Sometimes I thought if digging a hole under the place where they made their fire, and putting in five or six pounds of gunpowder, which, when they kindled their fire, would consequently take fire, and blow up all that was near it: but as, in the first place, I should be unwilling to waste so much powder upon them, my store being now within the quantity of one barrel, so neither could I be sure of its going off at any certain time, when it might surprise them; and, at best, that it would do little more than just blow the fire about their ears and fright them, but not sufficient to make them forsake the place: so I laid it aside; and then proposed that I would place myself in ambush in some convenient place, with my three guns all double-loaded, and in the middle of their bloody ceremony let fly at them, when I should be sure to kill or wound perhaps two or three at every shot; and then falling in upon them with my three pistols and my sword, I made no doubt but that, if there were twenty, I should kill them all.
En segundo lugar, no podía estar seguro de que la explosión se produjera en el momento preciso y, por último, tal vez lo único que conseguiría sería chamuscarlos un poco y asustarlos, lo cual no habría sido suficiente para que abandonaran la isla definitivamente. Por lo tanto, descarté esta idea y decidí emboscarme en un lugar adecuado con tres escopetas de doble carga y, cuando estuviesen en medio de su sangrienta ceremonia, abrir fuego contra ellos, asegurándome de matar o herir, al menos, a dos o tres con cada disparo y, luego, caer sobre ellos con mis tres pistolas y mi machete.