burnt or ſunk, as the Carriage or Characters of the Maſters diſpleaſed them.
Notwithſtanding the ſucceſsful Adventures of this Crew, yet it was with great Difficulty they could be kept together, under any kind of Regulation; for being almoſt always mad or drunk, their Behaviour produced infinite Diſorders, every Man being in his own Imagination a Captain, a Prince, or a King. When Roberts ſaw there was no managing of ſuch a Company of wild ungovernable Brutes, by gentle means, nor to keep them from drinking to exceſs, the Cauſe of all their Diſturbances, he put on a rougher Deportment, and a more mageſterial Carriage towards them, correcting whom he thought fit; and if any ſeemed to reſent his Uſage, he told them, they might go aſhore and take Satiſfaction of him, if they thought fit, at Sword and Piſtol, for he neither valu’d or fear’d any of them.
About 400 Leagues from the Coaſt of Africa, the Brigantine who had hitherto lived with them, in all amicable Correſpondence, thought fit to take the Opportunity of a dark Night, and leave the Commadore, which leads me back to the Relation of an Accident that happened at one of the Iſlands of the Weſt-Indies, where they water’d before they undertook this Voyage, which had like to have thrown their Government (ſuch as it was) off the Hinges, and was partly the Occaſion of the Separation: The Story is as follows.
Captain Roberts having been inſulted by one of the drunken Crew, (whoſe Name I have forgot,) he, in the Heat of his Paſſion killed the Fellow on the Spot, which was reſented by a great many others, put particularly one Jones, a brisk active young Man, who died lately in the Marſhalſea, and was his Meſs-Mate. This Jones was at that Time aſhore a watering the Ship, but as ſoon as he came on Board, was told that Captain Roberts had killed
