to the rest before; he would go, he said; and he only wished he had
left but ten men in the ship, for he could not think of having his
men lost for want of help: he had rather lose the ship, the
voyage, and his life, and all; and away he went.
I was no more able to stay behind now than I was to persuade them
not to go; so the captain ordered two men to row back the pinnace,
and fetch twelve men more, leaving the long-boat at an anchor; and
that, when they came back, six men should keep the two boats, and
six more come after us; so that he left only sixteen men in the
ship: for the whole ship’s company consisted of sixty-five men,
whereof two were lost in the late quarrel which brought this
mischief on.
Being now on the march, we felt little of the ground we trod on;
and being guided by the fire, we kept no path, but went directly to
the place of the flame. If the noise of the guns was surprising to
us before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of another
nature, and filled us with horror. I must confess I was never at
the sacking a city, or at the taking a town by storm. I had heard
of Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda, in Ireland, and killing man,
woman, and child; and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city of
Magdeburg and cutting the throats of twenty-two thousand of all
sexes; but I never had an idea of the thing itself before, nor is
it possible to describe it, or the horror that was upon our minds
at hearing it. However, we went on, and at length came to the
town, though there was no entering the streets of it for the fire.
The first object we met with was the ruins of a hut or house, or
rather the ashes of it, for the house was consumed; and just before
it, plainly now to be seen by the light of the fire, lay four men
and three women, killed, and, as we thought, one or two more lay in
the heap among the fire; in short, there were such instances of
rage, altogether barbarous, and of a fury something beyond what was
human, that we thought it impossible our men could be guilty of it;
or, if they were the authors of it, we thought they ought to be
every one of them put to the worst of deaths. But this was not
all: we saw the fire increase forward, and the cry went on just as
the fire went on; so that we were in the utmost confusion. We
advanced a little way farther, and behold, to our astonishment,
three naked women, and crying in a most dreadful manner, came
flying as if they had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen
men, natives, in the same terror and consternation, with three of
our English butchers in the rear, who, when they could not overtake
them, fired in among them, and one that was killed by their shot
fell down in our sight. When the rest saw us, believing us to be
their enemies, and that we would murder them as well as those that
pursued them, they set up a most dreadful shriek, especially the
women; and two of them fell down, as if already dead, with the
fright.
My very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in my veins,
when I saw this; and, I believe, had the three English sailors that
pursued them come on, I had made our men kill them all; however, we
took some means to let the poor flying creatures know that we would
not hurt them; and immediately they came up to us, and kneeling
down, with their hands lifted up, made piteous lamentation to us to
save them, which we let them know we would: whereupon they crept
all together in a huddle close behind us, as for protection. I
left my men drawn up together, and, charging them to hurt nobody,
but, if possible, to get at some of our people, and see what devil