To Which Request Our General Did Very Willingly Agree, Considering With Himself That It Was Necessary For Him To Lessen His Number, Both For The Safety Of Himself And The Rest.

And, thereupon, being resolved to set half his people on shore that he had then left alive, it was

A world to see how suddenly men's minds were altered, for they which a little before desired to be set on land were now of another mind, and requested rather to stay, by means whereof our General was enforced, for the more contenting of all men's minds, and to take away all occasions of offence, to take this order: first he made choice of such persons of service and account as were needful to stay, and that being done, of those which were willing to go, he appointed such as he thought might be best spared, and presently appointed that by the boat they should be set on shore, our General promising us that the next year he would either come himself or else send to fetch us home. Here, again, it would have caused any stony heart to have relented to hear the pitiful moan that many did make, and how loth they were to depart. The weather was then somewhat stormy and tempestuous, and therefore we were in great danger, yet, notwithstanding there was no remedy, but we that were appointed to go away must of necessity do so. Howbeit, those that went in the first boat were safely set ashore, but of them which went in the second boat, of which number I myself was one, the seas wrought so high that we could not attain to the shore, and therefore we were constrained - through the cruel dealing of John Hampton, captain of the Minion, and John Sanders, boatswain of the Jesus, and Thomas Pollard, his mate - to leap out of the boat into the main sea, having more than a mile to shore, and, so to shift for ourselves, and either to sink or swim.

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