In This Great Calamity We
Lost Sixty-Eight Persons, Of Whom We Are Not Certain How Many May Be In
Captivity, Having Only Knowledge Of These Eight.
We lost at this time
two fine pinnaces of twenty tons each, and our ship's boat.
We left Acheen that same day, and anchored at Pedier, where we had
sent a small pinnace for rice, but could get no tidings of her. Next
day, the 2d September, there came eleven gallies to take our ships,
having Portuguese in them, as we thought. We sank one of them, and
defeated all the rest, so that they fled amain. That same afternoon, the
son of Lafort, a French merchant, dwelling in Seethinglane, London, came
on board of us, being one of the eight prisoners. He brought the
following message from the king: - "Are you not ashamed to be such
drunken beasts, as, in your drunkenness, to murder my people whom I sent
on board of you in kindness?" He farther required of us, in satisfaction
of his pretended wrong, that we should give up our best ship, on which
he would release our men, telling Lafort, if he could succeed in this,
that he would make him a great nobleman. To this ridiculous proposal we
gave a flat denial; and, being in distress for water, we went over to
Pulo Lotum, on the coast of Queda, or northern part of Malacca, on its
western coast, in lat. 6 deg. 50' N. where we refreshed and watered.
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