with him.  As soon as he came on board, he and the rest desired to see our gun-rooms, in which they had been told we had all our fire-works, of which they were in great dread, particularly of our slurbow and fire-arrows; and this answered exactly to our wishes, as we meant to have enticed them below, that we might disarm them of their long knives or daggers.  When all these principal persons were down below in the gun-room, all our people being armed and in readiness, and dispersed in different parts of the ship, some on deck, some between decks, and others in the gunroom, to arrest and disarm the traitors; and when the concerted signal was given, this was instantly accomplished, to their great astonishment, yet without resistance.

[Footnote 114:  From circumstances mentioned in the sequel, this seems to have been a species of cross-bow for discharging fire-arrows.—­E.]

We then laid open to them our knowledge of their murderous intentions, saying their lives were now in our hands, as they had themselves fallen into the pit they had dug for us; and, if we served them right, we should now cut them in pieces, as they meant to have done by us.  Yet they stoutly denied the whole alleged plot.  We detained six of the chiefest men among them, and two of their boats, sending all the rest a-shore, being all naked rascals, except one, by whom we sent a message to the viceroy and governor, That, unless he sent us back all the goods and baggage we had ashore, without abstracting even the smallest portion, we would carry off those we had now in our custody.  When this message was delivered to the viceroy and governor, they sent back word by the same messenger, that, if we would release the balloches, all our goods should be sent to us, and at the same time making many hollow declarations that no evil had ever been intended against us.  On receiving this message, and in sight of the messenger, all our prisoners were immediately put in irons; and two letters were wrote to the viceroy in Persian, one by us and the other by the prisoners, intimating in the most determined terms, that the prisoners would be all put to death, if the goods were not safely returned without delay, giving only two hours respite at the most, the sand-glass being set before them as the messenger left the ship, that he might be induced to make haste.  By these sharp means, we constrained them to restore every thing in the most ample manner; and this being done, we released the men and boats, according to promise, and sent them away.  One man named Malim Simsadim, whom we had learnt, from Haji Comul, was an experienced pilot for Sinde and Cambay, we detained for that purpose, promising to reward him according to his merits.