people faster than they could master them; but the fire began to waken
them fast enough, and our fellows were glad to keep a little together in
bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all the houses being made of light
combustible stuff, that they could hardly bear the street between them,
and their business was to follow the fire for the surer execution. As
fast as the fire either forced the people out of those houses which were
burning, or frighted them out of others, our people were ready at their
doors to knock them on the head, still calling and hallooing to one
another to remember Thomas Jeffrys.
While this was doing I must confess I was very uneasy, and especially
when I saw the flames of the town, which, it being night, seemed to be
just by me.
My nephew the captain, who was roused by his men too, seeing such a
fire, was very uneasy, not knowing what the matter was, or what danger I
was in; especially hearing the guns too, for by this time they began to
use their fire-arms. A thousand thoughts oppressed his mind concerning
me and the supercargo, what should become of us; and at last, though he
could ill spare any more men, yet, not knowing what exigence we might be
in, he takes another boat, and with thirteen men and himself comes on
shore to me.
He was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat with no more
than two men, for one had been left to keep the boat; and though he was
glad that we were well, yet he was in the same impatience with us to
know what was doing, for the noise continued and the flame increased. I
confess it was next to an impossibility for any men in the world to
restrain their curiosity of knowing what had happened, or their concern
for the safety of the men. In a word, the captain told me he would go
and help his men, let what would come. I argued with him, as I did
before with the men, the safety of the ship, and the danger of the
voyage, the interest of the owners and merchants, &c. and told him I
would go, and the two men, and only see if we could, at a distance,
learn what was like to be the event, and come back and tell him.
It was all one to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk to the rest
before; he would go, he said, and he only wished he had left but ten men
in the ship, for he could not think of having his men lost for want of
help; he had rather, he said, lose the ship, the voyage, and his life,
and all: and so away went he.
Nor was I any more able to stay behind now than I was to persuade them
not to go before; so, in short, the captain ordered two men to row back
the pinnace, and fetch twelve men more from the ship, leaving the
long-boat at an anchor; and that when they came back six men should keep
the two boats, and six more come after us, so that he left only sixteen
men in the ship; for the whole ship’s company consisted of sixty-five
men, whereof two were lost in the first quarrel which brought this
mischief on.
Being now on the march, you may be sure we felt little of the ground we
trod on, and being guided by the fire we kept no path, but went directly
to the place of the flame. If the noise of the guns were surprising to
us before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of another
nature, and filled us with horror. I must confess I never was at the
sacking of a city, or at the taking of a town by storm; I have heard of
Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda in Ireland, and killing man, woman, and
child; and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city of Magdebourg, and
cutting the throats of 22,000 of both sexes; but I never had an idea of
the thing itself before, nor is it possible to describe it, or the
horror which was upon our minds at hearing it.
However, we went on, and at length came to the town, though there was no
entering the streets of it for the fire. The first object we met with
was the ruins of a hut or house, or rather the ashes of it, for the
house was consumed; and just before it, plain now to be seen by the
light of the fire, lay four men and three women killed; and, as we
thought, one or two more lay in the heap among the fire. In short, these
were such instances of a rage altogether barbarous, and of a fury
something beyond what was human, that we thought it impossible our men
could be guilty of it; or if they were the authors of it, we thought
that every one of them ought to be put to the worst of deaths: but this
was not all; we saw the fire increased forward, and the cry went on just
as the fire went on, so that we were in the utmost confusion. We
advanced a little way farther, and beheld to our astonishment three
women naked, crying in a most dreadful manner, and flying as if they had
indeed had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen men, natives, in
the same terror and consternation, with three of our English butchers
(for I can call them no better) in the rear, who, when they could not
overtake them, fired in among them, and one that was killed by their
shot fell down in our sight: when the rest saw us, believing us to be
their enemies; and that we would murder them as well as those that
pursued them, they set up a most dreadful shriek, especially the women,
and two of them fell down as if already dead with the fright.
