On the following morning, Rupert took a Spaniard, but failed to get
into the tributary of the Gambia, where lay an English ship. With the
next tide Maurice succeeded in {257} getting in, and as soon as it was
light, began the attack. The Englishman quickly surrendered, on a
promise of quarter, and freedom for the Captain. Then, too late, the
crew remembered that no terms had been made for the merchant whom they
had on board. A dispute arose as to the fairness of the agreement
already made, and Maurice, in true sporting spirit, offered to free the
captured ship, and fight it out over again;[37] but the English crew,
declining the quixotic offer, accepted his former terms, and Maurice
boarded them, still in exuberant spirits. "See what friends you have
of these Portugals!" he cried in youthful triumph. "But for them we
should never have come hither and taken you."[38] Altogether three
English ships, the "Friendship," the "John," and the "Marmaduke," had
been captured in the river, besides the Spaniard. Rupert distributed
the crews of the prizes among his own ships, and Maurice, re-naming the
largest of the prizes, the "Defiance," made her the Vice-Admiral.
The natives of the country, thinking to please Rupert, and anxious,
possibly, to gratify old grudges, murdered several sailors of the
Parliament who had landed. But Rupert, "abhorring to countenance
infidels in the shedding of Christian blood," took care to intimate his
deep displeasure.[39] Thereupon the brother and son of the native King
came to visit him. He received them with all due courtesy, offering
them chairs to sit upon, which, however, they gravely declined, saying
that only their King was worthy of such an honour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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