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Here they found all in silence, as profoundly secure as sleep could makethem: and first, they called another council, to consider what they hadto do; and presently resolved to divide themselves into three bodies, andso set three houses on fire in three parts of the town; and as the mencame out, to seize them and bind them (if any resisted, they need not beasked what to do then), and so to search the rest of the houses forplunder: but they resolved to march silently first through the town, andsee what dimensions it was of, and if they might venture upon it or no.

They did so, and desperately resolved that they would venture upon them:but while they were animating one another to the work, three of them, whowere a little before the rest, called out aloud to them, and told themthat they had foundTom Jeffry: they all ran up to the place, where theyfound the poor fellow hanging up naked by one arm, and his throat cut. There was an Indian house just by the tree, where they found sixteen orseventeen of the principal Indians, who had been concerned in the fraywith us before, and two or three of them wounded with our shot; and ourmen found they were awake, and talking one to another in that house, butknew not their number.

The sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged them, as before, thatthey swore to one another that they would be revenged, and that not anIndian that came into their hands should have any quarter; and to workthey went immediately, and yet not so madly as might be expected from therage and fury they were in. Their first care was to get something thatwould soon take fire, but, after a little search, they found that wouldbe to no purpose; for most of the houses were low, and thatched withflags and rushes, of which the country is full; so they presently madesome wildfire, as we call it, by wetting a little powder in the palm oftheir hands, and in a quarter of an hour they set the town on fire infour or five places, and particularly that house where the Indians werenot gone to bed.

As soon as the fire begun to blaze, the poor frightened creatures beganto 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 boatswainhimself killing one or two with his poleaxe. The house being large, andmany in it, he did not care to go in, but called for a hand grenado, andthrew it among them, which at first frightened them, but, when it burst, made such havoc among them that they cried out in a hideous manner. Inshort, most of the Indians who were in the open part of the house werekilled or hurt with the grenado, except two or three more who pressed tothe door, which the boatswain and two more kept, with their bayonets onthe muzzles of their pieces, and despatched all that came in their way;but there was another apartment in the house, where the prince or king, or whatever he was, and several others were; and these were kept in tillthe house, which was by this time all in a light flame, fell in uponthem, and they were smothered together.

All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not waken thepeople faster than they could master them; but the fire began to wakenthem fast enough, and our fellows were glad to keep a little together inbodies; for the fire grew so raging, all the houses being made of lightcombustible stuff, that they could hardly bear the street between them. Their business was to follow the fire, for the surer execution: as fastas the fire either forced the people out of those houses which wereburning, or frightened them out of others, our people were ready at theirdoors to knock them on the head, still calling and hallooing one toanother to remember Tom Jeffry.

While this was doing, I must confess I was very uneasy, and especiallywhen I saw the flames of the town, which, it being night, seemed to beclose by me. My nephew, the captain, who was roused by his men seeingsuch a fire, was very uneasy, not knowing what the matter was, or whatdanger I was in, especially hearing the guns too, for by this time theybegan to use their firearms; a thousand thoughts oppressed his mindconcerning me and the supercargo, what would become of us; and at last, though he could ill spare any more men, yet not knowing what exigence wemight be in, he took another boat, and with thirteen men and himself cameashore to me.

He was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat with no morethan two men; and though he was glad that we were well, yet he was in thesame impatience with us to know what was doing; for the noise continued, and the flame increased; in short, it was next to an impossibility forany men in the world to restrain their curiosity to know what hadhappened, or their concern for the safety of the men: in a word, thecaptain told me he would go and help his men, let what would come. Iargued with him, as I did before with the men, the safety of the ship, the danger of the voyage, the interests of the owners and merchants, &c. , and told him I and the two men would go, and only see if we could at adistance learn what was likely to be the event, and come back and tellhim. It was in vain to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk to the restbefore; he would go, he said; and he only wished he had left but ten menin the ship, for he could not think of having his men lost for want ofhelp: he had rather lose the ship, the voyage, and his life, and all; andaway he went.

I was no more able to stay behind now than I was to persuade them not togo; so the captain ordered two men to row back the pinnace, and fetchtwelve men more, leaving the longboat at an anchor; and that, when theycame back, six men should keep the two boats, and six more come after us;so that he left only sixteen men in the ship: for the whole ship'scompany consisted of sixtyfive men, whereof two were lost in the latequarrel which brought this mischief on.

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