In The Morning Early Of The 25th, We Saw Five Or Six Frigates Under Sail.

An hour or two after, we saw a boat standing towards us, which was presently chased by two frigates,

On which the men in the small boat ran her a-ground and forsook her; but as the frigates could not float near where the boat was, and the tide was ebbing fast, they departed without farther harm. The 26th in the morning, I sent the Hope a good way to the northward from the rest of our fleet, to see whether the Portuguese would assail her.

Early in the morning of the 27th, the Portuguese frigates came and made a bravado before our ship, and then before the Salomon, which was next us; and from thence went directly against the Hope, which rode a great way from us, in which manoeuvre they had all their men close stowed below, and not one to be seen. The master of the Hope hailed them twice, but they would give no answer; on which they let fly at them from the bow-chases of the Hope, which only could be brought to bear, and by which they were forced with some loss to stand away. The master of the Hope was satisfied, if he had not shot at them, that they would have attempted to board, or to have set his ship on fire, as they had the advantage of both wind and tide, and were so directly a-head of his ship that he could hardly get any of his guns to bear upon them, while the rest of our ships could not have come up to his rescue. In the afternoon, I sent the Salomon to keep company with the Hope; and, going to the northwards of her, she made several shots at the frigates, but we did not perceive that any harm was done. I therefore ordered a gun to be fired, as a warning to desist, on which the Salomon stood in again and came to anchor.

In the morning of the 28th, I went in the pinnace aboard the Hope and Salomon, to enquire the reason of their firing. And the Portuguese, seeing our boats pass to and fro, removed in the afternoon, and anchored a little way without us, obviously for the purpose of cutting off our intercourse. In the meantime, the boat which had been chased ashore on the 25th, came aboard the Gift, bringing some letters from Mr Elkington, which our master sent to me, as I was then in the Hope. Having answered Mr Elkington's letter, I sent back the gelliwat to the Gift, with directions to go thence to Surat in the night. But, as the gelliwat [galivat] returned, she was chased by the frigates; which perceiving, I waved her to return, but she held on her way, not observing my signal. The frigates held her so close in chase, that they got within shot of her, and even fired one gun; and had not the Gift slipped one cable and veered another, and plied her ordnance at the Portuguese, they had surely taken or sunk the gelliwat. This forced the Portuguese to give over the chase, not without damage. Late at night, on the tide of ebb, I made the Hope and Salomon set sail and come near the other two ships, and then returned on board the Gift.

Perceiving on the 29th, that my continuing off the bar of Surat was quite unavailing, as the Portuguese frigates could pass and repass to and from the river, by going across the sands, where there was not water to float my ships; and that no boats could come to us to fetch away our goods, for fear of the frigates, neither could we have any intercourse with our friends ashore, to know what passed; I therefore set sail for Swally roads, where I arrived next day, having very little wind.

On the 14th January, 1614, we heard of many frigates being arrived, which rode at the bar of Surat all next day till night; and, leaving that place after dark, they came and rode within shot of us till next morning, when they weighed and stood back to the southwards. While they remained at anchor, supposing they might be the Mallabars, which the nabob had formerly promised to send me, I put forth a flag of truce, and sent Mr Spooner, one of our master's mates, towards them, directing him to keep a watchful eye to our signals, which we should make if we saw any reason of suspicion. Seeing our gallivat draw near, and no sign of friendship in answer to ours, I hoisted my flag and fired a shot to recall our boat, which immediately came back. 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.

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