My next Resolution was to go for _England_, only that I had too many Men, and did not know what to do with them: I told them we could never pretend to go with a Sloop loaden with Logwood to any Place, with 40 Men on Board, but we should be discover'd; but if they would resolve to put 15 or 16 Men on Shore as private Seamen, the rest might do well enough; and if they thought it hard to be set on Shore, I was content to be one, only that I thought it was very reasonable that whoever went on Shore should have some Money given them, and that all should agree to rendezvous in _England_, and so make the best of our Way thither, and there perhaps we might get a good Ship to go fetch off our Comrades and our Money. With this Resolution, sixteen of our Men had three hundred Pieces of Eight a Man given them, and they went off thus; the Sloop stood away North, thro' the Gulph of _Florida_, keeping under the Shore of _Carolina_ and _Virginia_; so our Men dropp'd off as if they had deserted the Ship; three of the sixteen run away there, five more went off at Virginia, three at _New York_, three at _Road Island_, and myself and one more at _New England_; and so the Sloop went away for _England_ with the rest. I got all my Money on Shore with me, and conceal'd it as well as I could; some I got Bills for, some I bought Molosses with, and turn'd the rest into Gold; and dressing myself not as a common Sailor, but as a Master of a Ketch, which I had lost in the Bay of _Campeachy_, I got Passage on Board one Captain _Guillame_, a _New England_ Captain, whose Owner was one Mr. _Johnson_ a Merchant, living at _Hackney_, near _London_. Being at _London_, it was but a very few Months before several of us met again, as I have said we agreed to do. And being true to our first Design of going back to our Comrades, we had several close Conferences about the Manner and Figure in which we should make the Attempt, and we had some very great Difficulties appear'd in our Way: First, to have fitted up a small Vessel, it would be of no Service to us, but be the same Thing as the Sloop we came in; and if we pretended to a great Ship, our Money would not hold out; so we were quite at a Stand in our Councils what to do, or what Course to take, till at length our Money still wasting, we grew less able to execute any Thing we should project. This made us all desperate; when as desperate Distempers call for desperate Cures, I started a Proposal which pleas'd them all, and this was, that I would endeavour among my Acquaintance, and with what Money I had left, (which was still sixteen or seventeen hundred Pound) to get the Command of a good Ship, bearing a quarter Part, or thereabout, myself; and so having gat into the Ship, and got a Freight, the rest of our Gang should all enter on Board as Seamen, and whatever Voyage we went, or wheresoever we were bound, we would run away with the Ship and all the Goods, and so go to our Friends as we had promis'd.