Hamilton’s account of the east indies.

274

Their religion is /till -Paganifm, though they do not worffiip images. They fhewoutward civility to Europeans, but kill them, and feaft on their flelh, when any areunfortunately ffiipwrecked on their coaft. At fir ft they fliew a feeming humanity, al-lowing them a convenient place to lodge in, with plenty of animal food to eat, andfometimes entertain them w'ith their mufic, and then deftroy the fatteft, as they have'occafion to feaft on them, an inftance whereof I had from a miffionary at Mocha, inAnno 1712, viz.

A Turkiffi galley bound from Moflava to Judda in Arabia Felix, had on board abouttwenty European Turks, and-one Italian prieft, as paflenger; that galley was drove affioreon the coaft of Zuakin by a ftorm, the galley was loft, but all the men got fafe affioreand found the above mentioned entertainment. They had not been long affiore, till fomepeople of diftinction vifiled them, and feemed to condole their misfortune, but withal,told them in Arabic , that the king had a great defire to fee fome of them, and theychofe the youngeft and plumpeft of the Turks to ffiew to the King, who very wil-lingly went away with them, but none came back to bring news how they were enter-tained at court; and every fourth or fifth day, another of the belt favoured and beftfleffied were carried from their comrades, on the fame, or fuch like errand; till nearone half were carried away, thofe that remained had no fufpicion, but were lulledafleep by the good words and good treatment they received daily : but one day,an Abafine, who had fled his country for fome mifdemeanour, came to vifit them,-and in difcourfe they told him how courteoufly they had been entertained by the hof-pitable natives, and how many of their company had gone to the King, but that nonereturned. • The Abafine told them, that they were treated after the common cuftom ofthat country, that when any white men were ffiipwrecked on their coaft, they foundfuch treatment as they had, to make them fat, and then to kill and eat them, by cut-ting fuch morfels of the body as they had prefent occafion for, and kept life as long inthe poor victim as they could; and that very morning a janifliiry had been carried on/the aforefaid errand, and had one leg cut oft', and the half of a thigh, and he fawthem roafting and broiling the flelh as he happened to pafs in his wayto vifit them, and told the difconfolate Turks that remained, that if one or twowould accompany him a little way in the evening, he would convince them of thetruth of that he told them, but they muft immediately after return to their lodging.The prieft was one that went to hehold the fad fpecta.de, whom they found not quitedead, though fpeechlefs, on which the Abafine went fpeedily away, as the others didto acquaint their fellows what they had feen. As foon as they made their report, theywere under the greateft confternation, and unanimoufly refolved to flee to the woodsthat very fame night, and truft the wild inhabitants rather than the crueller beafts, theZuakins. And the woods are plentifully inhabited with lionsj tigers, large monkeys,-but above all with wolves. The prieft took his way in the dark along the fea-ihore tothe northward, but knew nothing of his fellows, which way they took, or how theyfared. In the day-time he fculked in caverns and hollows of rocks, which that fea--coaft abounds in, and is not fo much frequented by the brutal cannibals, as the inlandparts; fometimes he fallied out to get fliell fiffi, or what elfe he could get to- eat, andin the night he travelled, fo that after feventeen nights and days hard fatigue, he ar-rived at a village in Upper Egypt , inhabited by Mahometans and Cophties, who re--lieved him, and fent him to Grand Cairo, from whence he wrote to a miffionary atMocha, in Anno 17x4, who refided with me, and gave him.the above account, with-the addition of a very ftrange paradox, viz. That himfelf being then about twenty-eight years of age (when he fell on the coaft of Zuakin), his hair was of a dark-

browns