_ 27 _ by now I should have gone; and so I shall, because these gentlemen know that I have right ad justice on my side.” The Captain-in-Chief with great anger said to him, for this great disrespect I will free you from the empty dreams that fill your head, and you will go below my deck in irons. If you have no obligation to me, you will have more justice against me, João da Nova answered. “You will have done further and greater wrongs if you put me in irons, because you deserve them more.” At this the Captain-in-Chief attacked him and seized him by the chest, and called the bailiff, who ran up at once, and he was loaded with heavy irons and the Captain-in-Chief ordered him to be taken below. In the struggle he caught hold of some of the hairs of his beard, which he wore long, and /867/ they came away and fell to the deck when he opened his hands. João da Nova picked up the hairs and wrapped them in a cloth, and with many tears he said, “Tristan da Cunha will repay you for what you have done to me, and I promise that I shall complain in the King's council, and you will repay me for this insult of pulling out my beard.” The Captain-in-Chief said to him “I shall pay all that I am adjudged to owe you; I do not fear that they will cut off my head even if I pull out those that you have left.” João da Nova was taken below, but because of the heat he could not
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy