At This Time, Our Sentinel At The Mast-Head Descried Another Fleet Of Frigates, Which Afterwards Assembled At The Bar Of Surat, And Went All Into The River.

By this I was satisfied they were all Portuguese, and was glad our men and boat had escaped their hands.

Thinking these frigates were forerunners of a greater force, I ordered the decks to be cleared, all our guns thrown loose, and every thing to be in readiness for action, both for the great guns and small arms, and to fit up barricades for close quarters. In the night of the 17th, all the frigates came out of the river, and in the morning were all at the point of the bar.

The 18th, Maugie, the banian captain formerly mentioned, accompanied by another great man, who was son to Clych Khan, came to the water side to speak with me, to whom I went ashore. Not long after, word was brought from on board, that they had descried a fleet of ships far off, which looked very big, but which we could not see from the shore, owing to its being very low. Taking leave of my visitors, I returned aboard, and made every thing be put in readiness, which was done immediately. Towards night, we made them out to be six galleons, with three smaller ships, besides the sixty frigates which were here before. Two gallies belonging to this armament were not yet come up. The tide being spent, they came to anchor till next day.

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