An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East Indies: Together with an Account of the Detaining in Captivity the Author and Divers other Englishmen Now Living There, and of the Author's Miraculous EscapeKnox, Robert
History
An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East Indies: Together with an Account of the Detaining in Captivity the Author and Divers other Englishmen Now Living There, and of the Author's Miraculous Escape
Knox, Robert
Sri Lanka -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Sri Lanka -- Social life and customs
[He is informed that he is to be preferred at Court.] Upon the
abovesaid summons there was no Remedy, but to Court I must go. Where I
first applyed my self to my said old Neighbour, Oua Motteral, who was
the occasion of sending for me. I signified to him that I was come in
obedience to the Warrant, and I desired to know the reason why I was
sent for? To which he answered, Here is good news for you; you are to
appear in the Kings Presence, where you will find great Favour, and
Honourable entertainment, far more than any of your Countrey men yet
here found. Which the great man thought would be a strong Inducement to
persuade me joyfully to accept of the Kings Employments. But this was
the thing I always most dreaded, and endeavoured to shun, knowing that
being taken into Court would be a means to cut of all hopes of Liberty
from me, which was the thing I esteemed equal unto life it self.
[But resolves to refuse it.] Seeing my self brought unto this pass,
wherein I had no earthly helper, I recommended my cause to God,
desiring him in whose hands are the hearts of Kings and Princes to
divert the business. And my cause being just and right I was resolved
to persist in a denial. My case seemed to me to be like that of the
four Lepers at the Gate of Samaria. No avoiding of Death for me: If
out of Ambition and Honour, I should have embraced the Kings Service,
besides the depriving my self of all hopes of Liberty, in the end I
must be put to death, as happens to all that serve him; and to deny
his service could be but Death. And it seemed to me to be the better
Death of the two. For if I should be put to Death only because I
refused his service, I should be pitied as one that dyed innocently;
but if I should be executed in his Service, however innocent I was,
I should be certainly reckon'd a Rebel and a Traytor, as they all
are whom he commands to be cut off.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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