Thereupon I Ordered
The Pinnace To Be Well Manned And Armed, And Directed, If The Dutch On
Their Return Continued Their Scoffs, To Run Aboard And Sink Their
Curracurra.
They accordingly came back, singing and scoffing as before,
on which the pinnace ran aboard them with such violence, that the water
came through her sides.
There were on board this curracurra two Dutch
captains of their forts, and plenty of men armed with shot and darts;
but our pinnace was well provided, and had two good fowlers[428] at
her head. She lay a good space aboard the curracurra, desiring the
Dutchmen to take this for a warning to leave off their impertinent
scoffs, or we should teach them better manners in a worse way the next
time. So they went away, promising to do so no more.
[Footnote 428: Probably some species of ordnance, as swivels or
musquetoons. - E.]
Towards evening the Dutch sent one of their merchants to me, with a
writing from their doctor-of-laws, who was their chief in the absence
of De Bot, or Blocke, who had come from Holland as general over eleven
ships. The purport of this writing was, that all the inhabitants of the
Moluccas had entered into a perpetual contract with the Dutch for all
their cloves, at fifty dollars the bahar, of 200 cattees, in reward for
having freed them from the Spanish yoke, at great expence of blood and
treasure; and required therefore, that I should not excite the people to
disobedience, to their great disadvantage, as the country was certainly
theirs by right of conquest.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 809 of 815
Words from 220034 to 220301
of 221842
