COCHINCHIISrA. 351 
which doubled the Cape of Good Hope, conceived himself 
authorized to capture or to plunder all vessels that came in 
his way, whether navigated by Arabs, Malays, or Chinese. 
His voyage to the East he considered as a sort of crusade in 
Avhich, under his piratical commission, he waged war with 
the peaceable natives as inhdels and pagans. The Chinese 
junks being the most richly laden were, on that account, the 
most liable to be pillaged. The master or owner was usually' 
thrown overboard for a heretic, because he did not im- 
mediately fall down before the cross ; and though perfectly 
innocent of having refused what was required of him, his 
ignorance entitled him to no consideration. Such a conduct, 
systematically pursued, drove at length the timid Chinese 
from their usual trading voyages ; and I am sorry to observe 
that the early na^ igators of our own country Avere not by any 
means* exempt from disgraceful acts of this natui'e, and in 
some instances were guilty of most unwarrantable and un- 
necessary cruelties towards this inoftensive people. There is 
in the records of the English factory, which ^x'ds established 
at Bantam in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, an account of the 
execution of a Chinese after having been condemned to death in 
a summary manner, without any trial, the particulars of which 
are marked with features of such horrid barbarity as to render 
it almost incredible. The whole transaction, ho^vever, is 
minutely described in Mr. Scott's narrative, who was chief of 
the English factory at the time ; and as he appears to be 
ambitious of being thought an able and expert executioner, 
it would not be doing justice to the reputation of Mr. Scott 
to give it in any words but his own. " We tortured him," 
says he, " because when we had laid down the iron he denied 
