It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one may imagine, to one in my circumstances; but never was any thing in the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy, as it was to me to wear such clothes at their first putting on.

After these ceremonies passed, and after all his things were brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was to be done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether we might venture to take them away with us or no, especially two of them, whom we knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; and the captain said, he knew they were such rogues, that there was no obliging them; and if he did carry them away, it must he in irons, as malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first English colony he could come at; and I found that the captain himself was very anxious about it.

Upon this, I told him, that, if he desired it, I durst undertake to bring the two men he spoke of to make their own request that he should leave them upon the island; “I should be very glad of that,” says the captain, “with all my heart.”

“Well,” said I, “I will send for them, and talk with them for you:”  so I caused Friday and the two hostages, for they were now discharged, their comrades having performed their promise; I say, I caused them to go to the cave, and bring up the five men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep them there till I came.

After some time, I came thither dressed in my new habit, and now I was called governor again.  Being all met, and the captain with me, I caused the men to be brought before me, and I told them, I had had a full account of their villanous behaviour to the captain, and how they had run away with the ship, and were preparing to commit farther robberies; but that Providence, had ensnared them in their own ways, and that they were fallen into the pit which they had digged for others.

I let them know, that by my direction the ship had been seized, that she lay now in the road, and they might see by and by, that their new captain had received the reward of his villany; for that they might see him hanging at the yard-arm:  that as to them, I wanted to know what they had to say, why I should not execute them as pirates taken in the fact, as by my commission they could not doubt I had authority to do.

One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing to say but this, that when they were taken, the captain promised them their lives, and they humbly implored my mercy:  but I told them I knew not what mercy to shew them; for, as for myself, I had resolved to quit the island with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to go for England:  and as for the captain, he could not carry them to England, other than as prisoners in irons to be tried for mutiny, and running away with the ship; the consequence of which they must needs know, would be the gallows; so that I could not tell which was best for them, unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island; if they desired that, I did not care, as I had liberty to leave it; I had some inclination to give them their lives, if they thought they could shift on shore.  They seemed very thankful for it; said they would much rather venture to stay there, than to be carried to England to be hanged; so I left it on that issue.