A little while afterwards, Nazerbeg met with one Haji Comul,[113] whom God made an instrument to disclose the devilish project of the balloches to circumvent and destroy us, and who now revealed the particulars of their bloody designs. Nazerbeg was amazed, and even chid Comul for not having told this before the goods were landed. As the time appointed for the landing of the ambassador was at hand, Nazerbeg was fearful he might have come ashore before he could get to our ship to forewarn him. Wherefore, hastening to the shore, where, as God would have it, our skiff was still filling water, he told our men there was treachery plotting against us on shore, and entreated them to row him to the ship with all possible speed. He was therefore brought off immediately, yet hardly a moment too soon, as the ambassador and all his suite, together with our captain and all the principal officers among us, willing to grace the ambassador as far as we could for the honour of our country, were already in the waste, and ready to go on shore. When Nazerbeg had communicated his news, we were as ready to change our purpose as we had been before to go ashore. The purport of what he had learnt from Haji Comul was as follows:--
The viceroy and governor had agreed together to entice as many of us as they possibly could ashore, on purpose to cut all our throats; which done, they meant to have set upon the ship, and having taken her, to seize every thing she contained. They had made minute enquiry into our numbers, and had got a particular enumeration of the state and condition of every person in the ship, all of whom they intended to put to death without mercy, except the surgeon, the musicians, the women, and the boys. Their reverence for the king of Persia, of which they had so boasted, was all a mere pretence to deceive; for they were all rebels, and it was death to talk of the king of Persia in Guadal. Though we now understood their intended plot, for which God be praised, and were sufficiently put upon our guard to prevent its execution by arming ourselves, knowing that we were able to defend ourselves from injury on board, although they had great numbers of boats, and above 1500 men armed with muskets, besides others; yet were we at a loss how we might recover his lordship's goods, and his three men who were ashore along with them. But God, who had thus miraculously delivered us from their cruel treachery, opened likewise our understandings, so that we recovered all according to our wish, in the following manner:--
As the viceroy and his fellows expected the immediate landing of the ambassador and followers, together with the captain and others of us, we sent Nazerbeg again ashore, with instructions what to do. He was to inform the viceroy that the ambassador was not very well, and had therefore deferred his landing till next morning, which was Monday the 20th September. He was also directed to request the viceroy and governor, to send two or three of their boats for him very early, to bring the women and others of his company ashore, as the ship's boats were too small; and to say, that the ambassador expected to be attended by some men of condition from the viceroy, to come in the boats, out of respect to the king of Persia, whose person he represented. This message, being well delivered, took the desired effect, and the viceroy readily promised to comply with every thing required. Having finished this part of his introductions, Nazerbeg was to repair to the tent where the baggage was lodged, and to fetch from one of the trunks, two bags of money containing £200 sterling, and some other things of value, if he could so contrive without being noticed, as it was wished to conceal the knowledge we had of the villainous intentions of these barbarians. Nazerbeg was also desired to use dispatch, and to desire the three servants of the ambassador to remain all night at the tents, with promise of being relieved next morning. All was done as directed, and not only was the money brought away, but a trunk also containing Lady Shirley's apparel. When the balloches enquired the reason of taking that trunk back to the ship, they were told it contained the lady's night-clothes, and that it was to be brought ashore again next day.
[Footnote 113: In Purchas this person is named Hoge Comul; but we suspect it ought to be Haji, intimating that he had made the pilgrimage of Mecca and Medina.--E.]
The ambassador having thus recovered his money, wished much to get back one other large trunk, containing things of value, and the three men which were ashore with his baggage, even if all the rest were lost. For this purpose, we filled, over night, a large chest and a night-stool, with billets of wood, rubbish, stones, and other useless matters, to make them heavy, binding them up carefully with mats and ropes to give them an air of importance. Nazerbeg was instructed to take these on shore, to be left in place of the large trunk which he was to bring away, under pretence that it belonged to one of the merchants, and had been landed by mistake. The three men at the tent were to accompany him back to the ship, with their musical instruments, and the balloches were to be told they were wanted by the lord ambassador to accompany him with their music on his landing.
