fire in three parts of the town; and as the men came They did fo, and defperately refolved that they would venture upon them; but while they were animating one another to the work, three of them, that were a little before the rest, called out aloud, and told them they had found Thomas Jeffrys; they all ran up to the place, and fo it was indeed, for there they found the poor fellow, hanged up naked by one arm, and his throat cut: There was an Indian house juft by the tree, where they found fixteen or seventeen of the principal Indians, who had been concerned in the fray with us before, and two or three of them wounded with our fhot; and our men found they were awake, and talking one to another in that house, but knew not their number. The fight of their poor mangled comrade fo enraged them, as before, that they swore to one another they would be revenged, and that not an Indian who came into their hands fhould have quarter; and to work they went immediately; and yet not so madly as by the rage and fury they were in might be expected. Their first care was to get fomething that would foon take fire; but after a little search, they found that would be to no purpose, for most of the houses were low, and thatched with flags or rufhes, of which the country is full; fo they prefently made fome wild VOL. II. fire, fire, as we call it, by wetting a little powder in the palms of their hands; and, in a quarter of an hour, they set the town on fire in four or five places; and particularly that house where the Indians were not gone to bed. As foon as the fire began to blaze, the poor frighted creatures began to rush out to save their lives; but met with their fate in the attempt, and especially at the door, where they drove them back, the boatswain himself killing one or two with his pole-axe; the house being large, and many in it, he did not care to go in, but called for an hand-grenado, and threw it among them, which, at first, frighted them; but when it burft, made fuch havock among them, that they cried out in a hideous manner. In short, most of the Indians who were in the open part of the house, were killed or hurt with the grenado, except two or three more, who preffed to the door, which the boatfwain and two more kept with the bayonets in the muzzles of their pieces, and difpatched all who came that way. But there was another apartment in the houfe, where the prince, or king, or whatsoever he was, and several others, were; and they kept in, till the house, which was by this time all of a light flame, fell in upon them, and they were fmothered, or burnt together. All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not waken the people faster than they could mafter them; but the fire began to waken them faft enough, and our fellows were glad to keep a little together in bodies; for the fire grew fo raging, all the houses being made of light combustible ftuff, that they could hardly bear the street between them; and and their bufinefs was to follow the fire for the furer execution: As fast as the fire either forced the people out of thofe houfes which were burning, or frighted them out of others, our people were ready at their doors to knock them on the head, ftill calling and hallooing to one another to remember Thomas Jeffrys. While this was doing, I must confess I was very uneafy, and especially, when I faw the flames of the town, which, it being night, feemed to be just by me. My nephew, the captain, who was roufed by his men too, feeing fuch a fire, was very uneafy, not knowing what the matter was, or what danger I was in; efpecially hearing the gurs too; for by this time they began to use their fire-arms: A thousand thoughts oppreffed his mind concerning me and the fupercargo, what fhould become of us and at laft, though he could ill fpare any more men, yet, not knowing what exigence we might be in, he takes another boat, and with thirteen men and himself comes on fhore to me. He was furprised to fee me and the fupercargo in the boat, with no more than two men, for one had been left to keep the boat; and though he was glad that we were well; yet he was in the fame impatience with us to know what was doing; for the noise continued, and the flame increased: I confefs it was next to an impoffibility for any men in the world to reftrain their curiofity of knowing what had happened, or their concern for the safety of the men. word, the captain told me, he would go and help his Q 2 In a men, men, let what would come. I argued with him, as I did before with the men, the fafety of the fhip, and the danger of the voyage, the interest of the owners and merchants, &c. and told him I would go, and the two men, and only fee if we could, at a distance, learn what was like to be the event, and come back and tell him. It was all one to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk to the rest before; he would go, he faid, and he only wished he had left but ten men in the fhip; for he could not think of having his men loft for want of help: he had rather, he said, lofe the fhip, the voyage, and his life, and all: And fo away went he. Nor was I any more able to stay behind now, than I was to perfuade them not to go before'; fo, in fhort, the captain ordered two men to row back the pinnace, and fetch twelve men more from the ship, leaving the long-boat at an anchor; and that when they came back, fix men should keep the two boats, and fix more come after us; fo that he left only fixteen men in the fhip; for the whole fhip's company confifted of 65 men, whereof two were loft in the first quarrel which brought this mischief on. Being now on the march, you may be fure we felt little of the ground we trod on; and being guided by the fire, we kept no path, but went directly to the place of the flame. If the noife of the guns were surprising to us before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of another nature, and filled us with horror. I must confess I never was at the facking of a city, or at the taking of a town by ftorm; I have heard heard of Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda, in Ireland, and killing man, woman, and child; and I had read of Count Tilly facking the city of Magdebourg, and cutting the throats of 22000 of both fexes; but I never had an idea of the thing itself before; nor is it poffible to describe it, or the horror which was up. on our minds at hearing it. However we went on, and, at length, came to the town, though there was no entering the streets of it for the fire. The first object we met with was the ruins of a hut or house, or rather the afhes of it, for the house was confumed; and juft before it, plain now to be seen by the light of the fire, lay four men and three women killed; and, as we thought, one or two more lay in the heap among the fire. In fhort, these were fuch inftances of a rage altogether barbarous, and of a fury fomething beyond what was human, that we thought it impoffible our men could be guilty of it; or, if they were the authors of it, we thought that every one of them ought to be put to the worst of deaths: But this was not all ; we faw the fire increased forward, and the cry went on just as the fire went on, so that we were in the utmost confufion. We advanced a little We advanced a little way farther; and beheld, to our astonishment, three women naked, crying in a most dreadful manner, and flying as if they had, indeed, had wings, and after them fixteen or seventeen men, natives, in the fame terror and confternation, with three of our English butchers (for I can call them no better) in the rear; who, when they could not overtake them, fired in among them, and one that was killed by their fhot, fell down in our fight; when the reft faw us, believing |