The letter was read, and a free trade allowed
us on payment of the same duties with the Hollanders; and we left the
court without seeing the queen.
We were then conducted by Daton
Lachmanna, the sabaudar and officer appointed for entertaining
strangers, to a place where a banquet of fruits was presented to us.
From thence we were led to the house of the Oran-caya Sirnona, where we
had another banquet. Next day the queen sent us meat and fruits aboard.
The 3d July there departed from hence a Dutch pinnace called the
Greyhound, for Japan. The master's mate of this vessel had brought a
letter from William Adams, an Englishman residing in Japan, directed to
the English at Bantam; and by him we sent the company's letters to Mr
Adams, which he promised to deliver with his own hands. We had no other
means of transmitting this letter, as the Japanese were at enmity with
the government of Patane, and had even burnt that place twice within
five or six years.
We had much ado to get leave to build a fire-proof warehouse at this
place, but were at length assigned a place close by the Dutch house,
thirty fathoms long by twenty in breadth, on which we built a house
forty-eight feet long by twenty-four feet wide. Their exactions were
very unreasonable, amounting, besides the charges agreed upon, to 4000
dollars; which, however, we submitted to pay in hope of future
advantages. We were sore afflicted here with sickness, even as if the
plague had raged in our ship. Captain Hippon died on the 9th of July;
and on opening the box marked No. 1, Mr Brown was found his appointed
successor, but as he was already dead, No. 2 was opened, by which Mr
Thomas Essington was nominated, who accordingly assumed the command. At
this place we suffered much injury from thieves, some of which came into
our house one night, where we always had a lamp burning, and stole 283
dollars out of my chest, besides other goods; though there wore fifteen
persons sleeping in the house, besides a large black dog, and a watch
kept in our yard. These circumstances occasioned suspicions against some
of our own people, but we could never come to any certainty.
I and John Parsons, with six more, were left here at Patane to conduct
the business of the factory, and the ship departed on the 1st of August
for Siam. I wished afterwards to have written to Captain Essington at
Siam, to inform him of the bad market I had for our lawns, but had no
opportunity of sending a letter by sea; and not less than four persons
together durst venture by land, on account of the danger from tygers,
and because there were many rivers to cross by the way, owing to which
their demands were very high, and I had to wait an opportunity. In
September, the king of Jor, or Johor, over-ran the environs of Pan or
Pahan, burning all before him, and likewise the neighbourhood of Cumpona
Sina, which occasioned great dearth at Pahan.
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