WH To Admiral STEVENS. Madrafs, Feb. 13, 1761. HEN I furrendered myself, Sir, prifoner to his Britan nic Majefty, I trufted that you only, jointly with Mr. Coote, were the mafters of my fortune and liberty; and my capitulation means fo: notwithstanding which the council of Madrafs, or, more properly fpeaking, Mr. Pigott, refufes me (with the most unheard-of violence) a ftay of fix weeks, which is neceffary for the re-establishment is delivered to your company. under that very protection, coming out of the fort of Pondicherry; and should have been murdered, if the English guard that escorted me had arrived a minute later. About four minutes afterwards, the commiffary of my army was affaffiof two of your centinels. I have nated at the fame gate, at the feet in vain, till now, demanded juftice for it, to the general of your army; who has informed me the reason of of my health; and I am to be con. ducted on board, like a criminal, by a detachment of foldiers, having pofitively declared, by the annexed paper, that I will not embark otherwife. You ought to be more fenfible than I, of the confequence of fuch a proceeding in war: I demand, therefore, from your hands, in the name of the king my mafter, the due execution of my capitulation. My dependence is upon you and Mr. Coote. You only have the right to difpofe of me. And I proteft before hand againft every aft of cruelty to the contrary. I have the honour to be, with the utmost esteem, Sir, your most humble, and moft obedient fervant, LALLY. To the governor, and the gentlemen of the council at Madrass. Thought, Gentlemen, that my ill fortune had spent its utmolt force on me, when I had efcaped the fury of four members of the Council, thirty officers of the India battalion, and the civilians of Pondicherry, and faw myself his Britannic Majefty's prifoner, and under the protection of the English fag. However, I was attacked it is, that the town of Pondicher He cannot exercife any authority in it. I have complained of it in the fmalleft fatisfaction, I have revain to you: far from procuring ceived nothing but repeated infults and abufe. The officers who were attached to me, and my fervants, are threatened and affronted at Pondicherry from morning till night; and my effects, and theirs alone, examined and fearched with the utmost care, in fpite of the written declaration of the commanders of the fleet and army, and of the commander of your troops, in fpite of the words and honour to whom I capitulated." As to the treatment that Mr. Pigott mentioned to the officers of my regiment, (who were taking care of my effects), as reprisals for what Monfieur Landivifion had done to Mr. Winch at Fort St. David; can Mr. Fairfield's complaints against the fame brigadier for having plundered his houfe, of which he fays he intrufted him with the keys, regard me in any fhape? I was abfent, and my capitulation confirmed. Mr. Winch's effects were not fearched, and they took nothing from him but his chaife and horfes, which I caufed to be returned to him a month afterwards. G2 Mr. Mr. Fairfield made no complaint to me, or I fhould have given him fatisfaction immediately. Mr. Pigott muft confefs, by the anfwer he gave me when I quoted the name of the king my master, " a name respectable to every European fubject, of what nation foever he may be, efpecially to a man in public ftation as he is," that the infulting fearch which has been made of my effects, did not in any fhape proceed from the credit he gave to the difcourfe of a hellish crew, who infinuated that there was treasure in fpecie and merchandize; a difcourfe confuted by this identical, indecent, and public fearch; but only from a refolution taken in concert with fome members of Pondicherry to humble a man of my character: and to what other caufe can I attribute a refufal to treat with me on the most trifling affairs of a colony, and in regarding the troops of the king my mafter, who are prifoners of war; and likewife to give any fatisfaction for twenty-three of the English company's fervants, who are actually my prifoners, and who (by the custom established between the two companies, even during the prefent war) ought to be exchanged for a like number of French prifoners, but are not yet? Who but me has, or can have, a right to reprefent to the council of Madrafs the demands, complaints or grievances of the French colony, of which I am the chief? The most folemn treaties between the European powers have established rules for the vanquished, and confined the conquerors to capitulations which have always been looked upon as facred. I hear just now, Gentlemen, that altho' attacked by a difeafe looked upon as mortal in this country, you have refolved to embark me for Europe in an unusual feafon, without giving me the time to termi nate fome perfonal affairs, which cannot but indifpenfably have occurred, after an abode of three years in the country, or get together my