In the beginning of this great work the people behaved themselves very well, half of them working regularly one day, and the other half the next, seeming every day to grow easier under our misfortunes.  They treated me with as much respect as I could wish, and even in a body thanked me for the prospect of their deliverance; while I never failed to encourage them by telling them stories of the great things that had been accomplished by the united efforts of men in similar distresses.  I always pressed them to stick close to the work, that we might get our bark ready in time; and told them that we fortunately had three of the best ports in Chili within 120 leagues of us.  This inspired them with life and vigour, and they often declared that they would exert their utmost endeavours to finish her with all expedition.  At last, however, we became a prey to faction, so that it was a miracle we ever got off from this place.  For, after completing the most laborious part of the work, they entirely neglected it; and many of my officers, deserting my society, herded with the meanest of the ship’s company.  I was now convinced in a suspicion I had long entertained, that some black design was in embryo; for when I met any of my officers, and asked what they were about, and the reason of their acting so contrary to their duty, by diverting the people from their work, some used even to tell me they knew not whether they would leave the island or not, when my bundle of sticks was ready; that they cared not how matters went, for they could shift for themselves as well as the rest.  When I spoke with the common men, some were surly, and others said they would be slaves no longer, but would do as the rest did.  In the midst of these confusions, I ordered my son to secure my commission in some dry place among the woods or rocks, remembering how Captain Dampier had been served in these seas.

At length, I one afternoon missed all the people, except Mr Adamson the surgeon, Mr Hendric the agent, my son, and Mr Dodd, lieutenant of marines, which last feigned lunacy, for some reason best known to himself.  I learnt at night that they had been all day assembled at the great tree, in deep consultation, and had framed a new set of regulations and articles, by which the owners in England were excluded from any share in what we might take for the future, divested me of all authority as captain, and regulated themselves according to the Jamaica discipline.[269] Even the chief officers, among the rest, had concurred in electing one Morphew to be their champion and speaker, who addressed the assembly to the following purport:  “That they were now their own masters, and servants to none:  and as Mr Shelvocke, their former captain, took upon him still to command, he ought to be informed, that whoever was now to be their commander, must be so through their own courtesy.  However, that Mr Shelvocke might have the first offer of the command, if the majority thought fit, but not otherwise.  That Mr Shelvocke carried himself too lofty and arbitrarily for the command of a privateer, and ought to have continued in men-of-war, where the people were obliged to bear all hardships quietly, whether right or wrong.”