Tize is laid down upon this part of the Persian coast, in
lat 25 deg.
25' N. and long. 60 deg. 80' E. from Greenwich: Perhaps the Tesseque
of the text. - E.]
We then sailed along the coast, and on the 11th of the month we sent our
boat ashore with Sir Thomas Powell, accompanied as before, to make
farther enquiries, and to endeavour to hire a pilot to direct our course
for Guadal, as we were unacquainted with the coast. They came to a place
called Pesseque, about a day's journey from Tesseque, where they had
similar accounts with the former, all commending the port of Guadal as
the best place at which the ambassador could land. Wherefore, being
unable to procure a pilot, we resolved, with God's blessing, to sail to
that place with all the speed we could. On the 13th, while on our way,
we espied coming towards us from the eastwards, two great boats, called
teradas, which were sailing along shore for Ormus. Whereupon, that we
might procure a pilot from them, we manned our skiff sufficiently to
bring them by force to our ship, if entreaties were unavailing, yet
without meaning to offer them the smallest injury, or even to send them
away dissatisfied.
When our skiff came up with them, instead of answering the hails of our
men, they waved our skiff to leeward with a drawn sword; on which,
thinking to fear them, and make them lower their sail, our men fired a
random shot towards them, which they answered by firing another directly
at our skiff, followed by half a hundred arrows, to which our men
answered by plying all their muskets. But our skiff was unable to hold
way with them, as they were under sail, and had therefore to return to
the ship, with one man very dangerously wounded by an arrow in the
breast, who afterwards recovered. As we in the ship saw the skiff
returning without them, we hoisted out our long-boat, and sent her after
the two teradas, we following with the ship as near the shore as we
could with safety; for it was now of much importance that we should
speak with them, on purpose to avoid their spreading scandalous reports
of us in the country, which might have frustrated our chief hopes of
landing the ambassador at Guadal, being the place we most depended
upon, and being destitute of any other place for the purpose, should
this fail, considering the unwelcome intelligence we had got concerning
Guzerat at the Cape.
Our long boat, having fetched up with the teradas, drove them into a
bay whence they could not escape; on which the native mariners sailed so
far into the bay, that one of the teradas was cast away on the beach,
and the other had nearly shared the same fate, but was saved by our men
just without the surf. Most of the balloches leapt overboard, and
several of them narrowly escaped drowning; while nine of them were
brought by our men to our ship along with the terada, part of whom
they had taken out of the water.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 124 of 474
Words from 64479 to 65007
of 247546
