This Was The First Serious Affray, But It Was Not Long Before We Were At It Again Pell-Mell, Again And Again, When The Hollanders Sped As They Did Now.

The 11th August two ships came in from Cambaya, which had taken much wealth from the Portuguese, and the same day one ship came from Tenate.[132] The Ascension came in from Banda on the 16th.

The 8th September the Dutch merchants invited our general and his masters and merchants to a feast, where we were treated with good cheer and much friendship. The 15th September, two Dutch ships set sail for Holland, one being a small ship laden with pepper at Bantam; and the other, having taken in some cloves at Ternate, was loaded out with prize goods, taken from the ships that came from Cambaya. The Dutch admiral came in from Banda on the 21st, and next day our general sent some merchants to the Dutch house to congratulate him; on which day a drunken Dutchman caused a new fray, which began with our surgeon, but was augmented by several on both sides, and some of the Hollanders were wounded.

[Footnote 132: Though not mentioned in the text, these three ships were most probably Hollanders. - E.]

About one o'clock that same afternoon, while our general sat on a bench at our gate, conversing with a Portuguese, a drunken Dutch swab came and sat himself down between them, on which our general gave him a box in the ear and thrust him away. Some of his comrades came presently round our gate, drawing their knives and sables, [hangers,] and began to swagger. Taking the butt-ends of our pikes and halberts, and some faggot sticks, we drove them to an arrack house, where they shut the door upon us; but we forced it open, knocked some of them down, and carried them prisoners to our general. Soon after another troop of Hollanders came down the street to take part with their comrades, on whom we laid such load that they took to their heels, some being knocked down, and many having their pates pitifully broken, while others had to run through a miry ditch to escape us. The master of their admiral had occasioned this tumult, as he had gone from ship to ship, desiring the men to go armed on shore and kill all the English they could meet: and when some of our people were going on board the Dutch ships, some Englishmen they had in their ships called out to them not to come on board, as orders had been given to slay as many English as they could, on board or on shore. These frays were much wondered at by all foreigners in Bantam, that we should dare to go to blows with the Hollanders, who had seven large tall ships in the road, while we had but two. None of our men met with any harm in this affray, except Mr Saris, one of our merchants, who got a cut on his fore-finger with a hanger.

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