- E.]

In the morning of the 26th, the boat and pinnace went ashore well armed to fetch in our davy, which

Is a piece of timber by which the anchor is hauled up; and a little beyond it, they found the body of Harrington stark naked, which they buried in an island near Pemba. The natives of this island seemed well disposed towards us; for, at our first coming, they made signs to us, as if warning us to take care of having our throats cut, which we then paid no attention to.[279]

[Footnote 279: This circumstance is not easily understood, unless by the natives are here meant negroes, as distinguished from the Moors, who endeavoured to murder the English, probably at the instigation of the Portuguese. - E.]

We set sail that same day from Pemba, being the 20th December, and by midnight our ship got aground on the shoals of Melinda, or Pemba, which we were not aware of, but got off again, by backing our sails, as the wind was very moderate. Next morning we pursued and took three small boats, called pangaias, which had their planks very slightly connected together, while another boat was endeavouring to come off from the land to give them notice to avoid us. In these boats there were above forty persons, six or eight of whom being comparatively pale and fair, much differing from the Moors, we thought to have been Portuguese; but being asked, they shewed their backs all over with written characters; and when we still insisted they were Portuguese, they said the Portuguese were not circumcised as they were.[280] As we could not be satisfied of their not being Portuguese, some of our mariners spoke to them about the murder of our men, which seemed to put them in fear, and they talked with each other in their own language, which made us suspect they were meditating some desperate attempt. For this reason, I remained watchful on the poop of our ship, looking carefully after our swords, which lay naked in the master's cabin, which they too seemed to have their eyes upon. They seemed likewise to notice the place where I and Mr Glascock had laid our swords, and anxiously waiting for the place being clear. They even beckoned several times for me to come down upon the spar-deck, which I refused, lest they might have taken that opportunity to seize our weapons, which would have enabled them to do much more mischief than they afterwards did.

[Footnote 280: These men were probably tawny Moors, or Arabs of pure descent; whereas many of the Mahometans along the eastern shore of Africa; and in its islands, are of mixed blood, partly negro, - E.]

Our master, Philip de Grove, came soon afterwards on the spar-deck, and asking for their pilot, took him down into his cabin to shew him his plat or chart, which he examined very attentively; but on leaving the others to go with the master, he spoke something to them in the Moors language which we did not understand, but which we afterwards supposed was warning them to be on their guard to assault us as soon as he gave the signal.

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