To have owned themselves Englishmen, and as belonging to the dreaded buccaneers, would have been to ensure their imprisonment, if not execution.

The imperfection of Ned's Spanish, and the fact that Tom was quite ignorant of the language, rendered it difficult for them to pass as Spaniards.

But they thought that, by giving out that they had been carried away in childhood--Tom at an earlier age than Ned--their ignorance of the language would be accounted for.
It had been a struggle, with both of them, to decide upon telling an untruth.

This is a point upon which differences of opinion must always arise.

Some will assert that under no circumstances can a falsehood be justified.