By tacit agreement, Adrien assumed leadership of the group and set a lookout every day and every night, all of the men taking turns. By the night they guarded against possible attack from the other island. By day they did, too, but also scanned the seas for any sign of the rescue ship. "The skipper and Brouwer must plan on taking over any ship sent from Batavia," Adrien reasoned. "Otherwise, they'll all hang." No one disagreed. Mutilated bodies from the other island—one a child's—had washed up on the shore. "I can't get over the skipper being in on it," Brom would say every day or so. "I know he drank too much, but I still don't understand." Brom was a clerk with the VOC, on his way to a post in Batavia. "I told you what I heard on the Zuiderwind, Loomis, one of the soldiers, always answered. "Skipper Hardens got mixed up with them Adamites after Pieter Brouwer gave him the pictures." Adrien thought it was more than this.
