Shortly After This, An Indian, Who Belonged To A Portuguese Captain, Who Came To The Port With A Ship-Load Of Rice From Bengal, Came To Our House To Sell Hens.

The Portuguese captain lodged at the ambassador's house, and our general suspected he came only as a spy to see what we were about; yet he gave them orders to treat the Indian well, and always to give him a reasonable price for his hens.

At last he took occasion to commune with this Indian, asking whence he came and what he was, saying to him pleasantly, that a young man of his appearance deserved a better employment than buying and selling hens. To this he answered, "I serve this Portuguese captain, yet am neither bound nor free; for, though free-born, I have been with him so long that he considers me as his property, and he is so great a man that I cannot strive with him." Then, said the general, "If thy liberty be precious to thee, thy person, seems to merit it; but what wouldst thou do for him who should give thee thy liberty, without pleading to thy master for it?" "Sir," said the Indian, "freedom is as precious as life, and I would venture my life for him that would procure it for me: Try me, therefore, in any service that I can perform for you, and my willingness shall make good my words." "Then," said the general, "thou desirest me to try thee? What says the ambassador of me and my shipping, and what are his purposes?" The Indian told him, that the Portuguese had a spy employed over his ships, being a Chinese who was intimate with the men, so that he has procured drawings of the ships, and of every piece of ordnance in them, and how they are placed, with a list of all the men in each: That he thought the ships strong and well equipped, but being weak in men, believed they might easily be taken, if any force could be had to attack them suddenly; and intended in a few days to send his draughts to Malacca, to induce the Portuguese to send a force from thence to attack them as they lay at anchor. The general laughed heartily at this account, but said the ambassador was not so idle as the Indian thought, for he well knew the English ships were too strong for all the forces in those parts. He then desired the Indian to go his way, and return in a day or two to inform him if the ambassador continued his project, and when he was to send his messenger to Malacca. Saying, that although it would serve him little to know these things, yet he would give the Indian his liberty for the good-will he shewed to serve him.

The Indian went away well pleased, as might easily be seen by his countenance and the lightness of his steps. When he was gone, the general said to me, that we had now met with a fit person to betray his master, if we could derive any benefit from his treachery; and in this he was not deceived, for by his means, whatever was done or said by the ambassador during the day, was regularly reported to our general that night or next morning; yet did this fellow conduct himself so prudently, that neither was he suspected by any one in the Portuguese ambassador's house, nor was it known to any one in ours, what business he was engaged in.

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