RELATION OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA IN 1616, WITH OBSERVATIONS RESPECTING THE
DOMINIONS OF THE GREAT MOGUL, BY MR.
EDWARD TERRY.[222]
INTRODUCTION.
According to Purchas, Mr Edward Terry was master of arts, and a student
of Christ Church in Oxford, and went out to India as chaplain to Sir
Thomas Roe. In the first subdivision of this narrative, we have combined
the observations of Captain Alexander Childe, who was commander of the
ship James, during the same voyage, under Captain Benjamin Joseph, of
the ship Charles, who was slain in a sea-fight with a Portuguese carack,
off one of the Komoro islands. The notes extracted by Purchas from the
journal of Captain Childe,[223] are so short and unsatisfactory, that we
have been induced to suppress them, except so far as they serve to
elucidate the narrative of Terry, in the first subdivision of this
section. - E.
[Footnote 222: Purch. Pilgr. II 1464.]
[Footnote 223: Id. I. 606.]
Sec.1. Occurrences during the Voyage from England to Surat.
Apologies often call truth into question, and having nothing but truth
to offer in excuse for this narrative, I omit all unnecessary preface,
desiring only that the reader may believe what I have faithfully
related. Our fleet, consisting of six goodly ships, the Charles,
Unicorn, James, Globe, Swan, and Rose, under the supreme command of
Captain Benjamin Joseph, who sailed as general in the Charles, our
admiral ship, fell down from Gravesend to Tilbury-hope on the 3d of
February, 1616.
After long and anxious expectation, it pleased God to send us a fair
wind at N.E. on the 9th March, when we departed from that road, and set
sail for the East Indies. The wind continued favourable till the 16th,
at night, when we were in the bay of Biscay, at which time we were
assailed by a most fearful storm, during which we lost sight both of the
Globe and the Rose. The Globe rejoined us on the 26th following, but the
Rose was no more heard of till six months afterwards, when she arrived
at Bantam. The storm continued with violence from the 16th to the 21st.
The 28th we got sight of the grand Canary, and of the Peak of Teneriffe,
which is so extremely high that it may be seen in a clear day more than
forty leagues out at sea, as the mariners report. The 31st, being
Easter-day, we passed under the tropic of Cancer, and on the 7th of
April had the sun in our zenith. The 16th, we met with these winds
called tornadoes, which are so variable and uncertain, as sometimes to
blow from all the thirty-two points of the compass within the space of a
single hour. These winds are accompanied by much thunder and lightning,
and excessive rains, of so noisome a nature, as immediately to cause
people's clothes to stink on their backs; and wherever this rain-water
stagnates, even for a short space of time, it brings forth many
offensive animalcules.
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