To Add To Our
Perplexity The Kindred And Children Of Quibio, Who Were Prisoners On Board
The Bermuda, Found Means To Escape.
They were kept under hatches all night,
and the hatchway being so high that they could not reach it, the watch
forgot one night to fasten it down in the usual manner by a chain, the
more especially as some seamen slept on the top of the grating.
That night
the prisoners gathered the stone ballast in the hold into a heap under the
grating, and standing on the stones forced open the grating, tumbling our
people off, and several of the principal Indians leaped out and cast
themselves into the sea. Our seamen took the alarm and fastened the chain,
so that many of the Indians could not get out; but those who remained, in
despair for not being able to get off with their companions, hanged
themselves with such ropes as they could find, and they were all found
dead next morning, with their feet and knees dragging on the bottom of the
hold, the place not being high enough. Though this loss was not material
to the ships, yet it was feared it might be hurtful to our people on shore,
as Quibio would willingly have made peace to get his children restored,
and there being now no hostage left it was reasonable to suspect he would
now make war with the greater fury.
Being thus afflicted with many troubles, having nothing to trust to but
our anchors and cables, and in great perplexity to get intelligence from
the shore, it was proposed that, since the Indians to recover their
liberty had ventured to leap into the sea a league from shore, some of our
people to save themselves and so many more, might venture to swim on shore,
if carried by the boat which remained as far as where the waves did not
break.
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