which the Deponent replying, he was not afraid of being hanged, Scudamore bid him be ſtill, and no Harm ſhould come to him; but before the next Day-Evening, which was the deſigned Time of executing this Project, the Deponent diſcovered it to the Officer, and aſſured him, Scudamore had been talking all the preceeding Night to the Negroes, in Angolan Language.
Iſaac Burnet heard the Priſoner ask James Harris, a Pyrate, (left with the wounded in the Prize,) whether he was willing to come into the Project of running away with the Ship, and endeavour the raiſing of a new Company, but turned the Diſcourſe to Horſe-Racing, as the Deponent crept nigher; he acquainted the Officer with what he had heard, who kept the People under Arms all Night, their Apprehenſions of the Negroes not being groundleſs; for many of them having lived a long Time in this pyratical Way, were, by the thin Commons they were now reduced to, as ripe for Miſchief as any.
The Priſoner in his Defence ſaid, he was a forced Man from Captain Rolls, in October laſt, and if he had not ſhewn ſuch a Concern as became him, at the Alteration, he muſt remark the Occaſion to be, the Diſagreement and Enmity between them; but that both Roberts, and Val. Aſhplant, threat’ned him into ſigning their Articles, and that he did it in Terror.
The King Solomon, and Elizabeth Medicine-Cheſt, he owns he plundered, by Order of Hunter, the then chief Surgeon, who, by the Pyrates Laws, always directs in this Province, and Mr. Child, (tho’ acquitted) had by the ſame Orders taken out a whole French Medicine-Cheſt, which he muſt be ſenſible for me, as well as for himſelf, we neither of us dared to have denied; it was their being the proper Judges, made ſo ungrateful anOffice
