The 10th January, Our
Two Ships That Were To Go Home Began Taking In Pepper, But Were So
Oppressed With Sickness That They Could Make No Dispatch.
The other two
having taken in all the goods we thought meet for those parts, set sail
on the
18th of January for the islands of Banda, their men being still
weak and sickly; but how they spent their time till their return to
Bantam, I must refer to their own reports. Immediately after the
departure of these ships under the general, the protector sent to us for
the custom, which we thought had been quite well understood, by what was
paid when the ships were here before; but he demanded many duties of
which we had never heard formerly, and because I refused payment, he
ordered the porters not to carry any more pepper for us. To prevent,
therefore, this hindrance in loading our ships, I was forced to pay him
in hand, as had been done on the former occasion, and to let the full
agreement remain open till the return of our general.
[Footnote 126: This expression, tall ships, so often used in these
early voyages, evidently means square-rigged vessels having top-masts;
as contradistinguished from low-masted vessels, such as sloops and
pinnaces. - E.]
It pleased God to take away the two masters of the two ships which were
now loading, Samuel Spencer, master of the Hector, and Habakkuk Pery, of
the Susan; as also William Smith, master's mate of the Hector, and soon
afterwards Captain Styles, with several other principal men, and many of
their sailors, so that we were forced to hire men to ease them of their
work in loading, and also to engage as many as we could get of Guzerat
and Chinese mariners, to help to navigate the ships home, at a great
expence.
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