do not make thyself fool and knave too. Dost notthou know that we are out of fear of all thy army, and out of dangerof all that they can do? What makes thee act so simply as well as soknavishly?
D. Why, you may think yourselves safer than you are; you do not knowwhat they may do to you. I can assure you they are able to do you agreat deal of harm, and perhaps burn your ship.
W. Suppose that were true, as I am sure it is false; you see we havemore ships to carry us off (pointing to the sloop).
[N.B.--Just at this time we discovered the sloop standing towards usfrom the east, along the shore, at about the distance of two leagues,which was to our particular satisfaction, she having been missingthirteen days.]
D. We do not value that; if you had ten ships, you dare not come onshore, with all the men you have, in a hostile way; we are too many foryou.
W. Thou dost not, even in that, speak as thou meanest; and we may givethee a trial of our hands when our friends come up to us, for thouhearest they have discovered us.
[Just then the sloop fired five guns, which was to get news of us, forthey did not see us.]
D. Yes, I hear they fire; but I hope your ship will not fire again; for,if they do, our general will take it for breaking the truce, and willmake the army let fly a shower of arrows at you in the boat.
W. Thou mayest be sure the ship will fire that the other ship may hearthem, but not with ball. If thy general knows no better, he may beginwhen he will; but thou mayest be sure we will return it to his cost.
D. What must I do, then?
W. Do! Why, go to him, and tell him of it beforehand, then; and lethim know that the ship firing is not at him nor his men; and then comeagain, and tell us what he says.
D. No; I will send to him, which will do as well.
W. Do as thou wilt, but I believe thou hadst better go thyself; for ifour men fire first, I suppose he will be in a great wrath, and it may beat thee; for, as to his wrath at us, we tell thee beforehand we value itnot.
D. You slight them too much; you know not what they may do.
W. Thou makest as if these poor savage wretches could do mighty things:prithee, let us see what you can all do, we value it not; thou mayestset down thy flag of truce when thou pleasest, and begin.
D. I had rather make a truce, and have you all part friends.
W. Thou art a deceitful rogue thyself, for it is plain thou knowestthese people would only persuade us on shore to entrap and surprise us;and yet thou that art a Christian, as thou callest thyself, would haveus come on shore and put our lives into their hands who know nothingthat belongs to compassion, good usage, or good manners. How canst thoube such a villain?
D. How can you call me so? What have I done to you, and what would youhave me do?
W. Not act like a traitor, but like one that was once a Christian, andwould have been so still, if you had not been a Dutchman.
D. I know not what to do, not I. I wish I were from them; they are abloody people.
W. Prithee, make no difficulty of what thou shouldst do. Canst thouswim?
D. Yes, I can swim; but if I should attempt to swim off to you, I shouldhave a thousand arrows and javelins sticking in me before I should getto your boat.
W. I'll bring the boat close to thee, and take thee on board in spiteof them all. We will give them but one volley, and I'll engage they willall run away from thee.
D. You are mistaken in them, I assure you; they would immediately comeall running down to the shore, and shoot fire-arrows at you, and setyour boat and ship and all on fire about your ears.
W. We will venture that if thou wilt come off.
D. Will you use me honourably when I am among you?
W. I'll give thee my word for it, if thou provest honest.
D. Will you not make me a prisoner?
W. I will be thy surety, body for body, that thou shalt be a free man,and go whither thou wilt, though I own to thee thou dost not deserve it.
Just at this time our ship fired three guns to answer the sloop and lether know we saw her, who immediately, we perceived, understood it,and stood directly for the place. But it is impossible to express theconfusion and filthy vile noise, the hurry and universal disorder, thatwas among that vast multitude of people upon our firing off three guns.They immediately all repaired to their arms, as I may call it; for tosay they put themselves into order would be saying nothing.
