When the leader of the gang recognised his daughter, he wept and embraced her, and asked by what turn of fortune she had appeared in so sorry a plight. The daughter explained that she had become a Christian and gave the reasons for her marriage. The recital of their woes spurred on the dacoits and falling upon the Burmese, they cut off their heads.
They wished to retain the women, but all refused the assistance that would have delivered them from slavery and preferred to share the horrible fate of their husbands, rather than to break the sacred marriage bond. The father, unable to dissuade his daughter from her purpose, gave her a supply of food for herself and her friends, and all went to join M. Core at a spot lower down the river.
After the meeting the zealous missionary, fearing to see them exposed to such dangers, conducted them towards the sea which was only a few days' march further on. For the space of a month this colony lived upon shell-fish, leaves and roots, and waited in the hope that a ship might appear to take them to Kancao on the Cochin Chinese coast.
A Chinese junk appeared in the offing but the niggardly captain, hearing that they had no money, refused to give them a passage. At last on June 7th, they saw a small Chinese derelict floating down the river. The ebb of the tide was drawing the boat out to sea, but at last it ran aground on the bank just at the spot where the Christians were assembled.
This unlooked-for assistance was of no use to them. They had neither sails nor tackle, nor provisions. But they were able to turn the greed of the Chinaman, who had refused to give them a passage, to their advantage. Seeing the vessel which they had just obtained, he suggested that they should hand it over to him and that he on his part would conduct them to their destination. Fifty three accepted this condition but the rest decided to remain and hardly had their friends set sail, when a dissension broke out among them and the party broke up. It was known that afterwards they all perished of hunger and privation.
After a perilous voyage, the ship reached Kancao on the the 28th of June, whence sometime later the Christians journeyed to Cambodia, where they were cordially received by the Cochin-Chinese.
The Bishop, who still remained on his ship was impatient for the moment of departure to meet his flock of whose fate he was ignorant. The Portuguese, who up to that time had remained with him, were ordered to go on ahead and to march with the van of the army. They had much to suffer from the insolent behaviour of the Burmese, and, rendered desperate by insults resolved to turn against their oppressors. They seized some weapons, and, under cover of the darkness, slew every Burman they could lay hands on. After this massacre they captured an elephant and some horses wherewith they hoped to rejoin their friends, but a deep river lay between. Several were able to gain the opposite bank, some were drowned but the majority waited for the fate they expected to overtake them.
Several Burmese, who had escaped from the Portuguese, brought the news of the massacre to the camp.
The commander, justly enraged, ordered that all the Portuguese should be arrested, as he considered that all the Christians had had a share in the plot. Suspicion would have been followed by revenge, had not the pilot Jeanchi taken steps to restore calm. He explained to the commander that the massacre had been due to the insolence of the soldiery towards the women who had been instrumental in furnishing the Portuguese with arms that the other Christians all considered him as their protector, and that the French especially were desirous of opening up trading stations under his jurisdiction. The commander was mollified by these explanations, and to show there was no ill feeling, sent the Bishop a supply of provisions and even gave him ten baskets of rice in excess of the usual dole which served as the sustenance for several Portuguese women who were too weak to follow with the army.
The 6th of June, was fixed for the departure of the rest of the forces. The Burmese before embarking destroyed the town of Michong that they had previously built.