My very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in my veins, when
I saw this; and I believe had the three English sailors that pursued
them come on, I had made our men kill them all. However, we took some
ways to let the poor flying creatures know that we would not hurt them,
and immediately they came up to us, and kneeling down, with their hands
lifted up, made piteous lamentations to us to save them, which we let
them know we would do; where upon they kept all together in a huddle
close behind us for protection. I left my men drawn up together, and
charged them to hurt nobody, but if possible to get at some of our
people, and see what devil it was possessed them, and what they intended
to do; and in a word to command them off, assuring them that if they
staid till daylight they would have a hundred thousand men about their
ears: I say, I left them and went among those flying people, taking only
two of our men with me; and there was indeed a piteous spectacle among
them: some of them had their feet terribly burnt with trampling and
running through the fire, others their hands burnt; one of the women had
fallen down in the fire, and was almost burnt to death before she could
get out again; two or three of the men had cuts in their backs and
thighs, from our men pursuing, and another was shot through the body,
and died while I was there.
I would fain have learnt what the occasion of all this was, but I could
not understand one word they said, though by signs I perceived that some
of them knew not what was the occasion themselves. I was so terrified in
my thoughts at this outrageous attempt, that I could not stay there, but
went back to my own men: I told them my resolution, and commanded them
to follow me, when in the very moment came four of our men, with the
boatswain at their head, running over the heaps of bodies they had
killed, all covered with blood and dust, as if they wanted more people
to massacre, when our men hallooed to them as loud as they could halloo,
and with much ado one of them made them hear, so that they knew who we
were, and came up to us.
As soon as the boatswain saw us he set up a halloo, like a shout of
triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come; and without bearing
to hear me, “Captain,” says he, “noble captain, I am glad you are come;
we have not half done yet: villains! hell-hound dogs! I will kill as
many of them as poor Tom has hairs upon his head. We have sworn to spare
none of them; we will root out the very name of them from the earth.”
And thus he ran on, out of breath too with action, and would not give us
leave to speak a word.
At last, raising my voice, that I might silence him a little, “Barbarous
dog!” said I, “what are you doing? I won’t have one creature touched
more upon pain of death. I charge you upon your life to stop your hands,
and stand still here, or you are a dead man this minute.”
“Why, Sir,” says he, “do you know what you do, or what they have done?
If you want a reason for what we have done, come hither;” and with that
he shewed me the poor fellow hanging upon a tree, with his throat cut.
I confess I was urged then myself, and at another time should have been
forward enough; but I thought they had carried their rage too far, and
thought of Jacob’s words to his sons Simeon and Levi, “Cursed be their
anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel.” But I had
now a new task upon my hands; for when the men I carried with me saw the
sight as I had done, I had as much to do to restrain them, as I should
have had with the others; nay, my nephew himself fell in with them, and
told me in their hearing, that he was only concerned for fear of the men
being overpowered; for, as to the people, he thought not one of them
ought to live; for they had all glutted themselves with the murder of
the poor man, and that they ought to be used like murderers. Upon these
words away ran eight of my men with the boatswain and his crew to
complete their bloody work; and I, seeing it quite out of my power to
restrain them, came away pensive and sad, for I could not bear the
sight, much less the horrible noise and cries of the poor wretches that
fell into their hands.
I got nobody to come back with me but the supercargo and two men, and
with these I walked back to the boats. It was a very great piece of
folly in me, I confess, to venture back as it were alone; for as it
began now to be almost day, and the alarm had run over the country,
there stood about forty men armed with lances and bows at the little
place where the twelve or thirteen houses stood mentioned before, but by
accident I missed the place, and came directly to the sea-side; and by
that time I got to the sea-side it was broad day: immediately I took the
pinnace and went aboard, and sent her back to assist the men in what
might happen.
