In This Place, We Shall Only Abstract The Author's Voyage To Cambaya;
And, Instead Of His Journey Home Through India, Persia, And Turkey,
[Which Will Be Inserted Among The Travels,[271]] Shall Give The Account
Of Jones Of His Own Return From Cambaya By Sea To England.
This voyage
lays claim to two discoveries, that of the Moguls country, as appears in
the tide, though Captain Hawkins had got the start of him there; and the
discovery of the Bed Sea by the Ascension, as mentioned in the title of
the relation by Jones in Purchas.
- Astley.
[Footnote 271: This promise is not however performed in Astley's
Collection. In the Pilgrims, I. 235, Purchas has inserted the
peregrination of Mr Joseph Salbank through India, Persia, part of
Turkey, the Persian Gulf, and Arabia, in 1609, written to Sir Thomas
Smith; and tells us in a sidenote, that Robert Coverte was his companion
in the journey all the way through India and Persia, to Bagdat. We meant
to have inserted these peregrinations as a substitute for those of
Coverte, but found the names of places so inexplicably corrupted, as to
render the whole entirely useless. - E.]
In Astley's Collection, copying from Purchas, a brief account of the
same voyage is given, as written by Thomas Jones, who seems to have been
carpenter or boatswain of the Ascension, and whose narrative differs in
some particulars from that of Coverte, though they agree in general.
Instead of augmenting our pages by the insertion of this additional
narrative, we have only remarked in notes the material circumstances in
which they differ. Neither can be supposed very accurate in dates, as
both would probably lose their journals when shipwrecked near Surat.
We have likewise added, in supplement to the narrative of Coverte, such
additional circumstances as are supplied by Jones, after the loss of the
ship. - E.
Sec. 1. Relation of this Voyage, as written by Robert Coverte.[272]
We weighed anchor from Woolwich on the 14th of March, 1608, and came to
the Downs over against Deal, three miles from Sandwich, where we
remained till the 25th, when we sailed for Plymouth. Leaving that place
with a fair gale on the 31st, we arrived at the Salvages, 500 leagues
from thence, on the 10th of April, and came next morning in sight of the
Grand Canary. Casting anchor there at midnight, we fired a gun for a
boat to come off: But the Spaniards, fearing we were part of a squadron
of twelve Hollanders, expected in these seas, instead of sending any
one on board, sent into the country for a body of 150 horse and foot to
defend the town; neither were their fears abated till two of our factors
went ashore, and acquainted them that we were two English ships in want
of some necessaries. Next morning we fired another gun, when the
governor sent off a boat to know what we wanted. Having acquainted him,
he made answer, that it was not in his power to relieve our wants,
unless we came into the roads. Yet, having examined our factors upon
oath, they had a warrant for a boat at their pleasure, to go between the
shore and the ships with whatever was wanted. What we most wondered at,
was the behaviour of two ships then in the roads, known by their colours
to be English, the people of which had not the kindness to apprize us of
the customs of the subtile currish Spaniards. It is the custom here,
when any foreign ship comes into the roads, that no person of the same
nation even, or any other, must go on board without leave from the
governor and council.
[Footnote 272: Astley, I. 336. - In Astley's Collection, this person is
named captain; but it does not appear wherefore he had this title. - E.]
During five days that we remained here, some of the Spaniards came on
board every day, and eat and drank with us in an insatiable manner. The
general also made a present to the governor of two cheeses, a gammon of
bacon, and five or six barrels of pickled oysters, which he accepted
very thankfully, and sent in return two or three goats and sheep, and
plenty of onions. We there took in fresh water, Canary wine, marmalade
of quinces at twelve-pence a pound, little barrels of suckets, or
sweetmeats, at three shillings a barrel, oranges, lemons, pame
citrons, and excellent white bread baked with aniseeds, called
nuns-bread.
We set sail on the 18th April in the morning, with a fair wind, which
fell calm in three hours, which obliged us to hover till the 21st, when
a brisk gale sprung up, with which we reached Mayo, one of the Cape Verd
islands, in the afternoon of the 27th, 300 leagues from the Canaries,
where we came to anchor, determining to take in water at Bonavista; but
finding the water not clear, and two or three miles inland, we took the
less, but had other good commodities. At our arrival we were told by two
negroes, that we might have as many goats as we pleased for nothing; and
accordingly we got about 200 for both ships. They told us also, that
there were only twelve men on the island, and that there was plenty of
white salt growing out of the ground,[273] so that we might have
loaded both ships. It was excellent white salt, as clear as any that I
ever saw in England. Eight leagues from Mayo is the island of St Jago.
[Footnote 273: This must be understood as formed naturally by
evaporation, owing to the heat of the sun, in some places where the
sea-water stagnates after storms or high tide. - E.]
We left Mayo on the 4th May at six in the morning, and passed the
equinoctial line at the same hour on the 20th.[274] The 14th July, we
came to Saldanha bay, having all our men in health except two, who were
a little touched, with the scurvy, but soon recovered on shore.
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