Asking Me
What Merchandise We Had In Our Ship, I Gave Him An Account Of The Whole.
Thus, From One Thing To Another, I Remained With Him Till Midnight.
In
the end, when he was ready to depart, I desired that we might be allowed
the same freedom of trade which the Spaniards and Portuguese enjoyed.
He
made me some answer, but what it was I did not understand, and then
commanded me to be carried to prison.
Two days afterwards he sent for me again, and made many inquiries about
the qualities and conditions of our countries; about wars and peace, of
beasts and cattle of all sorts, of the heavens, and many other things;
and he seemed well pleased with my answers. Yet was I again remanded to
prison; but my lodging was bettered in another place.
* * * * *
"The rest of this letter, by the malice of the bearers, was suppressed,
but was probably the same in substance with the former; yet I have added
this also, because it contains several things not mentioned in the
other. This William Adams lately[64] died at Firando, in Japan, as by
the last ship, the James, returning home in the year 1621, we have
received intelligence." - Purchas.
[Footnote 64: This is in reference to the year 1625, when the Pilgrims
of Purchas was published. - E.]
SECTION XI.
Voyage of Sir Edward Michelburne to India, in 1604.[65]
INTRODUCTION
This voyage is given by Purchas under the title of "The Second Voyage of
John Davis, with Sir Edward Michelburne, into the East Indies, in the
Tiger, a ship of 240 tons, with a pinnace, called the Tiger's Whelp."
Purchas adds, that, though later in time than the first voyage set forth
by the English East India Company, he had chosen to insert it in his
work previous to their voyages, because not performed in their
employment; and we have here followed his example, because not one of
the voyages equipped by the Company. It is called the second voyage of
John Davis, because he had been to the East Indies before, as related in
the ninth section of this chapter, and went upon this voyage with Sir
Edward Michelburne. But it ought to have been called his third, and
indeed it is actually so named in the table of contents of the Pilgrims;
as, besides his first voyage along with the Dutch in 1594, he appears
to have sailed in the first voyage instituted by the Company for India,
in 1601, under Lancaster. The editor of Astley's Collection supposes
this journal to have been written by the captain or master of one of the
ships, from some expressions in the narrative; at all events, it was
written by some person actually engaged in the voyage. It is very
singular that Sir Edward Michelburne, though a member of the first East
India Company, and the fourth of the list in the original patent, should
have set forth this voyage on private account.
[Footnote 65: Purchas his Pilgrims, I. 192. Astley, I. 306.]
We learn from the annals, of the India Company, that the lord-treasurer
of England, in 1600, when the company was first instituted, proposed
that Sir Edward Michelburne should be appointed to command the first
fleet dispatched to India; but this was firmly declined, as will
afterwards appear. Sir Edward now commanded what may be called an
interloping trading voyage to India, under a licence granted by James I.
in absolute contravention of the exclusive privilege granted to the
Company. - E.
* * * * *
The 5th of December, 1604, we sailed from Cowes, in the Isle of Wight,
and arrived in the road of Aratana, in the island of Teneriffe, on the
23d of that month. During the whole night of the 14th January, 1605, we
were troubled with excessive heat, thunder, lightning, and rain. The 6th
we passed the line, shaping our course for the isle of Noronha, with
the wind at S.S.E., our course being S.S.W. About three degrees south of
the line, we met with incredible multitudes of fish; so that, with hooks
and harping irons, we took so many dolphins, bonitos, and other fishes,
that our men were quite weary with eating them. There were likewise many
fowls, called parharaboves and alcatrarzes. We took many of the
former, as it delights to come to a ship in the night-time, insomuch,
that if you hold up your hand, they will light upon it. The alcatrarze
is a kind of hawk that lives on fish; for, when the bonitos and dolphins
chase the flying fishes in the water till they are forced to take wing
for safety, the alcatrarzes fly after them like hawks after partridges.
I have seen often so many of these flying fishes at one time in the air,
that they appeared at a distance like a large flock of birds. They are
small fishes, hardly so large as a herring.
The 22d of January we came to anchor at the island of Fernando Noronba,
in lat. 4 deg. S. where our skiff was overset going ashore, by the violence
of the surf, and Richard Michelburne, a kinsman of our general, was
drowned, all the rest being saved. The 25th, our long-boat, while going
to fill some empty casks with water, fell in with the same unfortunate
surf, and was overset, when two more of our men were drowned. We were so
much put about in getting wood and water on board, by the danger of the
surf, that we had to pull our casks on shore by means of ropes, and so
back again when filled. Not six days before our arrival, there was a
Holland ship here, whose boat, in going for water, was stove on the
rocks, and all the men dashed to pieces, having their legs and arms cut
from their bodies.
The 26th, the general went on shore to view the island, which was found
entirely waste, being only inhabited by six negro slaves.
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