As soon as the boatswain saw us, he set up a halloo like a shout of
triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come; and without waiting
to hear me, "Captain," says he, "noble captain! I am glad you are come;
we have not half done yet. Villainous hell-hound dogs! I'll kill as
many of them as poor Tom has hairs upon his head: we have sworn to spare
none of them; we'll root out the very nation of them from the earth;" and
thus he ran on, out of breath, too, with action, and would not give us
leave to speak a word. At last, raising my voice that I might silence
him a little, "Barbarous dog!" said I, "what are you doing! I won't have
one creature touched more, upon pain of death; I charge you, upon your
life, to stop your hands, and stand still here, or you are a dead man
this minute."--"Why, sir," says he, "do you know what you do, or what
they have done? If you want a reason for what we have done, come
hither;" and with that he showed me the poor fellow hanging, with his
throat cut.
I confess I was urged then myself, and at another time would have been
forward enough; but I thought they had carried their rage too far, and
remembered Jacob's words to his sons Simeon and Levi: "Cursed be their
anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel." But I had
now a new task upon my hands; for when the men I had carried with me saw
the sight, as I had done, I had as much to do to restrain them as I
should have had with the others; nay, my nephew himself fell in with
them, and told me, in their hearing, that he was only concerned for fear
of the men being overpowered; and as to the people, he thought not one of
them ought to live; for they had all glutted themselves with the murder
of the poor man, and that they ought to be used like murderers. Upon
these words, away ran eight of my men, with the boatswain and his crew,
to complete their bloody work; and I, seeing it quite out of my power to
restrain them, came away pensive and sad; for I could not bear the sight,
much less the horrible noise and cries of the poor wretches that fell
into their hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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