I Then Sent For My Goods, And Paid The Customs,
Which Is Ten Per Centum Of The Value At That Port; And For My Greater
Security I Hired A House For Myself And My Goods, Directly Facing The
House Of The Governor.
In the sequel, the captain of the Portuguese and all the merchants of
that nation, were driven out of the city, in which I remained, along
with twenty-one poor men, who were officers in the ship I came in from
Malacca.
The Gentiles had determined on being revenged of the Portuguese
for their insolence, but had delayed till all the goods were landed from
our ship; and the very next night there arrived four thousand soldiers
from Pegu, with some war elephants. Before these made any stir in the
city, the governor issued orders to all the Portuguese, in case of
hearing any noise or clamour in the city, not to stir from their houses
on pain of death. About four hours after sunset, I heard a prodigious
noise and tumult of men and elephants, who were bursting open the doors
of the Portuguese warehouses, and overturning their houses of wood and
straw, in which tumult some of the Portuguese were wounded, and one of
them slain. Many of those who had before boasted of their courage, now
fled on board some small vessels in the harbour, some of them fleeing
naked from their beds. That night the Peguers carried all the goods
belonging to the Portuguese from the suburbs into the city, and many of
the Portuguese were likewise arrested. After this, the Portuguese who
had fled to the ships resumed courage, and, landing in a body, set fire
to the houses in the suburbs, and as these were entirely composed of
boards covered with straw, and the wind blew fresh at the time, the
entire suburbs were speedily consumed, and half of the city had like to
have been destroyed. After this exploit, the Portuguese had no hopes of
recovering any part of their goods, which might amount to the value of
16,000 ducats, all of which they might assuredly have got back if they
had not set the town on fire.
Understanding that the late seizure of their goods had been done by the
sole authority of the governor of Martaban, without authority from the
king of Pegu, they were sensible of the folly of their proceedings in
setting the town on fire; yet next morning they began to discharge their
cannon against the town, and continued their cannonade for four days,
yet all in vain, as their balls were intercepted by the top of a small
hill or rising ground which intervened, and did no harm to the city. At
this time the governor arrested the twenty-one Portuguese who were in
the city, and sent them to a place four miles up the country, where they
were detained till such time as the other Portuguese departed with their
ships, after which they were allowed to go where they pleased, having no
farther harm done them. During all these turmoils I remained quietly in
my house, under the protection of a strong guard appointed by the
governor, to prevent any one from doing harm to me or my goods. In this
manner he effectually performed the promise he had made me in the king's
name; but he would on no account permit me to depart till the king
returned from Siam to Pegu, which was greatly to my hindrance, as I
remained twenty-one months under sequestration, during all which time I
could neither buy nor sell any kind of goods whatever. Those commodities
which I had brought with me were pepper, sandal wood, and porcelain of
China. At length, when the king came back to Pegu, I made my
supplication to him, and had liberty to go when and where I pleased.
Accordingly, I immediately departed from Martaban for Pegu, the capital
city of the kingdom of that name, being a voyage by sea of three or four
days. We may likewise go by land between these two places, but it is
much better and cheaper for anyone that has goods to transport, as I
had, to go by sea.
In this short voyage we meet with the _Macareo_, or _bore_ of the sea,
which is one of the most marvellous of the works of nature, and one of
these hardest to be believed if not seen. This consists in the
prodigious increase and diminution of the water of the sea all at one
push or instant, and the horrible noise and earthquake which this
Macareo produces when it makes its approach. We went from Martaban in
barks like our pilot boats, taking the flood tide along with us, and
they went with the most astonishing rapidity, as swift as an arrow from
a bow as long as the flow lasts. Whenever the water is at the highest,
these barks are carried out of the mid-channel to one or other bank of
the river, where they anchor out of the way of the stream of the ebb,
remaining dry at low water; and when the ebb is completely run out, then
are the barks left on high above the water in the mid-channel, as far as
the top of a house is from the foundation. The reason of thus anchoring
so far from the mid-stream or channel is, that when the first of the
flood, Macareo or bore, comes in, any ship or vessel riding in the fair
way or mid-channel would surely be overthrown and destroyed. And even
with this precaution of anchoring so far above the channel, so that the
bore has lost much of its force before rising so high as to float them,
yet they always moor with their bows to the stream, which still is often
so powerful as to put them in great fear; for if the anchor did not hold
good, they would be in the utmost danger of being lost.
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