COCHINCHINA, 353 
" shed tear, no nor once turned his head aside, nor stirred 
" hand nor foot; but when we demanded any question, he 
" would put his tongue between his teeth, and strike his chin 
" upon his knees to bite it off. When all the extremity we 
" could use Avas but in vain, I caused him to be put fast in 
" irons again ; when the amits or ants, ^viiich do greatly 
" abound there, got into his wounds and tormented him 
" worse than we had done, as we might v\^ell see by his 
" gesture. The King's officers desired me he might be shot 
" to death. I told them that Avas too good a death for such 
" a villain ; and said more, that if, in our countries, a gentle- 
" man or a soldier had committed a fact worthy of death, 
" then he was shot to death, and yet he was befriended too : 
" but they held it to be the cruellest and basest death that is. 
" Wherefore, they being very importunate, in the evening 
" we led him into the fields and made him fast to a stake. 
" The first shot carried away a piece of his arm, bone and 
" all. The next shot struck him through the breast up near 
" to the shoulder ; then he, holding down his head, looked 
" upon the wound. The third shot that was made one of 
" our men had cut a bullet in three parts, which struck upon 
" his breast in a triangle, whereat he fell down as low as the 
" stake would give him leave : but, between our men and 
" the Flemings, they shot him almost all to pieces before 
they left him."'' 
If then Englishmen, who with all their vices have at all 
times and in all places established their character for hu- 
manity, could be guilty of such excessive barbarity towards 
unprotected strangers, Avho among the nations of the East 
z z 
