In this condition we lay, and could not tell how to weigh our anchor, or
set up our sail, because we must needs stand up in the boat, and they
were as sure to hit us as we were to hit a bird in a tree with small
shot. We made signals of distress to the ship, and though she rode a
league off, yet my nephew, the captain, hearing our firing, and by
glasses perceiving the posture we lay in, and that we fired towards the
shore, pretty well understood us; and weighing anchor with all speed, he
stood as near the shore as he durst with the ship, and then sent another
boat with ten hands in her, to assist us. We called to them not to come
too near, telling them what condition we were in; however, they stood in
near to us, and one of the men taking the end of a tow-line in his hand,
and keeping our boat between him and the enemy, so that they could not
perfectly see him, swam on board us, and made fast the line to the boat:
upon which we slipped out a little cable, and leaving our anchor behind,
they towed us out of reach of the arrows; we all the while lying close
behind the barricade we had made. As soon as we were got from between
the ship and the shore, that we could lay her side to the shore, she ran
along just by them, and poured in a broadside among them, loaded with
pieces of iron and lead, small bullets, and such stuff, besides the great
shot, which made a terrible havoc among them.
When we were got on board and out of danger, we had time to examine into
the occasion of this fray; and indeed our supercargo, who had been often
in those parts, put me upon it; for he said he was sure the inhabitants
would not have touched us after we had made a truce, if we had not done
something to provoke them to it. At length it came out that an old
woman, who had come to sell us some milk, had brought it within our
poles, and a young woman with her, who also brought us some roots or
herbs; and while the old woman (whether she was mother to the young woman
or no they could not tell) was selling us the milk, one of our men
offered some rudeness to the girl that was with her, at which the old
woman made a great noise: however, the seaman would not quit his prize,
but carried her out of the old woman's sight among the trees, it being
almost dark; the old woman went away without her, and, as we may suppose,
made an outcry among the people she came from; who, upon notice, raised
that great army upon us in three or four hours, and it was great odds but
we had all been destroyed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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