shouldoffer to swim off to you now, though they are so far from me, they shootso true that they would kill me before I got half-way."
"But," says William, "I'll tell thee how thou shalt come with hisconsent. Go to him, and tell him I have offered to carry you on board,to try if you could persuade the captain to come on shore, and that Iwould not hinder him if he was willing to venture."
The Dutchman seemed in a rapture at the very first word. "I'll do it,"says he; "I am persuaded he will give me leave to come."
Away he runs, as if he had a glad message to carry, and tells thegeneral that William had promised, if he would go on board the ship withhim, he would persuade the captain to return with him. The general wasfool enough to give him orders to go, and charged him not to come backwithout the captain; which he readily promised, and very honestly might.
So they took him in, and brought him on board, and he was as good ashis word to them, for he never went back to them any more; and the sloopbeing come to the mouth of the inlet where we lay, we weighed and setsail; but, as we went out, being pretty near the shore, we fired threeguns, as it were among them, but without any shot, for it was of nouse to us to hurt any more of them. After we had fired, we gave them acheer, as the seamen call it; that is to say, we hallooed, at them, byway of triumph, and so carried off their ambassador. How it fared withtheir general, we know nothing of that.
This passage, when I related it to a friend of mine, after my returnfrom those rambles, agreed so well with his relation of what happened toone Mr Knox, an English captain, who some time ago was decoyed on shoreby these people, that it could not but be very much to my satisfactionto think what mischief we had all escaped; and I think it cannot but bevery profitable to record the other story (which is but short) with myown, to show whoever reads this what it was I avoided, and prevent theirfalling into the like, if they have to do with the perfidious people ofCeylon. The relation is as follows:--
The island of Ceylon being inhabited for the greatest part bybarbarians, which will not allow any trade or commerce with any Europeannation, and inaccessible by any travellers, it will be convenient torelate the occasion how the author of this story happened to go intothis island, and what opportunities he had of being fully acquaintedwith the people, their laws and customs, that so we may the betterdepend upon the account, and value it as it deserves, for the rarityas well as the truth of it; and both these the author gives us a briefrelation of in this manner. His words are as follows:
In the year 1657, the _Anne_ frigate, of London, Captain Robert Knox,commander, on the 21st day of January, set sail out of the Downs, in theservice of the honourable East India Company of England, bound for FortSt George, upon the coast of Coromandel, to trade for one year from portto port in India; which having performed, as he was lading his goodsto return for England, being in the road of Masulipatam, on the 19th ofNovember 1659, there happened such a mighty storm, that in it severalships were cast away, and he was forced to cut his mainmast by theboard, which so disabled the ship, that he could not proceed in hisvoyage; whereupon Cottiar, in the island of Ceylon, being a verycommodious bay, fit for her present distress, Thomas Chambers, Esq.,since Sir Thomas Chambers, the agent at Fort St George, ordered that theship should take in some cloth and India merchants belonging to PortoNovo, who might trade there while she lay to set her mast, and repairthe other damages sustained by the storm. At her first coming thither,after the Indian merchants were set ashore, the captain and his men werevery jealous of the people of that place, by reason the English neverhad any commerce or dealing with them; but after they had been theretwenty days, going ashore and returning again at pleasure, without anymolestation, they began to lay aside all suspicious thoughts of thepeople that dwelt thereabouts, who had kindly entertained them for theirmoney.
