He charged them, therefore, to find for him men of this kind, among their relations, or men who had sailed with him.
"I would rather," he said, "have landsmen, providing they are strong and stout hearted, than sailors, however skillful, who are given to grumbling and disaffection.

We shall have plenty of good sailors on board, and the others will soon learn their business; therefore, choose you not for seamanship, but rather for willingness and good temper.

And broach not the subject to any unless you feel assured, beforehand, that they will be willing to join; for I want not the matter talked about.

Therefore those who join are to keep the matter private, and are not to come on board until the night before we get up our anchors.

We are taking a much stronger crew than usual, for we have many guns that need working, if it comes to fighting." As these instructions were given separately, none of the twelve men he spoke to knew that the others had received similar instructions; and that instead of forty men, as usual, the Swan was to carry nearly ninety.
As to the officers, Reuben Hawkshaw needed none others than those who had before sailed with him.