We Departed From St Helena On The 5th July, Steering N.W. And Passed The
Island Of Ascension, In Lat.
8 deg.
S. on the 13th. No ships touch at this
island, for it is altogether barren and without water; only that it
abounds with fish all around in deep water, where there is ill riding
for ships. Holding our course still N.W. with the wind at E. and S.E.
till the 19th of that month, we then passed the equator, and on the 24th
were in lat. 6 deg. N. at which time we judged ourselves to be 150 leagues
from the coast of Guinea. We then steered N. by W. and N. till the 29th,
when we got sight of the island of Fuego, one of the Cape Verds, where
we were becalmed five days, striving to pass to the eastwards of this
island but could not, for the wind changed to the N.E. so that we had to
steer W.N.W. We were in lat. 16 deg. N. on the 7th August, and on the 12th
we passed the tropic of Cancer, in lat. 23 deg. 30' N. holding our course to
the north. The 23d the wind came westerly; and on the 29th we passed St
Mary, the southeastermost of the Azores, with a fair wind. We had
soundings on the 7th September, 1603, the coast of England being then 40
leagues from us by our reckoning; and we arrived in the Downs on the
11th of that month, where we came safe to anchor: For which we thanked
the Almighty God, who hath delivered us from infinite perils and
dangers, in this long and tedious navigation; having been, from the 2d
April, 1601, when we sailed from Torbay, two years five months and nine
days absent from England.
SECTION II.
Account of Java, and of the first Factory of the English at Bantam;
with Occurrences there from the 11th February, 1603, to the 6th October,
1605.[119]
INTRODUCTION.
The entire title of this article, in the Pilgrims of Purchas, is, "A
Discourse of Java, and of the first English Factory there, with divers
Indian, English, and Dutch Occurrences; written by Mr Edmund Scot,
containing a History of Things done from the 11th February, 1602, till
the 6th October, 1605, abbreviated."
[Footnote 119: Purch. Pilgr. I. 164. Astl. I. 284.]
It is to be observed, that February, 1602, according to the old way of
reckoning time in England, was of the year 1603 as we now reckon, for
which reason we have changed the date so far in the title of the
section. Mr Edmund Scot, the author of this account of Java, was one of
the factors left there by Sir James Lancaster. He became latterly head
factor at that place, and returned from thence to England with Captain
Henry Middleton, leaving Mr Gabriel Towerson to take charge of the trade
in his room; doubtless the same unhappy person who fell a sacrifice,
seventeen years afterwards, to the avarice, cruelty, and injustice of
the Dutch.
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