By this time the king of the country had notice of their arrival, and,not being acquainted with their intents, he sent down a dissauva, orgeneral, with an army, to them, who immediately sent a messenger tothe captain on board, to desire him to come ashore to him, pretendinga letter from the king. The captain saluted the message with firing ofguns, and ordered his son, Robert Knox, and Mr John Loveland, merchantof the ship, to go ashore, and wait on him. When they were come beforehim, he demanded who they were, and how long they should stay. They toldhim they were Englishmen, and not to stay above twenty or thirty days,and desired permission to trade in his Majesty's port. His answer was,that the king was glad to hear the English were come into his country,and had commanded him to assist them as they should desire, and had senta letter to be delivered to none but the captain himself. They were thentwelve miles from the seaside, and therefore replied, that the captaincould not leave his ship to come so far; but if he pleased to go downto the seaside, the captain would wait on him to receive the letter;whereupon the dissauva desired them to stay that day, and on the morrowhe would go with them; which, rather than displease him in so small amatter, they consented to. In the evening the dissauva sent a present tothe captain of cattle and fruits, &c., which, being carried all night bythe messengers, was delivered to him in the morning, who told him withalthat his men were coming down with the dissauva, and desired his companyon shore against his coming, having a letter from the king to deliverinto his own hand. The captain, mistrusting nothing, came on shore withhis boat, and, sitting under a tamarind tree, waited for the dissauva.In the meantime the native soldiers privately surrounded him and theseven men he had with him, and seizing them, carried them to meet thedissauva, bearing the captain on a hammock on their shoulders.
The next day the long-boat's crew, not knowing what had happened, cameon shore to cut down a tree to make cheeks for the mainmast, and weremade prisoners after the same manner, though with more violence, becausethey were more rough with them, and made resistance; yet they were notbrought to the captain and his company, but quartered in another housein the same town.
The dissauva having thus gotten two boats and eighteen men, his nextcare was to gain the ship; and to that end, telling the captain that heand his men were only detained because the king intended to send lettersand a present to the English nation by him, desired he would send somemen on board his ship to order her to stay; and because the ship wasin danger of being fired by the Dutch if she stayed long in the bay, tobring her up the river. The captain did not approve of the advice, butdid not dare to own his dislike; so he sent his son with the order, butwith a solemn conjuration to return again, which he accordingly did,bringing a letter from the company in the ship, that they would not obeythe captain, nor any other, in this matter, but were resolved to standon their own defence. This letter satisfied the dissauva, who thereupongave the captain leave to write for what he would have brought fromthe ship, pretending that he had not the king's order to release them,though it would suddenly come.
The captain seeing he was held in suspense, and the season of the yearspending for the ship to proceed on her voyage to some place, sent orderto Mr John Burford, the chief mate, to take charge of the ship, andset sail to Porto Novo, from whence they came, and there to follow theagent's order.
And now began that long and sad captivity they all along feared. Theship being gone, the dissauva was called up to the king, and they werekept under guards a while, till a special order came from the kingto part them, and put one in a town, for the conveniency of theirmaintenance, which the king ordered to be at the charge of the country.On September 16, 1660, the captain and his son were placed in a towncalled Bonder Coswat, in the country of Hotcurly [? Hewarrisse Korle],distant from the city of Kandy northward thirty miles, and from therest of the English a full day's journey. Here they had their provisionsbrought them twice a day, without money, as much as they could eat,and as good as the country yielded. The situation of the place was verypleasant and commodious; but that year that part of the land was verysickly by agues and fevers, of which many died. The captain and his sonafter some time were visited with the common distemper, and the captain,being also loaded with grief for his deplorable condit
ion, languishedmore than three months, and then died, February 9, 1661.
Robert Knox, his son, was now left desolate, sick, and in captivity,having none to comfort him but God, who is the Father of the fatherless,and hears the groans of such as are in captivity; being alone to enterupon a long scene of misery and calamity; oppressed with weakness ofbody and grief of soul for the loss of his father, and the remedilesstrouble that he was like to endure; and the first instance of it was inthe burial of his father, for he sent his black boy to the people ofthe town, to desire their assistance, because they understood not theirlanguage; but they sent him only a rope, to drag him by the neck intothe woods, and told him that they would offer him no other help, unlesshe would pay for it. This barbarous answer increased his trouble for hisfather's death, that now he was like to lie unburied, and be made a preyto the wild beasts in the woods; for the ground was very