156 INSTANCES OF MALICE. [1693. 



make Cloaths, and this notwithstanding all wc could say to 

 him. 



He began likewise to give us Instances of his Hatred and 

 Malice, by lodging us in a Hutt where we had nothing sent 

 us to eat but what the Comimnys Servants had left. 



Afterwards he kept us in a manner Prisoners, by for- 

 bidding us to go beyond our Hut above a thousand Paces. 

 He took the only Servant^ that remain'd to us away from 

 us, and listed^ him in the Company s Service ; so that lie 

 whom we had brought from Rodrigo having likewise jo3ni'd 

 with him, our Number was reduc'd to Five. 



These methods of Proceeding, so contrary to the Civility 

 we at first receiv'd, gave us reason to apprehend that 

 worse would follow. Nevertheless, we rely'd entirely upon 

 Providence, which had hitherto assisted us in all our Calami- 

 ties. 



But as in all Societies there are some Spirits more restless 

 and impatient than the rest, two of our Number, viz. the 

 Sicurs La Case and Tcstard, projected to retrieve our ill 

 Circumstances by a Proceeding that to speak Truth, was not 

 altogether Just. This was, as a Reprisal for our Vessel and 

 Sails, to seize upon one of the Company's Chaloupes,^ and make 

 our escape to Mascargcna^ which was not above twenty-five 

 Leagues from Isle Maurice. Now as they thought, whatever 

 colour they might give to their Design, the two others and I 

 would never approve of it, they did not think to let us know 



1 Peter Thomas and Robert Anseliu. Cf. supra, pp. 6 and 51. 



2 A custom had come into vogue of allowing soldiers and convales- 

 cent sailors to engage for short periods as servants to burghers, their 

 wages and cost of maintenance being thus saved to the Company, while 

 they were at hand in case of need, (^Vlde Theal's History of S. Africa^ 

 vol. ii, p. 30.) 



3 Hence our word " shallop''. 



* " Mascaregna." In orig. " Mascargna," the island of Bourbon, the 

 high mountains of which are sometimes visible, at sunset, from Mauri- 

 tius, the distance between the two islands being about ninety-five 

 miles. 



