Every Thing Being Thus Properly Arranged, We Saw Next Morning Early, The
Three Boats Coming Off For The Purpose Of Bringing His Lordship On
Shore, According To Promise.
We then manned our skiff, and sent her
ashore to put our plan into execution, by which we hoped to entrap the
balloches in the snare they had laid for us.
In the mean time, we
received the people from the three boats into our ship, consisting of
seven or eight persons of some condition, among whom was our friend
Haji Comul; all the rest being slaves and fishermen. We kept them in
discourse on various matters, to pass away time till our skiff could get
back. During this conversation, one of them said that the viceroy
earnestly desired we might bring our slurbow[114] ashore with us, as
he wished much to see it, which we readily promised, to satisfy them. We
soon after had the pleasure to see our skiff returning, having been
completely successful, as it not only brought away the trunk and the
three men, but also one of the chief men among the balloches, whom
Nazerbeg enticed along with him. As soon as he came on board, he and the
rest desired to see our gun-rooms, in which they had been told we had
all our fire-works, of which they were in great dread, particularly of
our slurbow and fire-arrows; and this answered exactly to our wishes,
as we meant to have enticed them below, that we might disarm them of
their long knives or daggers. When all these principal persons were down
below in the gun-room, all our people being armed and in readiness, and
dispersed in different parts of the ship, some on deck, some between
decks, and others in the gunroom, to arrest and disarm the traitors;
and when the concerted signal was given, this was instantly
accomplished, to their great astonishment, yet without resistance.
[Footnote 114: From circumstances mentioned in the sequel, this seems to
have been a species of cross-bow for discharging fire-arrows. - E.]
We then laid open to them our knowledge of their murderous intentions,
saying their lives were now in our hands, as they had themselves fallen
into the pit they had dug for us; and, if we served them right, we
should now cut them in pieces, as they meant to have done by us. Yet
they stoutly denied the whole alleged plot. We detained six of the
chiefest men among them, and two of their boats, sending all the rest
a-shore, being all naked rascals, except one, by whom we sent a message
to the viceroy and governor, That, unless he sent us back all the goods
and baggage we had ashore, without abstracting even the smallest
portion, we would carry off those we had now in our custody. When this
message was delivered to the viceroy and governor, they sent back word
by the same messenger, that, if we would release the balloches, all
our goods should be sent to us, and at the same time making many hollow
declarations that no evil had ever been intended against us.
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