In The Morning Our
General Sent For Them To Know What They Were, And Sent Three Of Us On
Board To See What She Was Loaden With.
They told our general they were
of Bantam; for which reason, as not knowing what injury he might do
To
the English merchants who had a factory at Bantam, and learning from us
that their loading was salt, rice, and china dishes, he sent them again
on board their bark, not suffering the value of a penny to be taken from
them. They stood on for Priaman, and we for Bantam. This bark was of the
burden of about forty tons.
We met a small ship of Guzerat or Cambaya, on the 2d September, of about
eighty tons, which we took and carried into the road of Sillibar, in lat.
4 deg. S. into which road many praws continually come for refreshments, as
they may here have wood, water, rice, buffaloes, goats, hens, plantains,
and fresh fish, but all very dear. Having dispatched our business, we
weighed anchor on the 28th September, and stood for Bantam. The 23d
October, we came to anchor in the road of Marrah in the strait of Sunda,
where we took in fresh water. In this place there is great plenty of
buffaloes, goats, hens, ducks, and many other good things for
refreshment; and the people do not esteem money so much in payment, as
white and painted calicoes, and such like stuffs. If well used, these
people will use you well; but they must be sharply looked after for
stealing, as they think all well got that is stolen from a stranger.
We weighed anchor on the 28th of October from before Marrah, and stood
for Bantam; which is in lat. 6' 40' S. We came this day within three
leagues of Bantam, and anchored for the night. Here we expected to have
met the English fleet, but it had sailed for England three weeks before
our arrival. Yet those who had been left as factors of our nation came
on board us, being glad to see any of their countrymen in so distant a
foreign land. They told our general, that the Hollanders belonging to
the ships in the road, had made very slanderous reports of us to the
King of Bantam, to the following purport: "That we were all thieves and
lawless persons, who came there only to deceive and cheat them, or to
use violence, as time and opportunity might serve; adding, that we durst
not come into the road among them, but kept two or three leagues from
thence for fear of them." When our general heard this report, he was so
much moved to anger, that he immediately weighed anchor, sending word to
the Hollanders that he was coming to ride close by them, and bade the
proudest of them all that durst be so bold as to put out a piece of
ordnance against him: Adding, if they dared either to brave or disgrace
him or his countrymen, he would either sink them or sink by their sides.
There were five ships of these Hollanders, one of which was seven or
eight hundred tons, but all the rest much smaller. We went and anchored
close beside them, but no notice was taken of our general's message; and
though the Hollanders were wont to swagger and make a great stir on
shore, they were so quiet all the time we lay there, that we hardly ever
saw one of them on land.
We took leave of our countrymen, and departed from Bantam on the 2d of
November, shaping our course for Patane. While on our way between the
Chersonesus of Malacca and Piedra branca, we met with three praws,
which being afraid of us, anchored so close to the shore that we could
not come near them, either in our ship or pinnace. Our general therefore
manned the shallop with eighteen of us, and sent us to request that he
might have a pilot for money, to carry his ship to Pulo Timaon, which is
about five days sail from where we met them. But, as they saw that our
ship and pinnace were at anchor a mile from them, and could not come
near, they told us flatly that none of them would go with us, and
immediately weighed anchor to go away. We therefore began to fight them
all three, and took one of them in less than, half an hour, all her
men, to the number of seventy-three, getting ashore. Another fought with
us all night, but yielded about break of day next morning, our general
having joined us in his skiff a little while before she yielded. They
were laden with benzoin, storax, pepper, china dishes, and pitch. The
third praw got away while we were fighting the other. Our general would
not allow any thing to be taken out of them, because they belonged to
Java, except two of their men to pilot us to Pulo Timaon. The people of
Java are very resolute in a desperate case. Their principal weapons are
javelins, darts, daggers, and a kind of poisoned arrows which they blow
from trunks or tubes. They have likewise some arquebusses, but are by no
means expert in using these; they use also targets, and most of them are
Mahometans. They had been at Palimbangan, and were on their way back
to Grist, a port town on the north-east coast of Java, to which place
they belonged.
The 12th November we dismissed them, pursuing our course for Patane. The
26th we saw certain islands to the N.W. of us, which neither we nor our
pilots knew; but, having a contrary wind for Patane, we thought it
necessary to search these islands for wood and water, hoping to have a
better wind by the time we had watered. The 27th we came to anchor
within a mile of the shore, in sixteen fathoms, on good ground, on the
south side of these islands.
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