Fifty-two Stories of the British Navy, from Damme to Trafalgar.Miles, Alfred H. (Alfred Henry)
History
Fifty-two Stories of the British Navy, from Damme to Trafalgar.
Miles, Alfred H. (Alfred Henry)
Great Britain -- History, Naval -- Juvenile literature
And when our merchants came ashore the king commanded presently that
they, with the rest of our company that were with them, should be
chained four and four to a hundred-weight of iron, and when we came in
with the ship there came presently above a hundred Turks aboard of us,
and they searched us and stripped our very clothes from our backs, and
broke open our chests, and made a spoil of all that we had; and the
Christian caitiffs likewise that came aboard of us made spoil of our
goods, and used us as ill as the Turks did.
Then came the guardian Basha, who is the keeper of the king's captives,
to fetch us all ashore; and then I, remembering the miserable estate of
poor distressed captives in the time of their bondage to those infidels,
went to mine own chest, and took out thereof a jar of oil, and filled a
basket full of white ruske, to carry ashore with me. But before I came
to the banio the Turkish boys had taken away almost all my bread, and
the keeper said, "Deliver me the jar of oil, and when thou comest to the
banio thou shalt have it again;" but I never had it of him any more.
But when I came to the banio and saw our merchants and all the rest of
our company in chains, and we all ready to receive the same reward, what
heart is there so hard but would have pitied our cause, hearing or
seeing the lamentable greeting there was betwixt us? All this happened
May 1st, 1584.
And the second day of the same month the king with all his council sat
in judgment upon us. The first that were had forth to be arraigned were
the factors and the masters, and the king asked them wherefore they
came not ashore when he sent for them. And Romaine Sonnings answered
that, though he were a king on shore, and might command there, so was he
as touching those that were under him; and therefore said, if any
offence be, the fault is wholly in myself and in no other. Then
forthwith the king gave judgment that the said Romaine Sonnings should
be hanged over the north-east bulwark, from whence he conveyed the
forenamed Patrone Norado. And then he called for our master, Andrew
Dier, and used few words to him, and so condemned him to be hanged over
the walls of the westernmost bulwarks.
Then fell our other factor, named Richard Skegs, upon his knees before
the king, and said, "I beseech your highness either to pardon our master
or else suffer me to die for him, for he is ignorant of this cause." And
then the people of that country, favouring the said Rickard Skegs,
besought the king to pardon them both. So then the king spake these
words: "Behold, for thy sake I pardon the master." Then presently the
Turks shouted and cried, saying, "Away with the master from the presence
of the king." And then he came into the banio where we were, and told us
what had happened, and we all rejoiced at the good hap of Master Skegs,
that he was saved, and our master for his sake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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