Knox and his four compleat batchelors' of Legundenya, two of whom fell from grace, saved themselves from espionage by refusing to contract alliances with native women. When, at last, he and Stephen Rutland did make a serious attempt to escape, they had little difficulty in effecting their purpose. Others, also, got away from time to time, and Hubbard, who did not reach England until 1706, had a unique record of returning home at last after practically fifty years' absence in captivity.

The 'Ann'

that fatal and perfidious bark

Built in th' eclipse, and rigg'd with curses dark,'

as Milton sang at this time, continued a luckless career, and the letter book of the East India Company quaintly tells her end :

Wee are glad you approve of ye sale of ye ANNE wch after much Cost and expence in Voyadgeing to Arracan to have made her a firme & serviceable shipp, she came over in February last unfitted, and laid her Ribbs at Narzapore sands occasioned by ye indiscretion of those that went upon her, and though wee know your Losse hath bin much, yet ours much greater.

The last pitiable letter of Vassall and March rings down the curtain as far as written history goes on the English captives in the hands of Rajah Singho.

To the Right Honble President

of the English Nation of Madrass.

Right Honble Sr,

Candy ye 7th March 1690

Wee thank God and allso Yor Honour for your remembering us after soe many years; Yor Honour's Letter by this More ye 26 August 1689: wee have seen but feare he can

doe but little good as to ye; procuring our liberty for this pretends not to deliver us to any but our owne nation but if your Honour would send a shipp to some port of this Island to demand us hapes might obtaine our libertyes; here are yett liveing Vizt: William Vassall, Thomas March, and Richard Gelfe, of ye 'Persia Merchants' Company, John Berry, William Huband, and George Smith of 'Annes' Company, Abraham Grace, David Michell, and David Branch of the Herberts' Company, Robert Munda, and Henry Dod, of the 'Rochesters' Company allso 2 Cofferyes the English all a ll: Wee are in a very missarable condition, God of his mercy looke upone us, and Inable us to beare what he shall please to lay upone us with patience, it is a very daingerous thing to write; for if it should be known wee should suffer very severely; Wee beseech yor: Honour to pardon our undecent writeing, as to our want of necessaryes if yor: Honrs Charity pleas to send us any releife by this Conveyance as allso what news of late Years (for here wee can here nothing of truth) wee should bee very glad being in very great necessitye and sadness, so praying to ye Allmighty God to Bless Yor: Honour in all your affaires. Wee commit Yor: Honour to his holy protection and Remaine Your Honrs Most Humble Servants

Rt Honble Sr:

WILLIAM VASSALL
THOMAS MARCH.

I left at my comeing out of England my Father four brothers and A Sister liveing in a very prosperous condition (and?) should bee very glad to hear if any of them be liveing for ye old saying is trew Tempora Mutantur etc. Nos Mutamur abillis but they have I suppose given me our for Dead.

(Yor:) Honrs Most humble Servant

Do: WILLIAM VASSALL.

Knox's autobiography, now printed for the first time, tells us pretty fully of his after life.

Some difficulty appears to have arisen, after his return, between himself and his family to which he alludes. It is quite probable

that twenty years deferred interest might have mounted up to a sum which his sister could not possibly pay, and Knox was pretty certain to claim to the uttermost farthing. This is, however, mere supposition.

That he should have deliberately gone kidnapping slaves, after his own captivity on which he harps so much, is a curious commentary on how the Puritans of his time wrested Scripture to suit their own ends.

The curse of Ham was a very real thing from the days of stout Sir John Hawkins, who started the trade, to the time of Zachary Macaulay. The slave traders kept the law to the letter, for there was no enslavement of the inhabitants of India or of China, and their simple ethnology failed to recognise that the Malagasy is not Negro but Malay.

Knox's little incursion into piracy, and his constant bickering and squabbling with crews and super-cargoes, merchants and directors, make somewhat unpleasant reading. Still, misogynist and grumbler, with a command of the Bible which he had incorporated into his system, he was charitable, as was the way with the seafaring men of those days.