I observed that about the time I came to the boat-side the fire was
pretty well out, and the noise abated; but in about half an hour after I
got on board I heard a volley of our men’s fire-arms, and saw a great
smoke; this, as I understood afterwards, was our men falling upon the
forty men, who, as I said, stood at the few houses on the way; of whom
they killed sixteen or seventeen, and set all those houses on fire, but
did not meddle with the women or children.
By the time the men got to the shore again with the pinnace our men
began to appear; they came dropping in some and some, not in two bodies,
and in form, as they went out, but all in heaps, straggling here and
there in such a manner that a small force of resolute men might have cut
them all off.
But the dread of them was upon the whole country. The people were amazed
and surprised, and so frighted that I believe a hundred of them would
have fled at the sight of but five of our men. Nor in all this terrible
action was there a man who made any considerable defence; they were so
surprised between the terror of the fire, and the sudden attack of our
men in the dark, that they knew not which way to turn themselves; for if
they fled one way they were met by one party, if back again by another;
so that they were every where knocked down. Nor did any of our men
receive the least hurt, except one who strained his foot, and another
had one of his hands very much burnt.
I was very angry with my nephew the captain, and indeed with all the
men, in my mind, but with him in particular, as well for his acting so
out of his duty, as commander of the ship, and having the charge of the
voyage upon him, as in his prompting rather than cooling the rage of his
men in so bloody and cruel an enterprise: my nephew answered me very
respectfully, but told me that when he saw the body of the poor seaman
whom they had murdered in such a cruel and barbarous manner, he was not
master of himself, neither could he govern his passion; he owned he
should not have done so, as he was commander of the ship, but as he was
a man, and nature moved him, he could not bear it. As for the rest of
the men, they were not subject to me at all, and they knew it well
enough, so they took no notice of my dislike.
The next day we set sail, so we never heard any more of it. Our men
differed in the account of the number they killed; some said one thing,
some another; but according to the best of their accounts, put all
together, they killed or destroyed about a hundred and fifty people,
men, women, and children, and left not a house standing in the town.
As for the poor fellow, Thomas Jeffrys, as he was quite dead, for his
throat was so cut that his head was half off, it would do him no service
to bring him away; so they left him where they found him, only took him
down from the tree where he was hanged by one hand.
However just our men thought this action to be, I was against them in
it, and I always after that time told them God would blast the voyage;
for I looked upon the blood they shed that night to be murder in them:
for though it is true that they killed Thomas Jeffrys, yet it was as
true that Jeffrys was the aggressor, had broken the truce, and had
violated or debauched a young woman of theirs, who came to our camp
innocently, and on the faith of their capitulation.
The boatswain defended this quarrel when we were afterwards on board. He
said, it was true that we seemed to break the truce, but really had not,
and that the war was begun the night before by the natives themselves,
who had shot at us, and killed one of our men without any just
provocation; so that as we were in a capacity to fight them, we might
also be in a capacity to do ourselves justice upon them in an
extraordinary manner; that though the poor man had taken liberty with a
wench, he ought not to have been murdered, and that in such a villanous
manner; and that they did nothing but what was just, and that the laws
of God allowed to be done to murderers.
One would think this should have been enough to have warned us against
going on shore among heathens and barbarians; but it is impossible to
make mankind wise but at their own experience; and their experience
seems to be always of most use to them when it is dearest bought.
We were now bound to the Gulf of Persia, and from thence to the coast of
Coromandel, only to touch at Surat; but the chief of the supercargo’s
design lay at the Bay of Bengal, where if he missed of the business
outward-bound he was to go up to China, and return to the coast as he
came home.
The first disaster that befel us was in the Gulf of Persia, where five
of our men venturing on shore on the Arabian side of the Gulf were
surrounded by the Arabs, and either all killed or carried away into
slavery; the rest of the boat’s crew were not able to rescue them, and
had but just time to get off their boat. I began to upbraid them with
the just retribution of Heaven in this case; but the boatswain very
warmly told me, he thought I went farther in my censures than I could
show any warrant for in Scripture, and referred to the thirteenth of St.
