By These, As I
Passed To The North, Two Unfortunate Shots Cut Asunder The Weather Leech
Ropes Of The Roebuck's
Foresail and fore-topsail, in the middle depth of
both sails; owing to which we could not bring her into
Stays, and were
forced, for repairing these sails, to bear down to leeward, between the
enemy and the shore; in which course, the three great ships plied their
whole broadsides against us, but with less hurt than I could have
imagined, God be praised. Having compassed the three large ships, I
luffed up to rejoin our squadron, which still held the advantage of the
wind, and plied their great guns on the Portuguese like so many muskets.
When I had got to windward of the smaller Dutch ship, which stood off as
I did till he had our fire-ship directly between him and me, he turned
tail, and steered right before the wind along shore to the eastwards,
with all the sail he could carry. The other three now set sail to his
rescue, and were now so tame, that as the Hart passed along their
broadsides, she received only a few shots great and small from any of
them, and from some none at all. The night now coming on, and our people
being all wearied by the long continuance of the fight, we all desisted
from any farther chase, and came to anchor in our usual road.
In this fight, the London and Hart had very little harm in their hulls
and tackling, and less, or rather none, in their men. The main-mast of
the Eagle was hurt in five places, four of which were quite through, and
one of her men lost his right arm. In the Roebuck, I had one man slain
by a cannon ball striking his head. A piece of his skull and some
splinters of the ball wounded one of my mates in the forehead, and
destroyed his left eye; and two others of my men lost the use of their
right hands. God be praised for our good fortune; for I never heard of
so small loss in so long a fight as we now sustained. I cannot truly
state the loss of the enemy: but, by the report of our merchants, their
vice-admiral and another captain were slain, and thirty or forty men in
the admiral's ship alone, the rest as yet unknown. As to their Moors,
they do not count them among the num her of their men.
In the morning of the 18th, the day after the action, we could see the
Portuguese at anchor ten miles to the east of us, having the wind fair
to have come down, but they did not. We then held a consultation,
whether it were better for us to take the first of the sea breeze, which
usually begins about noon, to stand towards them and try it out for the
mastery, before they could receive supplies from Ormus, Muskat, or Goa,
or else to make sail for Jasques roads, on purpose to land our goods and
money, in case of the worst, these being the prize they sought to obtain
and we to defend. Accordingly, the London got that night into Jasques
road, but the rest could not get in before the 20th, by reason of
contrary winds. On the 21st and 22d most of our goods were landed.
Sec.4. Second Sea Fight with the Portuguese.
On the 22d, seeing the Portuguese galleons open the road of Jasques, and
supposing they might intend to come in with the sea breeze, we set sail
and stood off for them. At first, they made a shew of giving us battle,
but soon afterwards made off upon a tack; and till the 28th, they were
either to windward, or so favourably placed at anchor, that we could not
attempt to attack them without manifest disadvantage. During this time,
they were joined by two or three frigates, or barks, from Ormus,
bringing them a supply of men and ammunition. We made one attempt on
Christmas day, but were forced back by a sudden flaw of wind; on which
occasion, some blacks aboard of us, said the Portuguese had brought a
witch from Ormus, to supply them with favourable winds.
On Innocents day, 28th December, perceiving the drift of our Portuguese
Fabius cunclator, to protract and avoid fighting, that by delays and
the advantage of his frigates, he might hinder us from prosecuting your
business in Persia, we determined to attempt closing with him. About one
o'clock there sprung up a favourable east wind for our purpose, on which
we immediately weighed and put every thing in order for battle. The
London and Hart came to anchor within a cable's length and half of their
broadsides, and so endured the main brunt of this second fight; for, no
sooner were they at anchor, but it fell calm and so continued all day,
insomuch that the Roebuck and Eagle, which had steered nearer to the
shore, with the intention of coming to anchor, one on the bow of their
admiral, and the other on the bow of their vice-admiral, got astern, and
could not with all our diligence be of any service for a full half hour
after the action began. At length we got within point-blank shot of
them, and then were forced either to anchor or drive farther off with
the current, as there was not a breath of wind.
We now brought our broadsides to bear, and our whole squadron plied
their ordnance upon them so fast, that had the knowledge of our men
equalled their resolution, not one of them had escaped from us. Not
willing to endure such hot entertainment, they cut their cables about
three o'clock, and drove from us with the tide to the westwards, till
out of our reach. Then came their frigates, which the day before had
made a bravado along shore with drums, trumpets, flags, and streamers,
and, now employed in a fitter task, towed them away all mangled and
torn.
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