The Admiral Now Ordered All Our
Ships To Discontinue Firing, Lest Some Unfortunate Shot Might Strike
Between Wind And Water, And Sink Our Expected Prize; So We Lay By Her
Till Morning Without Any More Fighting.
At break of day, the captain of
the chase, and some of his men, went into his boat; on which the Hector,
being nearest, called to them to come to his ship.
Mr John Middleton,
the captain of the Hector, being vice-admiral, brought the boat and
captain immediately aboard the general, to whom they surrendered their
ship and goods.
The general gave immediate orders to remove all the principal men of the
prize on board our ships, and only placed four of our men in the prize,
for fear of rifling and pillaging the valuable commodities she
contained, and gave these men strict warning, if any thing were
amissing, that they should answer for the value out of their wages and
shares, ordering them on no account to allow any one to come on board
the prize, unless with his permission. When the prize was unloaded, her
own boatswain and mariners did the whole work, none of our men being
allowed to go on board even to assist. They only received the goods into
our boats, carrying them to such ships as they were directed by the
general; by which orderly proceeding there was neither rifling,
pillaging, nor spoil, which could hardly have been otherwise avoided in
such a business. Within five or six days we had unladen her of 950 packs
of calicoes and pintados, or chintzes, besides many packages of other
merchandise. She had likewise much rice and other goods, of which we
made small account: And as a storm now began to blow, all their men were
put on board, and we left her riding at anchor. She came from San Thome,
[or Meliapour near Madras,] in the bay of Bengal, and was going to
Malacca, being of the burden of about 900 tons. When we intercepted her,
there were on board 600 persons, including men, women, and children.
The general would never go on board to see her, that there might be no
suspicion, either among our mariners, or the merchants in London, of any
dishonest dealing on his part, by helping himself to any part of her
goods. He was exceeding glad and thankful to God for this good fortune,
which had eased him of a heavy care, as it not only supplied his
necessities, to enable him to load his ships, but gave him sufficient
funds for loading as many more; so that now his care was not about
money, but how he should leave these goods, having so much more than
enough, till the arrival of other ships from England.
The 21st October, we began our voyage from the straits of Malacca to
return to Acheen; and by the way there came a great spout of water,
pouring from the heavens, and fell not far from our ship, to our extreme
terror.
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