But It Pleased God That The Wind Came About More Westerly,
So That In May, 1592, We Happily Doubled Cape Comorin, Without Being In
Sight Of The Coast Of India.
Having thus doubled the cape, we directed
our course for the islands of Nicobar, which lie north and south with
the western part of Sumatra, and in lat.
7 deg. N.[17] We ran from Cape
Comorin to the meridian of these islands in six days, having a very
large wind, though with foul weather, excessive rain, and gusts of wind.
[Footnote 16: Perhaps the Maldives are here meant; but the northern
extremity of that group is in lat. 7 deg. N., and the latitude of 10 deg., which
reaches to the southernmost of the Lakedives, is very far out of the way
for doubling Cape Comorin. - E.]
[Footnote 17: The Nicobar Islands are in 8 deg. N.; but Great Sambelong is
in the latitude mentioned in the text, and may have been considered as
belonging to the Nicobar group. - E.]
Through the negligence of our master, by not taking due observation of
the south star, we missed these islands, falling to the southward of
them, within sight of the islands of Gomes Polo,[18] immediately off
the great island of Sumatra, it being then the 1st of June; and we lay
two or three days becalmed at the north-east side of these islands,
hoping to have procured a pilot from the island of Sumatra, which was in
sight, within two leagues of us. Winter now coming on, with much
tempestuous weather, we directed our course for the islands of Pulo
Pinao:[19] it is to be noted that Pulo, in the Malayan language,
signifies island. We arrived there early in June, and came to anchor in
a very good harbour between three islands. At this time our men were
very sick, and many of them fallen; and we determined to remain here
till the winter were well over. This place is in lat. 5 deg. 15' N. and
about five leagues from the main land, between Malacca and Tanaserim,
belonging to Pegu.
[Footnote 18: Probably the islands now called Pulo Brasse, and Pulo
Way. - E.]
[Footnote 19: Most probably the same with Pulo Pinang, now called Prince
of Wales's Island: the Portuguese orthography being used in the text, in
which language ao, or rather aom, as in the next section, has oar
sound of ang. - E.]
We remained at this place till the end of August, our refreshments being
very small, consisting only of oysters, growing on the rocks, great
wilks, or conchs, and a few fish, which we took with hooks and lines. We
landed our sick upon one of these uninhabited islands, for the sake of
their health, yet twenty-six of them died here, among whom was John
Hall, our master, and Rainald Golding, a merchant of much honesty and
discretion. There are abundance of trees in these islands of white wood,
so tall and straight as to be well fitted for masts, being often an
hundred feet long.
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