18

Wee were victually for sixe moneths in good proportion,
and of that which was good :
if our Master would have had more,
he might have ha dit at home and in other places.
Here we were now, and therefore it behoved us so to spend,
that wee might have (when time came)
to bring us to the Capes where the Fowle bred,
for that was all the hope wee had to bring us home.
Wherefore our Master tooke order,
first for spending of that wee had,
and then to increase it,
by propounding a reward to them that killed either Beast, Fish, or Fowle,
as in his Journall you have seene.
About the middle of this moneth of November,
dyed John Williams our Gunner.
God pardon the Masters uncharitable dealing with this man.
Now for that I am come to speake of him,
out of whole ashes (as it were) that unhappy deed grew
which brought a scandall upon all that are returned home,
and upon the action it selfe,
the multitude (like the dog) running after the stone,
but not at the caster :
therefore, not to wrong the living, nor slander the dead,
I will (by the leave of God) deliver the truth as neere as I can.