I Told Him The Fault Was His Own, For Not Having Told Me So At
First, But Deluding Us With Fair Promises.
He now gave me a letter to read from Captain Downton, dated long before
at Aden, saying, that two of his merchants and his purser had been
detained on shore,[326] and that they could not get them released,
without landing merchandize, and paying 1500 Venetian chequins for
anchorage.
After I had read the letter, the aga desired to know its
purport, which I told him. He then informed me that the ship, since the
writing of that letter, had been cast away on a rock, and all her goods
and men lost. He then commanded me to write a letter to the people in my
large ship to know how many Turks were detained in the small one. I said
that was needless, as he had already sent me word the small ship was
taken. To this he replied, that she was once taken, but the large ship
had rescued her. He then ordered me to write a letter, commanding all
the people of the large ship to come ashore, and to deliver the large
ship and her goods into his hands, when he would give us the small ship
to carry us home. I said it would be folly to write any such thing, as
those who were aboard and at liberty would not be such fools as to
forsake their ship and goods, and come ashore to be slaves, merely for
my writing them.
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