But now, when, as I have said, I began to be weary of the fruitless excursion which I had made so long and so far every morning in vain, so my opinion of the action itself began to alter; and I began, with cooler and calmer thoughts, to consider what I was going to engage in; what authority or call I had to pretend to be judge and executioner upon these men as criminals, whom Heaven had thought fit for so many ages to suffer unpunished to go on, and to be as it were the executioners of His judgments one upon another; how far these people were offenders against me, and what right I had to engage in the quarrel of that blood which they shed promiscuously upon one another.
Most, hogy lassan elcsigázott az eredménytelen várakozás, magáról a jelenségről alkotott véleményem is változni kezdett. Higgadtabban kezdtem mérlegelni, hogy miért is acsarkodnék én a kannibálok ellen, milyen hatalom jelölt ki, hogy végrehajtója legyek egy büntetésnek, olyan tettért, amit eddig Isten is büntetlenül hagyott.