Devonshire Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Devonshire Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England) -- Biography; Devon (England) -- History
“We were obliged to keep our ground, for fear some of the Moors should
get into the little boat, in which we intended to make our escape, and
which was not an hundred yards behind us. At length one of the Moors
came running behind Mr. Burroughs, and gave him a terrible blow on the
head with a stick. Mr. Burroughs immediately turned round and struck
at him, but missed him. The man ran directly up the island; and Mr.
Burroughs, in the hurry not thinking of the consequence, ran after him.
We kept calling to him to come back to us, when, on a sudden, the Moors
took to their heels and ran after him. Some of them presently came up
with him, knocked him down with their sticks, and cut his throat from
ear to ear. Some of them then turned back and made towards their little
boat, thinking to have got her off in order to prevent our escape. As
soon as we saw that, we all ran as fast as possible to secure the
boat. As I was the nearest to the boat I got soonest to her; but there
was one of the Moors had got to the boat before me, and was getting up
her side. I gave him a blow on his back with the hammer; upon which he
let go his hold and fell into the water. As he was falling I hit him
another blow on the head; upon which he fell under the boat, and rose
on the other side.
“While we were in the fight, three of our men got into the boat, and
kept calling to the rest to come in likewise; which at length we did,
retreating all the way with our faces towards the Moors. When we came
to the boat, the other three, with the fishing spears, kept off the
Moors till we got in, cut the grappling loose, and drove away with the
tide.”
It was not possible to get far in this little boat, and the party made
for the mainland, where they were at once set upon by other Moors,
who stripped them of their shirts, and held them prisoners till those
from the island arrived, and these latter fell on them and beat and
trampled on them unmercifully, and would have cut their throats had not
the mainland Moors restrained them by saying that the King or Sultan
of the Gum Coast must be informed that there were European prisoners
there, and that he would decide what was to be done with them. They
were then tied in pairs back to back and carried back to the island,
where they were cast on the floor of a tent, and left thus without food
or water for four days. After that they were sparingly fed, untied,
and made to work as slaves. After some weeks an officer called Abede
arrived with nineteen men, reviewed them, and left. As soon as he was
gone Swanwick, the carpenter, was taken away by the island Moors, and
no tidings of what became of him ever reached the rest. Sixteen days
after the officer had left he returned with orders from the King or
Sultan that all who remained of the prisoners were to be transferred to
the mainland and conducted across the desert to the French factory at
Senegal, where he hoped to receive pay from the French for surrendering
them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account