When the voyage was begun, and the captain no longer had need of me, I
was sent into the forward part of the ship to live, as has already been
set down, and therefore it was I knew nothing of what was being done in
the great cabin, where the leaders of the company were quartered, until
after my master was made a prisoner. Then it was told me by the seaman
who had been called by Captain Kendall, as if it was feared my master,
being such a great soldier, might strive to harm those who miscalled him
a traitor to that which he had sworn.
It seems, so the seaman said, that Captain John Martin was the one who
made the charges against my master, on the night after we set sail from
Martinique, when all the chief men of the company were met in the great
cabin, and he declared that, when it was possible to do so, meaning
after we had come to the land of Virginia, witnesses should be brought
from the other ships to prove the wicked intent. Then it was that
Captain George Kendall declared my master must be kept a close prisoner
until the matter could be disposed of, and all the others, save Captain
Bartholomew Gosnold, agreeing, heavy irons were put upon him. He was
shut up in his sleeping place, having made no outcry nor attempt to do
any harm, save that he declared himself innocent of wrong doing.
But for Captain Gosnold and Master Hunt, the preacher, I should not
have been permitted to go in and learn if I might do anything for his
comfort. The other leaders declared that my master was a dangerous
man, who should not be allowed to have speech with any person save
themselves, lest he send some message to those who were said to be
concerned with him in the plot.