Upon the word of command, then, they advanced all in a body to theseaside, and resolving to give us one volley of their fire-arms (forsuch they were), immediately they saluted us with a hundred thousand oftheir fire-arrows, every one carrying a little bag of cloth dippedin brimstone, or some such thing, which, flying through the air, hadnothing to hinder it taking fire as it flew, and it generally did so.
I cannot say but this method of attacking us, by a way we had no notionof, might give us at first some little surprise, for the number was sogreat at first, that we were not altogether without apprehensions thatthey might unluckily set our ship on fire, so that William resolvedimmediately to row on board, and persuade us all to weigh and stand outto sea; but there was no time for it, for they immediately let fly avolley at the boat, and at the ship, from all parts of the vast crowd ofpeople which stood near the shore. Nor did they fire, as I may call it,all at once, and so leave off; but their arrows being soon notched upontheir bows, they kept continually shooting, so that the air was full offlame.
I could not say whether they set their cotton rag on fire before theyshot the arrow, for I did not perceive they had fire with them, which,however, it seems they had. The arrow, besides the fire it carried withit, had a head, or a peg, as we call it, of bone; and some of sharpflint stone; and some few of a metal, too soft in itself for metal, buthard enough to cause it to enter, if it were a plank, so as to stickwhere it fell.
William and his men had notice sufficient to lie close behind theirwaste-boards, which, for this very purpose, they had made so highthat they could easily sink themselves behind them, so as to defendthemselves from anything that came point-blank (as we call it) or upon aline; but for what might fall perpendicularly out of the air they had noguard, but took the hazard of that. At first they made as if they wouldrow away, but before they went they gave a volley of their fire-arms,firing at those which stood with the Dutchman; but William ordered themto be sure to take their aim at others, so as to miss him, and they didso.
There was no calling to them now, for the noise was so great among themthat they could hear nobody, but our men boldly rowed in nearer to them,for they were at first driven a little off, and when they came nearer,they fired a second volley, which put the fellows into great confusion,and we could see from the ship that several of them were killed orwounded.
We thought this was a very unequal fight, and therefore we made a signalto our men to row away, that we might have a little of the sport aswell as they; but the arrows flew so thick upon them, being so near theshore, that they could not sit to their oars, so they spread a littleof their sail, thinking they might sail along the shore, and lie behindtheir waste-board; but the sail had not been spread six minutes till ithad five hundred fire-arrows shot into it and through it, and at lengthset it fairly on fire; nor were our men quite out of the danger of itssetting the boat on fire, and this made them paddle and shove the boataway as well as they could, as they lay, to get farther off.
By this time they had left us a fair mark at the whole savage army; andas we had sheered the ship as near to them as we could, we fired amongthe thickest of them six or seven times, five guns at a time, with shot,old iron, musket-bullets, &c.
We could easily see that we made havoc among them, and killed andwounded abundance of them, and that they were in a great surprise at it;but yet they never offered to stir, and all this while their fire-arrowsflew as thick as before.
At last, on a sudden their arrows stopped, and the old Dutchman camerunning down to the water-side all alone, with his white flag, asbefore, waving it as high as he could, and making signals to our boat
tocome to him again.
William did not care at first to go near him, but the man continuing tomake signals to him to come, at last William went; and the Dutchman toldhim that he had been with the general, who was much mollified by theslaughter of his men, and that now he could have anything of him.
"Anything!" says William; "what have we to do with him? Let him go abouthis business, and carry his men out of gunshot, can't he?"
"Why," says the Dutchman, "but he dares not stir, nor see the king'sface; unless some of your men come on shore, he will certainly put himto death."
"Why, then," says William, "he is a dead man; for if it were to save hislife, and the lives of all the crowd that is with him, he shall neverhave one of us in his power. But I'll tell thee," said William, "howthou shalt cheat him, and gain thy own liberty too, if thou hast anymind to see thy own country again, and art not turned savage, and grownfond of living all thy days among heathens and savages."
"I would be glad to do it with all my heart," says he; "but if I