American Prisoners of the RevolutionDandridge, Danske
History
American Prisoners of the Revolution
Dandridge, Danske
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Prisoners and prisons
“I knew not how to address myself to her. I was afraid if I spoke she
would run, and therefore I made a small noise; upon which she looked
round, and seeing me, run across the brook, seemingly much frightened,
leaving her fishing line. I went up to her basket which contained five
or six fish which looked much like our trout. I took up the basket and
attempted to wade across where she had passed, but was too weak to wade
across in that place, and went further up the stream, where I passed
over, and then looking for the Indian woman I saw her at some distance
behind a large cocoa-nut tree. I walked towards her but dared not keep
my eyes steadily upon her lest she would run as she did before. I called
to her in English, and she answered in her own tongue, which I could not
understand. I then called to her in the Malaysian, which I understood
a little of; she answered me in a kind of surprise and asked me in the
name of Okrum Footee (the name of their God) from whence I came, and
where I was going. I answered her as well as I could in the Melais, that
I was from Fort Marlborough, and going to Croy--that I was making my
escape from the English, by whom I had been taken in war. She told me
that she had been taken by the Malays some years before, for that the
two nations were always at war, and that she had been kept as a slave
among them three years and was then retaken by her countrymen. While we
were talking together she appeared to be very shy, and I durst not come
nearer than a rod to her, lest she should run from me. She said that
Croy, the place I was bound to, was about three miles distant: That if I
would follow her she would conduct me to her countrymen, who were but a
small distance off. I begged her to plead with her countrymen to spare
my life. She said she would, and assured me that if I behaved well I
should not be hurt. She then conducted me to a small village, consisting
of huts or wigwams. When we arrived at the village the children that saw
me were frightened and run away from me, and the women exhibited a great
deal of fear and kept at a distance. But my guide called to them and
told them not to be afraid, for that I was not come to hurt them, and
then informed them from whence I came, and that I was going to Croy.
“I told my guide I was very hungry, and she sent the children for
something for me to eat. They came and brought me little round balls
of rice, and they, not daring to come nigh, threw them at me. These I
picked up and eat. Afterwards a woman brought some rice and goat’s milk
in a copper bason, and setting it on the ground made signs for me to
take it up and eat it, which I did, and then put the bason down again.
They then poked away the bason with a stick, battered it with stones,
and making a hole in the ground, buried it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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