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felt, that there is no undertaking ſo dangerous, or ſo deſperate, which they will not moſt readily attempt for the ſake of it, nor ſcarcely a comfort in life which they will not give up to obtain it. Captain Wilſon finding them rather noiſy one day when they came from the wreck, owing to a little liquor which the officer then on board had given them, and which coming after long toil, and upon an empty ſtomach, had affected them, rather than the quantity they drank, it alarmed him ſo much, that he ſubmitted to his officers the propriety of ſtaving (with the conſent of his people) every caſk of liquour which was in the ſhip. He knew, lays the author, that it was too bold a ſtep to be taken without their concurrrence, but he truſted to the regard they had for him, and the influence he had over them, and he intended to let the people themſelves execute his purpoſe; he had the ſatisfaction to find that his officers immediately approved of his project; and the next morning he called his men together, and told them he had ſomething to propose on which their future welfare, nay probably, their lives depended. He then ſubmitted to their judgement the meaſure on which he and his officers had talked the evening be fore, urged the propriety of it in the moſt forcible terms, as a ſtep that would give them the beſt grounded hopes of deliverance
