There was among the prisoners one tall, well-shaped, handsome fellow,
to whom the rest seemed to pay great respect, and who, as we understood
afterwards, was the son of one of their kings; his father was, it seems,
killed at our first volley, and he wounded with a shot in his arm, and
with another just on one of his hips or haunches. The shot in his haunch
being in a fleshy part, bled much, and he was half dead with the loss of
blood. As to the shot in his arm, it had broke his wrist, and he was by
both these wounds quite disabled, so that we were once going to turn him
away, and let him die; and, if we had, he would have died indeed in a
few days more: but, as I found the man had some respect showed him, it
presently occurred to my thoughts that we might bring him to be useful
to us, and perhaps make him a kind of commander over them. So I caused
our surgeon to take him in hand, and gave the poor wretch good words,
that is to say, I spoke to him as well as I could by signs, to make him
understand that we would make him well again.
This created a new awe in their minds of us, believing that, as we could
kill at a distance by something invisible to them (for so our shot was,
to be sure), so we could make them well again too. Upon this the young
prince (for so we called him afterwards) called six or seven of the
savages to him, and said something to them; what it was we know not, but
immediately all the seven came to me, and kneeled down to me, holding up
their hands, and making signs of entreaty, pointing to the place where
one of those lay whom we had killed.
It was a long time before I or any of us could understand them; but one
of them ran and lifted up a dead man, pointing to his wound, which was
in his eyes, for he was shot into the head at one of his eyes. Then
another pointed to the surgeon, and at last we found it out, that the
meaning was, that he should heal the prince's father too, who was dead,
being shot through the head, as above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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