At this time the admiral and sabander sent us an armed guard every night, lest the Chinese might rise against us. We were not, however, in any fear of them; yet we kept four of them to be witnesses for us, in case of their rising, that what we did was in our own defence. By means of a bribe, I procured another of the incendiaries, who confessed against his associates. These were _Uniete_ the chief; _Sawman_ his partner, dwelling in the same house; _Hynting_, Omygpayo, Hewsamcow; Utee_, who was shortly after _crissed_ for being caught with a woman; the informant, named _Boyhoy; Irrow_ and _Lackow_, who were fled to Jackatra, neither of whom I had before heard of. I used every means to get them, but could not, unless I had been at great charges. Some of them belonged to great men among the Javans, and had taken refuge in their houses, so that we could not get at them: Yet some of their masters offered to sell them, on which we higgled for their price as one would do for an ox or calf, but they held them so dear that I could not deal with them. I offered as much for each as would have bought a slave in their stead; but they were fit instruments for their purpose, being practised in all manner of villainy, so that they would not part with them, except for large sums; for all the Javans and Chinese, from the highest to the lowest, are thorough-paced villains, without one spark of grace. Were it not for the sabander and admiral, and one or two more, who are natives of _Clyn_, there would be no living for Christians among them, without a fort, or a strong house all of brick or stone. We did not torture _Boyhoy_, because he had confessed, but crissed him. Among the other instruments of the devil on earth in Bantam, there was a kinsman of the king, named _Pangram Mandelicko_, who kept one of the incendiaries of our house under his protection. He came one day to our house to buy cloth, when I desired him to deliver up this fellow into our hands, telling him how good it would be for the country to root out all such villains. "Tell them so," said he, "who have the government in their hands, or care for the good of the country, for I do not." On another time, wanting me to give him credit for cloth to the value of six or seven hundred pieces of eight, because I refused to trust him, he went away very angry, saying at the gate, it was a pity our house was not again set on fire. The regent or protector gave us all the houses and ground that joined our inclosure, and had belonged to the incendiaries that undermined our house, but made us pay enormously dear for the property. We bought also from a _Pangram_, or gentleman, a house which came so near the door of our pepper warehouse as to be very troublesome to us, so that now we had a spacious yard.