He Was Also Directed To Request The Viceroy And
Governor, To Send Two Or Three Of Their Boats For Him
Very early, to
bring the women and others of his company ashore, as the ship's boats
were too small; and
To say, that the ambassador expected to be attended
by some men of condition from the viceroy, to come in the boats, out of
respect to the king of Persia, whose person he represented. This
message, being well delivered, took the desired effect, and the viceroy
readily promised to comply with every thing required. Having finished
this part of his introductions, Nazerbeg was to repair to the tent where
the baggage was lodged, and to fetch from one of the trunks, two bags of
money containing L200 sterling, and some other things of value, if he
could so contrive without being noticed, as it was wished to conceal the
knowledge we had of the villainous intentions of these barbarians.
Nazerbeg was also desired to use dispatch, and to desire the three
servants of the ambassador to remain all night at the tents, with
promise of being relieved next morning. All was done as directed, and
not only was the money brought away, but a trunk also containing Lady
Shirley's apparel. When the balloches enquired the reason of taking that
trunk back to the ship, they were told it contained the lady's
night-clothes, and that it was to be brought ashore again next day.
[Footnote 113: In Purchas this person is named Hoge Comul; but we
suspect it ought to be Haji, intimating that he had made the
pilgrimage of Mecca and Medina. - E.]
The ambassador having thus recovered his money, wished much to get back
one other large trunk, containing things of value, and the three men
which were ashore with his baggage, even if all the rest were lost. For
this purpose, we filled, over night, a large chest and a night-stool,
with billets of wood, rubbish, stones, and other useless matters, to
make them heavy, binding them up carefully with mats and ropes to give
them an air of importance. Nazerbeg was instructed to take these on
shore, to be left in place of the large trunk which he was to bring
away, under pretence that it belonged to one of the merchants, and had
been landed by mistake. The three men at the tent were to accompany him
back to the ship, with their musical instruments, and the balloches
were to be told they were wanted by the lord ambassador to accompany him
with their music on his landing.
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. On
receiving this message, and in sight of the messenger, all our prisoners
were immediately put in irons; and two letters were wrote to the viceroy
in Persian, one by us and the other by the prisoners, intimating in the
most determined terms, that the prisoners would be all put to death, if
the goods were not safely returned without delay, giving only two hours
respite at the most, the sand-glass being set before them as the
messenger left the ship, that he might be induced to make haste.
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