In
The Afternoon Of The 28th, The Francis And The Bee Being Near The Shore
Abreast Of Calicut, The Zamorin Sent Off A Boat Desiring To Speak With
Me, But I Was Too Far Shot To The Southwards Before The Message Reached
Me.
The 2d April we got in the morning into the bay of Brinjan, where we
anchored in fourteen fathoms,
Within half a league of the town, a high
peaked hill, like a sugar-loaf; bearing N.E. by E. by the compass, which
is the best mark to know this place by, when the weather is clear. This
is a good place for refreshments, having hens, cocoa-nuts, and goats in
abundance, and plenty offish, together with excellent water springing
from the rock; but we had to pay seventy dollars, a cloth vest, a
fowling-piece, a mirror, and a sword, for leave to provide ourselves
with water, and all too little to satisfy the governor, who, after
receiving our money and giving us leave, came down with seven or eight
hundred men, demanding more money, and if we had not kept a strong guard
at the spring, would have put us from it after our money was paid. The
5th, the wind being fair off shore, we weighed anchor and departed, and
in the evening were abreast of a headland eight leagues S.E. by E. from
Brinjan, from which to Cape Comorin it is seven leagues E. two-thirds S.
At six in the evening of the 7th, we had Cape Comorin N.N.E. one-third
N. five leagues off, and had soundings in thirty fathoms. And on the
19th June we were in Bantam roads, when Captain Ball and Mr Pickham came
on board.
On the 24th I visited the pangran, to accommodate matters for Captain
Ball, who had arrested a Chinese junk for certain debts they owed our
factory, making offer to restore the junk, if the pangran would give us
justice, which he gave me his word to do. I went to him again on 6th
July, accompanied by Mr Ball, Mr Rich, Mr Pickham, and several other
merchants, when he was so inveterate against Mr Ball, that he refused to
see him. On which I sent him word, that Mr Ball had brought the bills of
our debt due by the Chinese, and was the only person among us who could
explain the transactions between our factory and the Chinese, of which I
was entirely ignorant. The messenger returned, saying that Mr Ball could
not be received, on which we all left the court.
The 1st September, having the wind off the land, we weighed in the
morning, and stood for point Ayre, keeping in seven fathoms till within
three miles of the point, where one cast we had a quarter less seven,
and the next cast only three fathoms. Some supposed we here touched, but
it was not perceived by me. Off this point there is a shoal almost even
with the surface of the water, but having seven fathoms within two
cables length of its edge. This afternoon, while standing towards three
Dutch ships that rode right in the fair-way, and when within a mile of
them, our ship grounded; but, God be praised, we got her off again
without any hurt, and so into the bay, where we again fell in with a
shoal, of which we came within two cables length, which lies one and a
half league from the Flemish islands. We got safely into the road of
Jacatra, [now Batavia road] in the afternoon of the 2d September, having
been providentially delivered from three several dangers the day before,
of which may we be ever thankful.
The 19th, the Angel, a Dutch ship of 500 tons, came in from Amboina,
laden with nutmegs and cloves, and departed again on the 25th. Early in
the morning of the 26th, I went to visit the king, and found him in a
good humour, and conferring with him upon some former business, we came
to a conclusion before I left him, to the following purpose: That he was
to give us a convenient piece of ground for building upon, for which we
were to pay 1500 dollars, and were to be free from all customs on
exports and imports on payment of 800 dollars yearly.
Sec.2. Dutch Injustice, and Sea-fight between them and Sir Thomas Dale.
The 27th of September, Mr Bishop arrived from Jappara in the roads in a
proa, in which was a Cogee, bringing a letter from the Matron to
Captain Ball, wherefore I sent him away to Bantam that night. He left
two English behind him at Jappara, one of whom had fled from the Dutch.
He likewise brought letters from several of our people who were
prisoners in the Moluccas, and one of these was directed to me, from Mr
Richard Tatten, in which he complained much of the gross usage of the
Dutch, who would hardly allow them a sufficiency of rice to subsist
upon, and who constantly clapped them in irons, on every idle rumour of
the coming of our ships.
On the evening of the 30th October, Cornelius Marthen, who commanded the
French ship taken by the Dutch, came into the roads, and came aboard my
ship that same night. After some discourse, he told me we had six ships
coming from England for these seas, commanded by Sir Thomas Dale, for
some special business at the Moluccas, whither he was bound with the
Stathouder, the Neptune, and this French prize, to wait the coming of
good friends. The 27th, in the evening, we had four feet and a half
water in our hold, which we freed in two hours with both our pumps, and
kept under afterwards with one pump, till next morning about ten
o'clock, when we let down a sail wadded with oakum, which fortunately
stopped our leak. The 31st, I found an excellent place for putting our
ship on the careen, on a small island within Taniam point, in the bay of
Bantam, on which we made all preparations to remove to that place.
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