fcattered effects and cloaths. The lofs of my fortune does not concern me: that of my life concerns me in the manner it does every other being that exifts. You, without doubt, have the power to take it from me, but not to make me confent to it. As I have been treated like a traitor, by a council whereof I was chief, it does not appear at all extraordinary to me, that I am treated as a criminal by one to which I am a flave. I am a king's man ; (it does not fignify of what king), who has always, in a trading country, had his forehead ftained with the impreffion of public hatred: but it is very remarkable, that two companies which companies which are enemies, fhould not agree to look upon me as a man belonging to the company of which I have the honour to be a member. Now, Gentlemen, this is the declaration that I have the honour to make to you: you are not willing that I should be in India when peace may be made; I am deter mined to leave it, and not concern myfelf, directly or indirectly, in any affairs relative to the two companies; I give you my written word of honour of it, whatever ctders 1 may receive from my court to the contrary. I fubmit I fubmit to depart in eight days for whatever country you allot me, I fubmit to conflitute myfelf a prifoner, in your prifons at Madrafs, to depart for Manilla, China, in the month of May; and, in a word, to the hardest and most humbling conditions you' pleafe to impofe on me. 1 had rather fuffer death, and will give the whole world a fcene that Tripoli and Sallee have not produced ao example of. compaffion of his cotemporaries, perhaps the gentleman of whole life we are going to give a few circumstances, was the most unforor for tunate. The difappointments of others have been remarked and cel brated; but this gentleman's fufferings feem to have been difregarded, though well worthy, for their ftrangeness, of a place even in hiftory. But it has ever been the way among us, to make the greatest noife about the most infignificant perfons, while those who really merited well from their country, languifh out their life in obfcurity, and die unknown, A man condemned to die, and not for crimes committed against fociety in general, and efpecially a prifoner of war, ought at least to chufe the manner of his death; and if the lofs of my life has been refolved in your council, and you have the least repugnance to be the immediate inftruments of it, fend me to Pondicherry, and I'll answer that in forty-e ght hours after my arrival my existence will be no more in question, and by this you will at least fave the expence of my paffage. Madras, Feb. 13. 1761. LALLY. Captain Glas was a native of Scotland, and bred originally a furgeon. In that capacity he made fome voyages to the coafts of Guinea; and his merit being known, he was at length promoted to be mafter of a Guinea fhip, in which ftation he continued till the late war began. Having faved a good fum of money in trade, he was refolved to venture a part of it on board a privateer, and he went himself as captain. He was not three days at fea in this new command before the fhip's crew mutinied, and fent him what is called in the fea-phrafe around-robia, in which the crew write their names in a circle, left one fhould be before the other, and thus more expofed than the reft. In this fituation he came on board, and offered to with whom offended; but the men knhe had knowing him to be very refolute, and greatly fuperior in ftrength to any in the fhip, declined his challenge, and at length by fair fpeeches from him were pacified; but ftill more fo by the capture of a French merchantman of great value, which followed G G 3 imme immediately after. This gleam of good fortune, however, was foon difpelled by the appearance of an enemy's frigate above twice his ftrength, with which however he refolved to engage. The conteft was a very warm one for more than two hours; but at length another French hip appearing, Captain Glas was obliged to ftrike, not without the lofs of more than half his crew, and he himself fhot through the fhoulder. He remained fome time in a French prifon in the Weft-Indies, and was treated with much feverity; but being at laft exchanged, he refolved to embark the remainder of his fortune upon another adventure in the privateering way. The fame fuccefs attended him now that did upon the former occafion; he was again taken prifoner, and his whole fortune at once deftroyed. Upon being releafed a fecond time, he was employed by merchants in their fervice to and from the Weft-Indies, and was taken prifoner during the laft war no lefs than feven times. In this flu&uation of his fortunes, however, he had, upon the conclusion of the late peace, amaffed about two thoufand pounds prize-money, and being reckoned one of the beft feamen in the British dominions, he refolved in his own fhip to go upon a difcovery. It was upon this occafion that he found out a new harbour