After these ceremonies were past, and after all his good things were brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was to be done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether we might venture to take them with us or no, especially two of them, whom he knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; and the captain said he knew they were such rogues that there was no obliging them, and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, as malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first English colony he could come to; and I found that the captain himself was very anxious about it.
Terminato ch’ebbi di fare i miei dovuti ringraziamenti, e portati che furono nella mia stanza quegli squisiti regali, cominciammo a consigliarci su ciò che convenisse fare dei nostri prigionieri; ed era bene un punto degno di essere ponderato: se ne tornasse cioè il pigliarci costoro con noi, massime due di loro, che il capitano sapeva essere incorreggibili al massimo grado e capacissimi di recidiva. — «Son tali cialtroni, egli dicea, che benefizio non giova a vincerli. Poi, quand’anche volessi condurli via meco, nol potrei se non tenendoli in ceppi per consegnarli siccome malfattori al tribunale della prima colonia inglese ove ne occorrerebbe approdare.»