In Brazil, John Bulkeley returns to find his room ransacked and fends off intruders linked to boatswain John King. Fearing further attacks, he relocates, only for a gang to besiege his new lodging at night. The assailants seek his journal—Bulkeley’s contemporaneous account of Wager Island—which King’s faction worries could incriminate them. Rumors spread that King threatens to force its surrender or kill Bulkeley.

As tensions mount, Lieutenant Baynes quietly tells Brazilian officials that Bulkeley and John Cummins are to blame for what befell Captain Cheap, then in March 1742 flees for England to get his version on record first. En route home, Bulkeley and Cummins hear in Portugal that Baynes has denounced them; they show English merchants their journal to rebut him and continue expanding it.

Arriving at Portsmouth on January 1, 1743, Bulkeley and Cummins are barred from going ashore to their families. On Baynes’s statement, the Admiralty detains them for an alleged mutiny that bound and deserted Captain Cheap. Bulkeley argues that Baynes relies on memory while he possesses a contemporaneous record; he submits his full journal, adds Cummins as coauthor, and includes island documents Baynes had signed. Overwhelmed, the Admiralty orders an abstract. After receiving it, officials postpone the case until Cheap can be declared dead, and the men are released, though unpaid and unemployable, living in fear of a summons.

Seeking agency and money, Bulkeley plans a literary rebellion: he will publish. In a preface he defends a seaman’s right to tell the truth, insists necessity justified confining Cheap and leaving him, and promises a plain, factual style. He and Cummins sell the manuscript amid intense public curiosity.

Published as A Voyage to the South-Seas, the book is serialized, draws elite ire, and prompts a Lord Commissioner to scold Bulkeley for publicly injuring a gentleman’s character. Yet the narrative’s blunt, seaman’s voice resonates, the book goes to a second printing, and public opinion tilts toward Bulkeley’s party. With no counter-narrative appearing, they remain free though still poor, as reports arrive that Commodore Anson is blazing across the Pacific.