Not Long
After This We Manned Our Boat, And Took A Pangaia Belonging To The
Moors, In Which Was One Of Their Priests, Called In Their Language A
Sherife,[15] Whom We Used Very Courteously.
The king took this in very
good part, having his priests in high estimation, and furnished us with
two months' provisions for his ransom, during all which time we detained
him on board.
From these Moors we were informed of the false and
spiteful dealing of the Portuguese towards us, as they had given out we
were barbarous people, and canibals, desiring the Moors, as they loved
their safety, not to come near us; using these contrivances to cut us
off from all knowledge of the state and commerce of the country.
[Footnote 15: Sherif, sharif, in Arabic, more properly denotes one of
the descendants of Mahomet. - Astl. 1. 287. b.]
While we rode from the end of November till the middle of February in
this harbour, which has sufficient water for a ship of 500 tons, we one
day attempted to take a Portuguese pangaia; but as our boat was so small
that our men had not room to move, and as they were armed with ten good
guns, like fowling-pieces, we were not able to take them. For the
excellence of its harbour and watering-place; its plenty of fish, of
which we took great store with our nets; for sundry sorts of fruits, as
cocoa-nuts and others, which were brought to us in abundance by the
Moors; and for oxen and poultry, this place is well worth being
carefully sought after by such of our ships as shall hereafter pass this
way; but our people had good need to beware of the Portuguese. While we
lay here their admiral of the coast, from Melinda to Mozambique, came
to view us, and would have taken our boat, if he had found an
opportunity. He was in a galley frigate, or armed pinnace, with eight or
nine oars of a side. We were advertised of the strength of this galley,
and their treacherous intentions, by an Arabian Moor, who came
frequently to us from the King of Zanzibar, about the delivery of the
priest, and afterwards by another Moor, whom we carried from thence
along with us: for, wheresoever we came, we took care to get one or two
of the natives into our hands, to learn the languages and conditions of
the parts at which we touched.
We had at this place another thunder clap, which shivered our foremast
very much, which we fished and repaired with timber from the shore, of
which there is abundance, the trees being about forty feet high, the
wood red and tough, and, as I suppose, a kind of cedar. At this place
our surgeon, Mr Arnold, negligently caught a great heat, or stroke of
the sun, in his head, while on land with the master in search of oxen,
owing to which he fell sick, and shortly died, though he might have been
cured by letting blood before the disease had settled.
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