ABSTRACT
I shall now proceed to engage your attention by a short detail of the unparalleled sufferings of the English prisoners during a wretched captivity of three years and seven months.
In the prison of Seringapatnam they underwent a variety of hardships. After twelve months’ confinement about thirty of the most comely youths were taken out, in different parties, and forced to undergo the operations preparatory to their being initiated into Mahomedanism, in the following cruel manner: – Being thrust into a contiguous house, they were informed that the Nabob had selected them for his own service; and that they must, without a murmur, adopt the religion of Mahomet. Upon this they were stripped naked by fifty or sixty negroes who stood by for that purpose: a number of black barbers then entered strapping their razors, who instantly shaved off every hair from their bodies. These were followed by as many men with large leathern bags of water, with which they were washed all over, and purified from the Christian faith. They were next caused to swallow strong opiates in order to render them insensible of pain; when each of them was seized by those unmerciful negroes, and pinioned to the ground, whilst a kind of surgeon stepped forth and performed the act of circumcision upon them all. In about thirty days they got the better of this painful operation, when the whole were clothed in Moorish habits, and ordered to discipline about five hundred natives of the Carnatic, who had, in the course of the war, been driven from their country into a state of slavery, in order that they might be trained as soldiers for the Misorian service. In this
branch of duty they made great progress; and, upon being told that they must soon take the field to quell a rebellion amongst some of the Nabob’s vassals, they affected uncommon zeal for his service, thereby hoping to facilitate their escape when a proper opportunity should offer.