Luke, ver. 4, where our Saviour intimates that those men on whom the
tower of Siloam fell, were not sinners above all the Galileans; but that
which indeed put me to silence in this case was, that none of these five
men who were now lost were of the number of those who went on shore to
the massacre of Madagascar (so I always called it, though our men could
not bear the word _massacre_ with any patience:) and indeed this last
circumstance, as I have said, put me to silence for the present.
But my frequent preaching to them on this subject had worse consequences
than I expected; and the boatswain, who had been the head of the
attempt, came up boldly to me one time, and told me he found that I
continually brought that affair upon the stage, that I made unjust
reflections upon it, and had used the men very ill on that account, and
himself in particular; that as I was but a passenger, and had no command
in the ship, or concern in the voyage, they were not obliged to bear it;
that they did not know but I might have some ill design in my head, and
perhaps call them to an account for it when they came to England; and
that therefore, unless I would resolve to have done with it, and also
not to concern myself farther with him, or any of his affairs, he would
leave the ship; for he did not think it was safe to sail with me
among them.
I heard him patiently enough till he had done, and then told him that I
did confess I had all along opposed the massacre of Madagascar, for such
I would always call it; and that I had on all occasions spoken my mind
freely about it, though not more upon him than any of the rest; that as
to my having no command in the ship, that was true, nor did I exercise
any authority, only took the liberty of speaking my mind in things which
publicly concerned us all: as to what concern I had in the voyage, that
was none of his business; I was a considerable owner of the ship, and in
that claim I conceived I had a right to speak, even farther than I had
yet done, and would not be accountable to him or any one else; and began
to be a little warm with him: he made but little reply to me at that
time, and I thought that affair had been over. We were at this time in
the road to Bengal; and being willing to see the place, I went on shore
with the supercargo, in the ship’s boat, to divert myself; and towards
evening was preparing to go on board, when one of the men came to me,
and told me he would not have me trouble myself to come down to the
boat, for they had orders not to carry me on board. Any one may guess
what a surprise I was in at so insolent a message; and I asked the man
who bade him deliver that errand to me? He told me, the coxswain. I said
no more to the fellow, but bid him let them know he had delivered his
message, and that I had given him no answer to it.
I immediately went and round out the supercargo, and told him the story,
adding, what I presently foresaw, viz. that there would certainly be a
mutiny in the ship; and entreated him to go immediately on board the
ship in an Indian boat, and acquaint the captain of it: but I might have
spared this intelligence, for before I had spoken to him on shore the
matter was effected on board: the boatswain, the gunner, the carpenter,
and, in a word, all the inferior officers, as soon as I was gone off in
the boat, came up to the quarter-deck, and desired to speak with the
captain; and there the boatswain making a long harangue, (for the fellow
talked very well) and repeating all he had said to me, told the captain
in a few words, that as I was now gone peaceably on shore, they were
loath to use any violence with me; which if I had not gone on shore,
they would otherwise have done, to oblige me to have gone. They
therefore thought fit to tell him, that as they shipped themselves to
serve in the ship under his command, they would perform it faithfully;
but if I would not quit the ship, or the captain oblige me to quit it,
they would all leave the ship, and sail no farther with him; and at that
word All, he turned his face about towards the main-mast, which was, it
seems, the signal agreed on between them, at which all the seamen being
got together, they cried out, “One and All, One and All!”
My nephew, the captain, was a man of spirit, and of great presence of
mind; and though he was surprised, you may be sure, at the thing, yet he
told them calmly he would consider of the matter, but that he could do
nothing in it till he had spoken to me about it: he used some arguments
with them, to shew them the unreasonableness and injustice of the thing,
but it was all in vain; they swore, and shook hands round, before his
face, that they would go all on shore unless he would engage to them not
to suffer me to come on board the ship.