It is, perhaps, unfortunate for our general impression of his veracity that he should have magnified the tonnage and gunnage of the Tonquin Merchant.'

It may be as well to note that in 1683, on his return from his first voyage in the 'Tonquin Merchant,' Knox had an hour's audience of Charles II. What a loss to posterity it is that Samuel Pepys has not preserved for us the details of this interview. We can imagine that there were certain Sinhalese manners and customs that would have appealed to the Merry Monarch.

Knox's relative, Mrs. Bonnell, seems to have made some effort to entrap him into perhaps a direr bondage than his captivity in Zeylon.' She writes to Strype on March 31st, 1702, saying:

Indeed Capt Knoxes Rudeness in his letter did not at all move my resentment. I rather pittied his ill manners and unjust aspersion of me, but I have suffered too much to let such trifles ruffle me, but I thought it was necessary to let him know huffing at abbusife treatment should not provoke my charity, and indeed I had given it so largely to that poor cupple in his absence that I could not continue an addition to what was promast without suffering for it.

On October 3rd of the same year she writes:

I am

I thank you for your account of Capt Knox. I assure yu very glad to here of his wellfear, for such trifles as his rude letter never sticks with me. If he be naturally rude and unpolished it would be unreasonable in me to expect that he should change his nature on my account.

At last, at the age of nearly eighty, Knox died on 19th June, 1720, leaving behind him considerable substance as shown in his will. This document reads as follows:

This is the last Will and testament of mr Robt Knox of London Mariner, and Son or Robt Knox who dyed on Ceylon in ye East Indies.

Forasmuch as Death is most Certaine: and ye time place and manner most uncertaine, therefore now in ye time of my health I Robt Knox have wrote this all with my owne hand, which is to stand and be in full force after my Death, for my last Will and Testament, and I doe hereby make null and void and Revoke all former Wills whatsoever, tho I know of none: And whatsoever I am possessed of is given me by Gods Blessing on my hazardous and painfull indeavours, I doe hereby Cut of and Bar all Claimes and Pretentions whatsoever as Heires at: or by Law to my estate,

and althought this may not be worded according to ye usuall forme in Law, yet Nevertheless it is my true intent and meaning that this is and shall be my last Will and Testament, and let all Concerned Remember this fearfull Malediction to those who act otherwise on any pretence Whatsoevere viz. Exod. 22.22 ver: and Deut. 10 & 18:27: Chap 17: 19: ver. And I doe hereby ordaine and appoint Edward Lascelles my owne Sisters Son to be my Sole Executor and he ye said Edward Lascelles, having paid and performed all ye Leguces etc hereafter mentioned, all ye rest and remainder of my estate is and shall be his owne, and for his owne use, without further or other account for ye same as given him by this my Will and not otherwise.

First. I doe hereby give to my Niece Rebecka Ward Grand Daughter to my father viz: My Silver bowl or montith and ye large Silver Salver; and Silver Chocolatt pott: and my repeating Clock in an ebony frame, and my Red Silk flowred quilt, and my picture ingraven on a Copper plate in Remembrance of me; more my affections would have given her; had her circumstances required it. Secondly I doe hereby give to Abigail Lessingham now Smith, Grand daughter to my owne Sister, my two Silver Sconces and more three hundred pounds in money to be paid to her in 30 dayes after my death.

Thirdly I doe here by give to Edward Lascelles my Executor all my bookes and papers, boath written and printed (Ceylon Excepted) with all Bonds; Bills or notes for money which is all my estate out of which he is pay Leguces. And what remaines after Leguces etc are paid is for himselfe and for his owne use.

Fourthly I doe here by give to Knox Ward who beareth my Name viz: My Booke of Ceylon with Maniscripts of my owne Life-and my Ceylone Knife, and a picture on board with 3 Ships, And 2 Silver hilted Swords, And 2 paire of Pistols, and 2 Silver headed Caines, and 4 ebony Chaires, with 4 blew velvet Cushons and my Ceder Chists of Draws, ye ceder I brought from Berbados, and ye ebony I