- E.]

Two of my men had belonged to a Dutch fleet, that year when they assaulted Mosambique, on which occasion they put in here, and recovered the healths of 400 or 500 men in five weeks.

Yet it is well named Mal-Ilha, or the bad island, for it is the most dangerous of any place I ever saw. It is next to Comoro, from which it is distant some twelve or fourteen leagues S.S.E.

At dawn on the 1st September we got sight of land to the eastwards, four or five leagues distant, my reckoning being then eighty or ninety leagues short, owing, I suppose, to some current setting east from the coast of Melinda; neither from the latitude of Socotoro to Damaun could we see the sun, to know our variation. The 3d at seven a.m. we spoke two country boats, which informed us that the town, church, and castle in sight was Damaun. From these boats I got two men, who engaged to carry the Dragon to the bar of Surat, promising not to bring us into less than seven fathoms. On the 5th a Surat boat came on board with Jaddow the broker, who had served Captain William Hawkins three years, and Sir Henry Middleton all the time he was here. There were likewise in this boat the brother of the customer of Surat, and three or four others. All these remained with us till the 7th, when we came to anchor at the bar of Surat, in eight 1/4 fathoms at high water, and six 1/2 at neap tides. At spring tides, however, I have found the tide to rise in the offing three fathoms, and even three 1/2.

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