“Indeed the project was not so preposterous, if they had not gone farther; but they neither did, nor proposed any thing, but what had mischief in the design, or the event.  One morning, these three fellows came down to the limited station, and humbly desired to be admitted to talk with us, which we readily granted; they told us in short, that being tired of their manner of living, and the labour of their hands in such employments, not being sufficient to procure the necessaries of life, they only desired one of the canoes we came over in, with some arms and ammunition for their defence, and they would seek their fortunes abroad, and never trouble us any more. To be sure we were glad enough to get rid of such wretched plagues; but yet honesty made us ingenuously represent to them, by what we ourselves had suffered, the certain destruction they were running into, either of being starved to death or murdered by the savages.  To this they very audaciously replied, that they neither could nor would work:  and consequently that they might as well be starved abroad as at home:  & neither had they any wives or children to cry after them:  nay, so intent were they upon their voyage, that if the Spaniards had not given them arms, so they had but the canoe they would have gone without them.

“Though we could not well spare our fire arms, rather than they should go like naked men, we let them have two muskets, a pistol, a cutlass, and three hatchets, which were thought very sufficient:  we gave them also goat’s flesh, a great basket full of dried grapes, a pot of fresh butter, a young live kid, and a large canoe sufficient to carry twenty men.  And thus, with a mast made of a long pole, and a sail of six large goat-skins dried, having a fair breeze, and a flood-tide with them, they merrily sailed away, the Spaniards calling after them, Bon voyaje, no man ever expecting to see them more.

“When they were gone, the Spaniards and Englishmen would often say to one another, O how peaceably do we now live, since these turbulent fellows have left us! Nothing could be farther from their thoughts than to behold their faces any more; and yet scarce two and twenty days had passed over their heads, but one of the Englishmen, being abroad a planting, perceived at a distance, three men well armed, approaching towards him.  Away he flies with speed to our castle, and tells me and the rest, that we were all undone, for that strangers were landed upon the island, and who they were he could not tell; but added that they were not savages but men habited, bearing arms. Why then, said I, we have the less occasion to be concerned, since, if they were not Indians, they must be friends; for I am sure there is no Christian people upon earth, but what will do us good rather than harm. But while we were considering of the event, up came the three Englishmen, whose voices we quickly knew, and so all our admiration of that nature ceased at once.  And our wonder was succeeded by another sort of inquiry, which was, what could be the occasion of their returning so quickly to the island, when we little expected, and much less desired their company?  But as this was better to be related by themselves, I ordered them to be brought in, when they gave me the following relation of their voyage.