PAGE 19
Captain Mission
by
Next Day the two Ships landed 200 Men, under the Cover of their Canon; but that Precaution of bringing their Ships close to the Shore they found needless; not a soul appearing, they march’d two Leagues up the Country, when they saw a Body of Men appear behind some Shrubs; Caraccioli’s Lieutenant, who commanded the right Wing, with fifty Men made up to them, but found he had got among Pit Falls artificially cover’d, several of his Men falling into them, which made him halt, and not pursue those Mohilians who made a feint Retreat to ensnare him, thinking it dangerous to proceed farther; and seeing no Enemy would face them, they retired the same Way they came, and getting into their Boats, went on Board the Ships, resolving to return with a strong Reinforcement, and make Descents at one and the same Time in different Parts of the Island. They ask’d the two Prisoners how the Country lay, and what the Soil was on the North Side the Island; and they answer’d it was morass, and the most dangerous Part to attempt, it being a Place where they shelter on any imminent Danger.
The Ships return’d to Johanna, where the greatest Tenderness and Care was shown for the Recovery and Cure of the two Captains and of their Men; they lay six Weeks before they were able to walk the Decks, for neither of them would quit his Ship. Their Johanna Wives expressed a Concern they did not think them capable of, nay, a Wife of one of the wounded Men who died, stood some Time looking upon the Corpse as motionless as a Statue, then embracing it, without shedding a Tear, desired she might take it ashore to wash and bury it; and at the same Time, by an Interpreter, and with a little Mixture of European Language, she had, begg’d her late Husband’s Friends would take their Leave of him the next Day.
Accordingly a Number went ashore, and carried with them the Dividend, which fell to his Share, which the Captain order’d to be given his Widow; when she saw the Money, she smil’d, and ask’d if all, all that was for her? Being answered in the affirmative, and what Good will all that shining Dirt do me, if I could with it purchase the Life of my Husband, and call him back from the Grave, I would accept it with Pleasure, but as it is not sufficient to allure him back to this World, I have no Use for it; do with it what you please. Then she desired they would go with her and perform the last Ceremonies to her Husband’s dead Body, after their Country Fashion, least he should be displeased, that she could not stay with them, to be a Witness, because she was in haste to go and be married again. She startled the Europeans who heard this latter Part of her Speech so dissonant from the Beginning; however, they followed her, and she led them into a Plantane Walk, where they found a great many Johanna Men and Women, sitting under the Shade of Plantanes, round the Corpse, which lay (as they all sate) on the Ground, covered with Flowers. She embraced them round, and then the Europeans, one by one, and after these Ceremonies, she poured out a Number of bitter Imprecations against the Mohila Men, whose Treachery had darken’d her Husband’s Eyes, and made him insensible of her Caresses, who was her first Love, to whom she had given her Heart, with her Virginity. She then proceeded in his Praises, calling him the Joy of Infants, the Love of Virgins, the Delight of the old, and the Wonder of the young, adding, he was strong and beautiful as the Cedar, brave as the Bull, tender as the Kid, and loving as the Ground Turtle; having finished this Oration, not unlike those of the Romans, which the nearest Relation of the deceas’d used to pronounce from the Rostrum, she laid her down by the Side of her Husband, embracing him, and sitting up again, gave herself a deep Wound under the left Breast with a Bayonet, and fell dead on her Husband’s Corpse.