Here May All True Christian Hearts See The Wonderful Works Of God
Showed Upon Such Infidels, Blasphemers, And Runagate Christians,
And so
you shall read in the end of this book of the like upon the unfaithful
king and all
His children, and of as many as took any portion of the
said goods.
But first to show our miserable bondage and slavery, and unto what
small pittance and allowance we were tied, for every five men had
allowance but five aspers of bread in a day, which is but twopence
English, and our lodging was to lie on the bare boards, with a very
simple cape to cover us. We were also forcibly and most violently
shaven, head and beard, and within three days after, I and five more of
my fellows, together with fourscore Italians and Spaniards, were sent
forth in a galiot to take a Greek carmosel, which came into Arabia to
steal negroes, and went out of Tripolis unto that place which was two
hundred and forty leagues thence; but we were chained three and three
to an oar, and we rowed naked above the girdle, and the boatswain of
the galley walked abaft the mast, and his mate afore the mast, and each
of them a whip in their hands, and when their devilish choler rose they
would strike the Christians for no cause, and they allowed us but half
a pound of bread a man in a day, without any other kind of sustenance,
water excepted. And when we came to the place where we saw the
carmosel, we were not suffered to have neither needle, bodkin, knife,
or any other instrument about us, nor at any other time in the night,
upon pain of one hundred bastinadoes: we were then also cruelly
manacled, in such sort that we could not put our hands the length of
one foot asunder the one from the other, and every night they searched
our chains three times, to see if they were fast riveted. We continued
the fight with the carmosel three hours, and then we took it, and lost
but two of our men in that fight; but there were slain of the Greeks
five, and fourteen were cruelly hurt; and they that were found were
presently made slaves, and chained to the oars, and within fifteen days
after we returned again into Tripolis, and then we were put to all
manner of slavery. I was put to hew stones, and other to carry stones,
and some to draw the cart with earth, and some to make mortar, and some
to draw stones (for at that time the Turks builded a church), and thus
we were put to all kinds of slavery that was to be done. And in the
time of our being there the Moors, that are the husbandmen of the
country, rebelled against the king, because he would have constrained
them to pay greater tribute than heretofore they had done, so that the
soldiers of Tripolis marched forth of the town, to have joined battle
against the Moors for their rebellion, and the king sent with them four
pieces of ordnance, which were drawn by the captives twenty miles into
the country after them, and at the sight thereof the Moors fled, and
then the captains returned back again. Then I, and certain Christians
more, were sent twelve miles into the country with a cart to load
timber, and we returned again the same day.
Now, the king had eighteen captives, which three times a week went to
fetch wood thirty miles from the town, and on a time he appointed me
for one of the eighteen, and we departed at eight of the clock in the
night; and upon the way, as we rode upon the camels, I demanded of one
of our company who did direct us the way: he said that there was a
Moor in our company which was our guide; and I demanded of them how
Tripolis and the wood bare one off the other, and he said, "East-north-
east and west-south-west." And at midnight, or thereabouts, as I was
riding upon my camel, I fell asleep, and the guide and all the rest
rode away from me, not thinking but I had been among them. When I
awoke, and, finding myself alone, I durst not call nor holloa, for fear
lest the wild Moors should hear me - because they hold this opinion,
that in killing a Christian they do God good service - and musing with
myself what were best for me to do: if I should return back to
Tripolis without any wood or company I should be most miserably used;
therefore, of the two evils, rather I had to go forth to the losing of
my life than to turn back and trust to their mercy, fearing to be used
as before I had seen others. For, understanding by some of my company
before how Tripolis and the said wood did lie one off another, by the
North Star I went forth at adventure, and, as God would have it, I came
right to the place where they were, even about an hour before day.
There altogether we rested, and gave our camels provender, and as soon
as the day appeared we rode all into the wood; and I, seeing no wood
there but a stick here and a stick there, about the bigness of a man's
arm, growing in the sand, it caused me to marvel how so many camels
should be loaded in that place. The wood was juniper; we needed no axe
nor edged tool to cut it, but plucked it up by strength of hands, roots
and all, which a man might easily do, and so gathered together a little
at one place, and so at another, and laded our camels, and came home
about seven of the clock that night following: because I fell lame and
my camel was tired, I left my wood in the way.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 10 of 42
Words from 9297 to 10305
of 42569