Every thing being thus properly arranged, we saw next morning early, the three boats coming off for the purpose of bringing his lordship on shore, according to promise. We then manned our skiff, and sent her ashore to put our plan into execution, by which we hoped to entrap the balloches in the snare they had laid for us. In the mean time, we received the people from the three boats into our ship, consisting of seven or eight persons of some condition, among whom was our friend Haji Comul; all the rest being slaves and fishermen. We kept them in discourse on various matters, to pass away time till our skiff could get back. During this conversation, one of them said that the viceroy earnestly desired we might bring our slurbow[114] ashore with us, as he wished much to see it, which we readily promised, to satisfy them. We soon after had the pleasure to see our skiff returning, having been completely successful, as it not only brought away the trunk and the three men, but also one of the chief men among the balloches, whom Nazerbeg enticed along with him. As soon as he came on board, he and the rest desired to see our gun-rooms, in which they had been told we had all our fire-works, of which they were in great dread, particularly of our slurbow and fire-arrows; and this answered exactly to our wishes, as we meant to have enticed them below, that we might disarm them of their long knives or daggers. When all these principal persons were down below in the gun-room, all our people being armed and in readiness, and dispersed in different parts of the ship, some on deck, some between decks, and others in the gunroom, to arrest and disarm the traitors; and when the concerted signal was given, this was instantly accomplished, to their great astonishment, yet without resistance.
[Footnote 114: From circumstances mentioned in the sequel, this seems to have been a species of cross-bow for discharging fire-arrows.--E.]
We then laid open to them our knowledge of their murderous intentions, saying their lives were now in our hands, as they had themselves fallen into the pit they had dug for us; and, if we served them right, we should now cut them in pieces, as they meant to have done by us. Yet they stoutly denied the whole alleged plot. We detained six of the chiefest men among them, and two of their boats, sending all the rest a-shore, being all naked rascals, except one, by whom we sent a message to the viceroy and governor, That, unless he sent us back all the goods and baggage we had ashore, without abstracting even the smallest portion, we would carry off those we had now in our custody. When this message was delivered to the viceroy and governor, they sent back word by the same messenger, that, if we would release the balloches, all our goods should be sent to us, and at the same time making many hollow declarations that no evil had ever been intended against us. On receiving this message, and in sight of the messenger, all our prisoners were immediately put in irons; and two letters were wrote to the viceroy in Persian, one by us and the other by the prisoners, intimating in the most determined terms, that the prisoners would be all put to death, if the goods were not safely returned without delay, giving only two hours respite at the most, the sand-glass being set before them as the messenger left the ship, that he might be induced to make haste. By these sharp means, we constrained them to restore every thing in the most ample manner; and this being done, we released the men and boats, according to promise, and sent them away. One man named Malim Simsadim, whom we had learnt, from Haji Comul, was an experienced pilot for Sinde and Cambay, we detained for that purpose, promising to reward him according to his merits.
Thus, by God's assistance, to whom be endless praise for our deliverance, we happily extricated ourselves from this dangerous and intricate affair, which was entirely concluded by six p.m. of the 20th September. We set sail that same night with our new pilot and Haji Comul, which last remained along with us, as his life would have been in danger among that accursed crew, for revealing their diabolical plot. We now bent out course for Sinde, as willing to avoid all subsequent dangers which these blood-thirsty balloches might attempt to plot against us. In our way, we had much conversation with Comul, whom we much esteemed and respected for the excellent service he had done towards us. Comul was a native of Dabul in India, his father being a Persian of the sect of Ali, in which Comul was a churchman, or priest, having likewise some skill in medicine and surgery, in which capacity he had resided in the tent of the governor of Guadal, and owing to which circumstance he had overheard their infernal plot. He had obtained leave to come aboard our ship, under pretence of procuring certain ointments or balsams, which he alleged had been promised him by our surgeons. He said that, on hearing their murderous intentions, his heart yearned within him, to think we should be led like sheep to the slaughter by such bloody butchers, and that God willed him to reveal their plot to us. He farther told us, that to his knowledge, they had already betrayed three ships in the same manner; that they were all rebels against the King of Persia, refusing to pay the tribute which they and their ancestors had been accustomed to; and that the king of Persia had levied an army, which waited not for from Guadal, with the purpose to invade the country next winter.
This country of Macquerona, or Mekran, is on the main land of Asia, bordering upon the kingdom of Persia. The port of Guadal is nearly in the lat. of 25° N, the variation being 17° 15' [lat. 24° 40' N. long. 61° 50' E.]. It has good anchorage in four or five fathoms. At night of the 21st September, the day after leaving Guadal, our balloche pilot brought our ship in danger of running on a shoal, where we had to come suddenly to anchor till next morning. The 24th at night, while laying to, because not far from Cape Camelo, a Portuguese frigate, or bark, passed close beside us, which at first we suspected to have been an armed galley, for which cause we prepared for defence in case of need.