218 ENLISTED AS SOLDIERS. [l^97- 



to Isle Maurice} and so our Affairs should be happily ended. 

 We insinuated those Conditions could not be extreamly 

 agreeable to us, by reason we were not of the Dregs of the 

 People, and that tho' we were now Poor and Miserable, that 

 had wholly been occasion'd by the Governor of Isle Maurice, 

 the Company's Officer, who had pillag'd us, and therefore 

 'twas against him that we demanded Justice, which if it 

 were speedily afforded us, we should soon be in a Condition 

 to subsist without the mean Pay of a Soldier.^ But however 

 good our Picasons might be, if they were not contradicted, 

 they were not much hearken'd to. Our Persecutor had his 

 Friends there, and we poor, half-starv'd, half-naked Creatures, 

 were not considerable enough to turn the Scale, so that we 

 must submit to what they would have us, and turn Soldiers.^ 

 We were posted in different Places, and as the Sieur B — le, 

 who spoke Dutch, wrote likewise a very good Hand, he was 

 thought worthy to fill the Place of Clerk to the Fort, where 

 he was lodg'd. 



The Sicur clc la Case was detain'd still in Prison, but after 

 several Petitions, we presented jointly with him for his 

 Enlargement, the Council considering the Information they 

 had receiv'd from Isle Maurice, and perceiving that his 

 Crime consisted only in projecting a thing he never executed, 

 nor endeavour'd to execute, they pronounc'd him Innocent, 

 and made him a Soldier like the rest. 



Our Amber-greece stuck in our Stomachs, as did likewise 

 all the other things we had been robb'd of, viz.. Gold Ingots, 



by force, and should he happen to get away without leave they would 

 prosecute him as a desei'ter." ( Voyage to East India, p. 321.) 



1 In orig. : "qui seroit en etat de partir," omitted by translator. 



2 In orig.: "Nous nous trouverions en etat de subsister par nous- 

 memes d'une maniere plus agreable que dans la condition de Sol- 

 dats." 



3 In orig. : " nous pauvres, decharnez & convert s de hail Ions, nous 

 faisions une figure qui n'imposoit pas beaucoup de respect ; de sorte 

 qu'il fallut en passer par oil on voulut, & deveuir Soldat." 



