, some
in the long boat and some by swimming reached the shore, leaving on board
three wounded men who could not be moved, and who were butchered by the
pirates.

Not deeming it safe to linger on the coast, Macrae and his crew hastened
inland, reaching the town of the local chief, twenty-five miles off, the
following morning. Exhausted with fatigue and wounds, almost naked, they
were in a pitiable condition. The natives received them hospitably,
supplied their wants to the best of their ability, and refused to
surrender them to the pirates, who offered a reward for them.

After the first rage of the pirates, at the heavy losses they had
sustained, had abated, and soothed, no doubt, by the capture of a fine new
ship with L75,000 on board in hard cash, Macrae ventured to open
communications with them. Several among them had sailed with him, and his
reputation for considerate treatment of his men was well known. With all
their faults, they were not all of them men to resent greatly, after their
first fury had cooled, the loss that had been suffered in fair fight; so
England gave him a promise of safety, and he ventured himself among them.
The _Cassandra_ and the _Fancy_ had been floated, and Macrae was
entertained on board his own ship with his own liquors and provisions. His
position was not without danger, as there were many brutal fellows among
the pirates. England, who had a reputation for good treatment of prisoners,
befriended him; but Taylor, whose influence was greatest among the most
brutal of the rovers, insisted he should be made an end of. In the midst
of the quarrel, a fierce-looking fellow with a wooden leg and his belt
full of pistols, intervened, asking with many oaths for Macrae, who
thought his last moment had come.[3] He was pleasantly surprised when the
ruffian took him by the hand, and swore with many oaths that he would make
mince-meat of the first man that hurt him; and protested, with more oaths,
that Macrae was an honest fellow, and he had formerly sailed with him. So
the dispute ended. Taylor was plied with punch till he was prevailed on to
consent that the _Fancy_, together with some of the _Cassandra's_ cargo,
should be given to Macrae, and before he could recover from his carouse,
Macrae had got safe to shore again.

As soon as the pirates had left the coast, in the _Victory_ and the
_Cassandra_, Macrae set to work to patch up the much-battered _Fancy_, and
in a few days sailed for Bombay, wi