234 AN ENGLISHMAN EXECUTED book iii
of neutralizing it. One of my brothers,1
whom I had taken to India, and who died there, one day witnessed a
remarkable proof of the quickness with which this poison takes effect.
An Englishman in a rage killed one of the subjects of the King of
Macassar, and the Prince forgave him, but all the Franks, English as
well as Dutch and Portuguese, who were in Macassar, feared that if this
murder was left unpunished the islanders would take their revenge by
attacking some of them, and besought the King to execute the
Englishman, and they urged him so strongly that at length he consented.
My brother was much beloved by the King, who invited him to take part
in all his amusements, and especially at drinking parties. When the
Englishman was condemned to death, the King told my brother that he
would not allow the victim to languish long, and at the same time to
prove the extraordinary power of his poison, he would wound the
criminal himself with one of his arrows. These are small poisoned
arrows which are fired with a sumpitan,2 and the King, in
order to show his skill, asked my brother in what part of the body he
wished him to strike the criminal. My brother, who was anxious to see
if what the King had told him of the rapid effect of his poison were
true, asked him to strike him on the great toe of the right foot; this
the King did exactly and with wonderful skill. Two surgeons, one
English and the other Dutch, were ready to cut the toe well below the
wound, but they were unable to accomplish it before the poison, more
rapid, had reached the heart, and the Englishman died at the same
moment. All the kings and princes of the East similarly cherish with
care the strongest poisons, and the King of Achin one day made a
present of fifteen or twenty of these poisoned arrows to M. Croke,3
1 This was his brother Daniel. (See Introduction, vol. i, p. x.)
2
The word is sarbatane in the original; it means a blow-tube, or rather
the object blown through. Owing to the virulence of the poison on the
darts it is a terrible instrument of offence. Though frequently
mentioned by writers, there is no stronger testimony of its power than
that given by our author. As an alleged antidote stercus humanum,
diluted with water, is mentioned by Friar Odoric (see Yule, Cathay, 91 ; Hobson-Jobson, 795, 868).
3 Later on Tavernier calls him M. Croc (vol. ii, 249).