on the coast of Africa, between the river Senegal and Cape de Verd, to which he reafonably fuppofed a very great trade might be driver. Elated with his fucceis, he returned to England, and laid his difcovery before the miniftry. He went with the utmost patience through all the delays of office, and at length obtained an exclufive trade to his own harbour for twenty years. Having thus prepared for his departure, with the affistance of one or two other merchants, he left England with feven or eight feamen, and after a fuccefsful voyage arrived at the new-found harbour. His firft care was to fend one of his men on fhore with propofitions of trade, but the treacherous natives murdered him the moment he was landed. Captain Glas, however, was not yet dif couraged; he found means to inform the king of the country of the wrong done him, and the mutual advantages that might accrue from trading thither. The king feemed to be pleafed with ni- propofal, but it was only to get him the more fecurely in his power; but Glas being on his guard, he failed in effecting his bafe defign. The king's next attempt was to poison the crew by provifions, which were fent as prefents to the captain; this alfo failed of effect; but Glas, for want of neceffaries, was obliged to go to the Canaries in an open boat; in order to buy what was wanting from the Spaniards. In the mean time, the favages perceiving the captain go off, thought this a very convenient time to fill upon his fhip and plunder it; but they were bravely repulfed by the little crew that remained; and the fhip being obliged to quit the harbour, and not finding her captain return, failed away for England, where it arrived in fafety. In the mean time, the unfortu nate captain had landed upon one of the Canary islands, and prefented his petition to the Spanish governor; but his bad fortune ftill followed accomplish; but were prevented more by Captain Glas, than Captain Cockeran's vigilance. At length, on Saturday the thirtieth of November 1765, at eleven o'clock at night, the four affallins being ftationed on the night-watch, and Captain Cockeran being come on the quarter-deck to fee every thing properly fettled, upon returning to his cabin, Peter Mackinley, the boatswain, feized him and held him faft till Gidley knocked nim down with an iron bar, and repeating the blows till he was dead, they then threw him overboard. The captain's groans having alarmed two other feamen who were not in the confpiracy, they coming upon deck, were dispatched in the fame manner. As this horrid fcene was not performed without noife, it awakened Captain Glas, who was at that time in bed; upon his coming upon deck, he there perceived what they were about, and flying back with the utmolt precipitation to get his fword, as he was unarmed, Mackinley imagining the caufe of his going back, went down to the fteps leading to the cabin, and there flood in the dark at the foot of them, expecting Glas's return, He fucceeded but too well in his defign; for the captain going up, Mackinley behind his back feized him in his arms, and ftrove to hold him faft. Glas, who had great ftrength, had in fome measure difengaged one of his hands, when the other three ruffians came up to attack him. Mackinley ftill kept calling out to his affociates: but Zekerman, rushing on before the reft, received the captain's fword in his arms, where the weapon was entangled, followed him; the Spaniard, inftead of treating him with the defired hofpitality, meanly threw him into prifon as a fpy. and there kept him in a dark damp dungeon for fome months, without either pen, ink, or paper. Being thus deftitute of every means of making his cafe known to his countrymen, be at length bethought himself of writing with a piece of charcoal on a bifcuit, which was allowed him for his fubfiftence, to a captain of an English man of war then lying in the harbour; who, though with much difficulty, and after being previoufly fent to prifon himself, at length effected the captain's releafe Here he continued for fome time, till his wife and daughter, a beautiful girl about eleven years old, came to him from home, and from the Canaries they all joyfully embarked for England on board the Sandwich, Capt. Cockeran, commander. Glas now fuppofed that all his dangers were over; for the fhip had come within fight of his native country, when a part of the crew mutinied, and fecretly refolved to murder all the rell. The names of the confpirators were George Gidley, cook, a native of the weit of England, Peter Mackinley, the boatswain, a native of Ireland, Andrew Zekerman, a Dutchman, and Richard St. Quintin, an Englishman. Thefe Villains entered into a confpiracy to murder the captain and all the other perfons, and to poffefs themselves of the treasure on board the thip, which amounted to above an hundred thousand pounds. This defign, on their paffage, they attempted three different nights to G4 |