who, as I said, stood at the few houses on the way; of whom
they killed sixteen or seventeen, and set all those houses on fire, but
did not meddle with the women or children.

By the time the men got to the shore again with the pinnace our men
began to appear; they came dropping in some and some, not in two bodies,
and in form, as they went out, but all in heaps, straggling here and
there in such a manner that a small force of resolute men might have cut
them all off.

But the dread of them was upon the whole country. The people were amazed
and surprised, and so frighted that I believe a hundred of them would
have fled at the sight of but five of our men. Nor in all this terrible
action was there a man who made any considerable defence; they were so
surprised between the terror of the fire, and the sudden attack of our
men in the dark, that they knew not which way to turn themselves; for if
they fled one way they were met by one party, if back again by another;
so that they were every where knocked down. Nor did any of our men
receive the least hurt, except one who strained his foot, and another
had one of his hands very much burnt.

I was very angry with my nephew the captain, and indeed with all the
men, in my mind, but with him in particular, as well for his acting so
out of his duty, as commander of the ship, and having the charge of the
voyage upon him, as in his prompting rather than cooling the rage of his
men in so bloody and cruel an enterprise: my nephew answered me very
respectfully, but told me that when he saw the body of the poor seaman
whom they had murdered in such a cruel and barbarous manner, he was not
master of himself, neither could he govern his passion; he owned he
should not have done so, as he was commander of the ship, but as he was
a man, and nature moved him, he could not bear it. As for the rest of
the men, they were not subject to me at all, and they knew it well
enough, so they took no notice of my dislike.

The next day we set sail, so we never heard any more of it. Our men
differed in the account of the number they killed; some said one thing,
some another; but according to the best of their accounts, put all
together, they killed or destroyed about a hundred and fifty people,
men, women, and children, and left not a house standing in the town.

As for the poor fellow, Thomas Jeffrys, as he was quite dead, for his
throat was so cut that his head was half off, it would do him no serv