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Willis confessed he had not yet been able to cure their fondness for theft, and suggested, as the only means of security, that I should accompany the king, and bring the pinnace back, which was then to be committed to the charge of Parabéry, for whose honesty he would be responsible. Here was another delay; the day was so far advanced, that I might not, perhaps, be able to return before night.

He also sent Bob out to his old place of resort, near Loam Island, whence he brought back near a hundred hog-fish. These were divided, also, some being given to Dido's mess, and the rest put in the pinnace, after taking out enough for a good supper. About ten at night the Neshamony sailed, Mark carrying her out into the open water, when he placed Bob at the helm.

These were three in number, as I have already said: the Constant, a ship of near to one hundred tons in size; the Goodspeed, of forty tons, and the Discovery, which was a pinnace of only twenty tons.

He then sailed northward to the river's mouth taking his prizes with him, with all the prisoners. At the river's mouth he very foolishly "sent away the two prizes that hee tooke" a piece of clemency which knotted the rope under his ear. He then sailed up the river, helping his pinnace by poles, oars, and warps, but making slow progress.

So all went on board the pinnace again, every one in ill humor with the captain, and he with them. "Well, sirs, we came back to the mouth of the river, and there began our troubles; for the negroes, as soon as we were on shore, called on Mr. Oxenham to fulfil the bargain he had made with them.

"Your crooked stick, Bob, is a part of the frame of the pinnace of which you spoke, and which we had given up, as a thing not to be found on board!" "You're right, Mr. Mark, you're right!" answered Bob "and I most have been oncommon stupid not to have thought of it, when it came so hard.

A boat upon the open sea no land in sight! It is an open boat, the size and form showing it to be the pinnace of a merchant-ship. It is a tropical sea, with a fiery sun overhead, slowly coursing through a sky of brilliant azure. The boat has neither sail nor mast. There are oars, but no one is using them. They lie athwart the tholes, their blades dipping in the water, with no hand upon the grasp.

Having written this despatch, announcing my own demise which, by the bye, I should certainly not have done had not the boatswain put it into my head I set to work to make my other preparations. Having secured a pistol, with some powder and bullets, and a cutlass, which I fancied I could handle, I stowed them away in the bows of the pinnace.

The pinnace was to be left behind for the use of us who remained in the strange land. Before this time, meaning the thirteenth day of May, the members of the Council had decided upon the place where we were to build our village.

By the time they got to the shore, the pinnace and the ship's boat were ready to receive them, and they all got safe on board, not a man of them having received the least hurt, except two, one of whom strained his foot, and the other burnt his hand a little; for they met with no resistance, the poor Indians being unprepared, amazed, and confounded.