However just our men thought this action, I was against them in it,
and I always, after that time, told them God would blast the
voyage; for I looked upon all the blood they shed that night to be
murder in them. For though it is true that they had killed Tom
Jeffry, yet Jeffry was the aggressor, had broken the truce, and had
ill-used a young woman of theirs, who came down to them innocently,
and on the faith of the public capitulation.
The boatswain defended this quarrel when we were afterwards on
board. He said it was true that we seemed to break the truce, but
really had not; and that the war was begun the night before by the
natives themselves, who had shot at us, and killed one of our men
without any just provocation; so that as we were in a capacity to
fight them now, we might also be in a capacity to do ourselves
justice upon them in an extraordinary manner; that though the poor
man had taken a little liberty with the girl, he ought not to have
been murdered, and that in such a villainous manner: and that they
did nothing but what was just and what the laws of God allowed to
be done to murderers. One would think this should have been enough
to have warned us against going on shore amongst the heathens and
barbarians; but it is impossible to make mankind wise but at their
own expense, and their experience seems to be always of most use to
them when it is dearest bought.
We were now bound to the Gulf of Persia, and from thence to the
coast of Coromandel, only to touch at Surat; but the chief of the
supercargo’s design lay at the Bay of Bengal, where, if he missed
his business outward-bound, he was to go out to China, and return
to the coast as he came home. The first disaster that befell us
was in the Gulf of Persia, where five of our men, venturing on
shore on the Arabian side of the gulf, were surrounded by the
Arabians, and either all killed or carried away into slavery; the
rest of the boat’s crew were not able to rescue them, and had but
just time to get off their boat. I began to upbraid them with the
just retribution of Heaven in this case; but the boatswain very
warmly told me, he thought I went further in my censures than I
could show any warrant for in Scripture; and referred to Luke xiii.
4, where our Saviour intimates that those men on whom the Tower of
Siloam fell were not sinners above all the Galileans; but that
which put me to silence in the case was, that not one of these five
men who were now lost were of those who went on shore to the
massacre of Madagascar, so I always called it, though our men could
not bear to hear the word MASSACRE with any patience.
But my frequent preaching to them on this subject had worse
consequences than I expected; and the boatswain, who had been the
head of the attempt, came up boldly to me one time, and told me he
found that I brought that affair continually upon the stage; that I
made unjust reflections upon it, and had used the men very ill on
that account, and himself in particular; that as I was but a
passenger, and had no command in the ship, or concern in the
voyage, they were not obliged to bear it; that they did not know
but I might have some ill-design in my head, and perhaps to call
them to an account for it when they came to England; and that,
therefore, unless I would resolve to have done with it, and also
not to concern myself any further with him, or any of his affairs,
he would leave the ship; for he did not think it safe to sail with
me among them.
I heard him patiently enough till he had done, and then told him
that I confessed I had all along opposed the massacre of
Madagascar, and that I had, on all occasions, spoken my mind freely