This was a hard article upon him, who knew his obligation to me, and did
not know how I might take it; so he began to talk cavalierly to them;
told them that I was a very considerable owner of the ship, and that in
justice he could not put me out of my own house; that this was next door
to serving me as the famous pirate Kid had done, who made the mutiny in
the ship, set the captain on shore in an uninhabited island, and ran
away with the ship; that let them go into what ship they would, if ever
they came to England again it would cost them dear; that the ship was
mine, and that he would not put me out of it; and that he would rather
lose the ship, and the voyage too, than disoblige me so much; so they
might do as they pleased. However, he would go on shore, and talk with
me there, and invited the boatswain to go with him, and perhaps they
might accommodate the matter with me.
But they all rejected the proposal; and said, they would have nothing to
do with me any more, neither on board nor on shore; and if I came on
board, they would go on shore. “Well,” said the captain, “if you are all
of this mind, let me go on shore, and talk with him:” so away he came to
me with this account, a little after the message had been brought to me
from the coxswain.
I was very glad to see my nephew I must confess, for I was not without
apprehensions that they would confine him by violence, set sail, and run
away with the ship; and then I had been stripped naked, in a remote
country, and nothing to help myself: in short, I had been in a worse
case than when I was all alone in the island.
But they had not come to that length, it seems, to my great
satisfaction; and when my nephew told me what they had said to him, and
how they had sworn, and shook hands, that they would one and all leave
the ship, if I was suffered to come on board, I told him he should not
be concerned at it at all, for I would stay onshore; I only desired he
would take care and send me all my necessary things on shore, and leave
me a sufficient sum of money, and I would find my way to England as well
as I could.
This was a heavy piece of news to my nephew; but there was no way to
help it, but to comply with it. So, in short, he went on board the ship
again, and satisfied the men that his uncle had yielded to their
importunity, and had sent for his goods from on board the ship. So the
matter was over in a very few hours; the men returned to their duty, and
I begun to consider what course I should steer.
I was now alone in the remotest part of the world, as I think I may call
it, for I was near three thousand leagues, by sea, farther off from
England than I was at my island; only, it is true, I might travel here
by land, over the Great Mogul’s country to Surat, might go from thence
to Bassora by sea, up the Gulf of Persia, and from thence might take the
way of the caravans, over the deserts of Arabia, to Aleppo and
Scanderoon, and from thence by sea again to Italy, and so overland into
France; and this, put together, might be, at least, a full diameter of
the globe; but, if it were to be measured, I suppose it would appear to
be a great deal more.
I had another way before me, which was to wait for some English ships,
which were coming to Bengal, from Achin, on the island of Sumatra, and
get passage on board them for England: but as I came hither without any
concern with the English East India Company, so it would be difficult to
go from hence without their licence, unless with great favour of the
captains of the ships, or of the Company’s factors; and to both I was an
utter stranger.
Here I had the particular pleasure, speaking by contrarieties, to see
the ship set sail without me; a treatment, I think, a man in my
circumstances scarce ever met with, except from pirates running away
with a ship, and setting those that would not agree with their villany
on shore: indeed this was the next door to it both ways. However, my
nephew left me two servants, or rather, one companion and one servant:
the first was clerk to the purser, whom he engaged to go with me; and
the other was his own servant. I took me also a good lodging in the
house of an English woman, where several merchants lodged, some French,
two Italians, or rather Jews, and one Englishman. Here I was handsomely
enough entertained; and that I might not be said to run rashly upon any
thing, I stayed here above nine months, considering what course to take,
and how to manage myself. I had some English goods with me of value, and
a considerable sum of money; my nephew furnishing me with a thousand
pieces of eight, and a letter of credit for more, if I had occasion,
that I might not be straitened, whatever might happen.
I quickly disposed of my goods, and to advantage too; and, as I
originally intended, I bought here some very good diamonds, which, of
all other things, was the most proper for me, in my circumstances,
because I might always carry my whole estate about me.