sailor, but as a Master of a Ketch, which I had lost in the Bay of Campeachy , I got Passage on Board one Captain Guillame , a New England Captain, whose Owner was one Mr. Johnson a Merchant, living at Hackney , near London .
Being at London , it was but a very few Months before several of us met again, as I have said we agreed to do. And being true to our first Design of going back to our Comrades, we had several close Conferences about the Manner and Figure in which we should make the Attempt, and we had some very great Difficulties appeard in our Way: First, to have fitted up a small Vessel, it would be of no Service to us, but be the same Thing as the Sloop we came in; and if we pretended to a great Ship, our Money would not hold out; so we were quite at a Stand in our Councils what to do, or what Course to take, till at length our Money still wasting, we grew less able to execute any Thing we should project.
This made us all desperate;
began to cast about for farther Adventures; for tho, as I said, we were immensely rich before, yet I abhorrd lying still, and burying my self alive, as I calld it, among Savages and Barbarians; besides, some of our Men were young in the Trade, and had seen nothing; and they lay at me every Day not to lie still in a Part of the World where, as they said, such vast Riches might be gaind; and that the Dutchmen and Englishmen who were cast away, as above, and who our Men calld the Comelings , were continually buzzing in my Ears what infinite Wealth was to be got, if I would but make one voyage to the Coast of Malabar , Coromandel , and the Bay of Bengale ; nay, the three Portuguese Seamen offerd themselves to attack and bring off one of their biggest Galleons, even out of the Road of Goa , on the Malabar Coast, the Capital of the Portuguese Factories in the Indies .
In a Word, I was overcome with these new Proposals, and told the rest of my People, I was resolvd to go to Sea again, and try my good Fortune; I was sorry I had not another Ship or two, but if ever it lay in my Power to master a good Ship, I would not fail to bring her to them.
While I was thus fitting out upon this new Undertaking, and the Ship lay ready to Sail, and all the Men who were designd for the Voyage, were on Board, being 85 in Number; among which were all the Men I brought with me, the 15 Comelings, and the rest made up out of our old Number; I say, when I was just upon the Point of setting Sail, we were all surprizd just in the Grey of the Morning to spy a Sail at Sea; we knew not what to make of her, but found she was an European Ship; that she was not a very large Vessel, yet that she was a Ship of Force too: She seemd to shorten Sail, as if she lookd out for some Harbour; at first Sight I thought she was English ; immediately I resolvd to slip Anchor and Cable and go out to Sea and speak with her, if I could, let her be what she would: As soon as I was got a little clear of the Land, I fird a Gun, and spread English Colours: She immediately brought too, fird three Guns, and mannd out her Boat with a Flag of Truce: I did the like, and the two Boats spoke to one another in about two Hours, when, to our infinite Joy, we found they were our Comrades who we left in the South Seas, and to whom we gave the Fregate at the Isle of Juan Fernando .