Four Days After This Unfortunate Separation, We Had
A Tremendous Clap Of Thunder At Ten O'clock One Morning, Which Slew Four
Of Our Men Outright, Without Speaking One Word, Their Necks Being Wrung
Asunder.
Of 94 other men, not one remained untouched, some being struck
blind, some bruised in their arms and legs, others in their breasts, so
that they voided blood for two days:
Some were as it were drawn out in
length, as if racked. But, God be praised, they all recovered, except
the four men who were struck dead. With the same flash of lightning our
mainmast was terribly split from the head to the deck, some of the
spikes that went ten inches into the wood being melted by the fervent
heat.
From thence[13] we shaped our course north-east, and not long afterwards
fell in with the north-west point[14] of the island of St Lawrence, or
Madagascar, which, by God's blessing, one of our men espied late in the
evening by moonlight.
[Footnote 13: The place of shaping this course is by no means obvious.
It could not be from Comoro, which is farther north than the north end
of Madagascar, and was therefore probably from near Cape Corientes. - E.]
[Footnote 14: From the sequel, the text is certainly not accurate in
this place, as they were not so far as this cape by 100 leagues. It
probably was Cape St Andrews. - E.]
Seeing from afar the breaking of the sea, he called to some of his
comrades, asking what it meant, when they told him it was the sea
breaking upon shoals or rocks, upon which we put about ship in good
time, to avoid the danger we were like to have incurred. Continuing our
voyage, it was our lot to overshoot Mozambique, and to fall in with
Quitangone, two leagues farther north, where we took three or four
barks belonging to the Moors, laden with millet, hens, and ducks, going
as provisions for Mozambique, and having one Portuguese boy on board.
These barks are called pangaias in their language.
Within a few days after, we came to an island called Comoro, which we
found exceedingly populous, the inhabitants being tawny Moors, of good
stature, but very treacherous, and requiring to be sharply looked after.
Being desirous of procuring fresh water, of which we stood in great
need, we sent sixteen of our men, well armed, on shore, whom the natives
allowed very quietly to land and take the water. A good many of them
came on board, along with their king, who was dressed in a gown of
crimson satin, reaching to the knee, pinked after the Moorish fashion.
We entertained him in the best manner we could, and had some conference
with him as to the state of the place and merchandise, using the
Portuguese boy we had taken as our interpreter. We then dismissed the
king and his company courteously, and sent our boat on shore again for
water, when also they dispatched their business quietly, and returned. A
third time the boat went for the same purpose, and returned unmolested.
We now thought ourselves sufficiently provided; but our master, William
Mace, of Ratcliff, pretending that it might be long before we should
find any good watering-place, would needs go again on shore, much
against the will of our captain. He went accordingly with sixteen men in
a boat, which were all we had, other sixteen of our men being on shore
with our other boat, washing their clothes, directly over against our
ship. The perfidious Moors attacked all these men, who were mostly slain
in our sight, while we could not yield them the smallest aid, as we had
now no boat.
Going from thence with heavy hearts on the 7th November, we shaped our
course for the island of Zanzibar, where we arrived shortly after, and
there made ourselves a new boat, of such boards as we had in our ship.
We continued here till the 15th of February, 1591, during which time we
saw several pangaias, or boats, of the Moors, which are pinned with
wooden pins, and sewed together with cords made of the palmito, and
caulked with the husks of the cocoa-nut, beaten into a substance like
oakum. At length a Portuguese pangaia came out of the harbour of
Zanzibar, where they have a small factory, and sent a Moor to us who had
been christened, bringing with him a letter in a canoe, in which they
desired to know what we were, and what was our business. We sent them
back word that we were Englishmen, who had come from Don Antonio, upon
business to his friends in the East Indies. They returned with this
answer to their factory, and would never more look near us. Not long
after this we manned our boat, and took a pangaia belonging to the
Moors, in which was one of their priests, called in their language a
sherife,[15] whom we used very courteously. The king took this in very
good part, having his priests in high estimation, and furnished us with
two months' provisions for his ransom, during all which time we detained
him on board. From these Moors we were informed of the false and
spiteful dealing of the Portuguese towards us, as they had given out we
were barbarous people, and canibals, desiring the Moors, as they loved
their safety, not to come near us; using these contrivances to cut us
off from all knowledge of the state and commerce of the country.
[Footnote 15: Sherif, sharif, in Arabic, more properly denotes one of
the descendants of Mahomet. - Astl. 1. 287. b.]
While we rode from the end of November till the middle of February in
this harbour, which has sufficient water for a ship of 500 tons, we one
day attempted to take a Portuguese pangaia; but as our boat was so small
that our men had not room to move, and as they were armed with ten good
guns, like fowling-pieces, we were not able to take them.
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