The Concord Is There Also Laid Up, So Rotten
And Leaky That They Had To Take Out Her Provisions, And Let Her Sink
Close To The Shore.
The Hosiander, on the 15th October 1616, was
appointed to sail for the Coromandel coast.
The factories which are at present established for our company in the
East Indies, so far as I could hear, are these: Bantam, Jacatra,
Ahmedabad, Agra, Agimere, Burhanpoor, Calicut, Masulipatam, Patepulli,
Patane, Siam, Banjermassen, Succodania, Macasser, Acheen, Jambo, Tecoo,
Banda, and Firando in Japan. At Bantam, Mr George Barclay was chief,
with John Jordan, George Ball, Ralph Copendale, and several other
factors and assistants. The principal purpose of the factory at Acheen,
is to solicit for our better proceedings at Priaman and Tecoo. The place
is unwholesome, more especially for such as indulge in the use of hot
fiery drinks, as arack and aracape, which bring many to untimely
graves; and throw discredit on the voyage. It is not to be imagined at
home, how unruly are the common men abroad, never being satisfied unless
when their brains are reeling with liquor. Even the king of Acheen is
said to have a strange habit of getting drunk when the English resort to
him, as if thereby to do them honour, and it seems dishonourable to them
not to conform with him, in sitting in the water, drinking hard, and
many other strange customs. He is very tyrannical and cruel to his
subjects, daily cutting off the hands, arms, and legs of many, on very
small and frivolous causes; or causing them to be thrown to the
elephants, he himself commanding a sagacious elephant to toss the
culprits so high and so often, as either to bruise or kill them,
according to his caprice at the time. No one that arrives at his port
may land without his chop or licence. On one occasion, a Dutch general
came on shore without his licence, by desire of the principal factor,
who presumed on his favour with the king. When the general came to the
palace-gate, where another chop is necessary, the king found this
irregularity to have proceeded from the presumption of the resident,
whom he sent for and laid before the elephant, who tossed him three
times, but so gently as not to bruise him much, giving him thus a
warning how he should neglect the king's commands another time. The
Dutch general stood by the while, fearing to come in for his share of
this strange discipline; but the king forgave him, as ignorant of the
law. The poor factor, being called into the king's presence, humbly
acknowledged his punishment to have been merited, yet fled with the rest
of the factory at the departure of the ships; on which the king placed
us in their house.
We sailed from Bantam, homeward bound, on the 1st November 1616. The 5th
January 1617, I was unable to weigh our anchor, owing to the violence
of the wind, to follow the Dragon to Penguin island. Ships that go round
the Cape of Good Hope from India, at this season of the year, ought not
to anchor short of Saldanha road, [Table Bay,] but ought to bear to
leeward for Penguin island, and anchor there with two anchors at once,
till the wind serve. In December, January, and February, the S.S.E. wind
blows there with great violence from new to full moon. Yet I hold it
dangerous to neglect this place, trusting to refreshments at St Helena,
a certainty for an uncertainty; as the obscurity of the sun and moon,
owing to thick mists at this season, may disappoint the most experienced
navigators, and occasion the loss of ship, cargo, and men. While at the
Cape, Corey came down with three sheep, and promised more, but went away
in great haste to his wife and family, who dwelt now farther from the
bay than formerly. It appears that the Hollanders had frightened the
natives, by landing and going up the country with above an hundred men
at once. Owing to this, our chief refreshment here was fresh fish.
The 9th April 1617, we passed through great quantities of sea-weeds,
called seragasso, which float in long ridges or rows along with the
wind, and at considerable distances from each other. This plant has a
leaf like samphire, but not so thick, and carries a very small yellow
berry. It reaches from 22 deg. 20' to 32 deg. both of N. latitude. We anchored
in the Downs on the 29th of May 1617.
3. Brief Notice of the Ports, Cities, and Towns, inhabited by, and
traded with, by the Portuguese between the Cape of Good Hope and Japan,
in 1616.
The river of Quame, or Cuamo, on the eastern coast of Africa, where
they are said to trade yearly for gold, elephants teeth, ambergris, and
slaves. Mozambique, an island on the same coast, where they trade for
gold, ambergris, and slaves, in barter for iron, lead, tin, and Cambay
commodities, Magadoxo, which has abundance of elephants teeth, some
ambergris, and various kinds of drugs. From these ports they trade
yearly to Cambay, the Red Sea, and other places, observing the monsoons,
which blow W. in April, May, June, July, August, and part of September,
and the E. monsoon prevails an the other months. A few days between the
cessation of one monsoon and the commencement of the other, the winds
are variable, attended by calms, but become regular in a few days. To
the east of Sumatra, however, the two monsoons continue only five months
each way, the two intermediate months having variable winds.
Ormus in the gulf of Persia, whence the Portuguese trade to Persia,
Diul-sinde, Arabia, &c. They fetch much pearl from Bassora;[178] and
they load a ship or two with Persian commodities for Diul-sinde, where
they arrive between the end of August and middle of September, taking
likewise with them great store of dollars.
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