It was our ingenious cutler, whom ever after we called silversmith, that
proposed this; but the gunner told him, that he had been in the Red Sea in
a Malabar sloop, and he knew this, that if we went into the Red Sea, we
should either be killed by the wild Arabs, or taken and made slaves of by
the Turks; and therefore he was not for going that way.

Upon this I took occasion to put in my vote again. "Why," said I, "do we
talk of being killed by the Arabs, or made slaves of by the Turks? Are we
not able to board almost any vessel we shall meet with in those seas; and,
instead of their taking us, we to take them?" "Well done, pirate," said the
gunner (he that had looked in my hand, and told me I should come to the
gallows), "I'll say that for him," says he, "he always looks the same way.
But I think, of my conscience, it is our only way now." "Don't tell me,"
says I, "of being a pirate; we must be pirates, or anything, to get fairly
out of this cursed place."

In a word, they concluded all, by my advice, that our business was to
cruise for anything we could see. "Why then," said I to them, "our first
business is to see if the people upon this island have no navigation, and
what boats they use; and, if they have any better or bigger than ours, let
us take one of them." First, indeed, all our aim was to get, if possible, a
boat with a deck and a sail; for then we might have saved our provisions,
which otherwise we could not.

We had, to our great good fortune, one sailor among us, who had been
assistant to the cook; he told us, that he would find a way how to preserve
our beef without cask or pickle; and this he did effectually by curing it
in the sun, with the help of saltpetre, of which there was great plenty in
the island; so that, before we found any method for our escape, we had
dried the flesh of six or seven cows and bullocks, and ten or twelve goats,