Besides, I Wished For No Occasion Of Fighting Unless For The
Honour Of My King And Country As I Would Rather Save The Life Of One Of
My Poorest Sailors Than Kill A Thousand Enemies.
Having now finished with the viceroy, I set myself to write letters for
the dispatch of the Hope, yet still thinking to have stood in for the
bar of Goa to endeavour to have left some compliments there for the
viceroy at his return.
This was my earnest desire, but we were so long
delayed in dispatching the Hope, that by the time we had finished, we
were far beyond Goa.
* * * * *
"The rest of this journal is wanting, as he is also wanting who should
have finished it. But, alas! this is the imperfection of man's best
perfections; death lying in ambush to entrap those whom by open force he
could not devour. He dying in this voyage, and following his son, hath
left this glorious act, memoriae sacrum, the memorable epitaph of his
worth, savouring of a true heroic disposition, piety and valour being in
him seasoned by gravity and modesty." - Purch.
SECTION II.
Relations by Mr Elkington and Mr Dodsworth, in Supplement to the former
Voyage.[131]
"Since writing the voyage of Captain Downton, I have obtained the
journal of Captain Elkington, in which the reader may proceed with this
worthy captain to Bantam, and thence to his grave; this history
succeeding the former, as its author did in command." - Purch.
[Footnote 131: Purch. Pilgr. I. 514.]
In employing the journals of Mr Elkington and Mr Dodsworth, to continue
the account of the voyage set forth under the command of Captain
Downton, only so much of both are here inserted as answers that purpose,
to avoid prolix repetition of circumstances, already sufficiently
related. The journal of Elkington breaks off abruptly, like that of
Downton, and probably from the same cause; as we learn from Purchas, in
the preceding notice, that Elkington died at Bantam. The journal of
Dodsworth entirely relates to the voyage of the Hope to England, after
parting company with the other two ships, except that it mentions
several incidents of the transactions previous to the departure of that
ship, most of which are here omitted, as already sufficiently
explained. - E.
Sec.1. Continuation of the Voyage from Surat to Bantam, by Captain Thomas
Elkington.
On the 4th March, 1615, we descried the Portuguese fleet, which
immediately gave us chace, which it continued all that day and the next.
On the 6th, the general came aboard us, wishing us to make ready, as he
proposed to turn suddenly round and give an onset upon the enemy: But,
about noon that day, the Portuguese bore up and stood for the coast, and
in three hours after we lost sight of them. At night of the 10th, the
Hope departed from us. The 15th we saw three water-spouts at no great
distance; one of them, which was very large, continued for the space of
half an hour. The 19th we doubled Cape Comorin.
The 10th May, the wind and current both against as, the general went to
a green island, to the north or the salt hill, where we came to anchor
in twenty fathoms on good sand. We here sought fresh water, but found
none. There were plenty of bogs and pigs on this island, where likewise
we gathered abundance of cocoa-nuts. All about this island is good
anchorage, within a stone's throw of the shore, in twelve fathoms. The
pinnace brought water from another island, about four leagues off but it
was brackish.[132] The 2d June we came to anchor in Bantam road.
[Footnote 132: So vaguely is this journal expressed, or rather so
miserably abbreviated by Purchas, that there are no indications by which
to guess even where this island lay, except that it was on the way
between Cape Comorin and Bantam. - E.]
The 3d July we weighed mace, and received silk towards furnishing the
Salomon for Masulipatam, to which place we agreed to send the following
merchants: George Chancie, Ralph Preston, Humphry Elkington, Timothy
Mallory, George Savage, and Robert Savage. The 8th we loaded porcelain
into the Salomon. This day we had news by a junk from the Moluccas, that
the Thomasine was there; and that there were twelve sail of Hollanders
at Ternate, who endeavoured to prevent all others from trading. The 11th
our old house very narrowly escaped burning, in conscience of a fire
very near. The 20th, Mr Jordan had letters from. Mr Ball at Macasser,
complaining of violent ill usage from the Hollanders, who had driven him
from thence, and stating that they proposed coming with all their force
to take possession of Bantam, and to place the king of Motron in the
government. The 21st Mr Bennet set sail in the Salomon. The 25th, the
Advice and Attendance arrived from England, after a voyage of eight
months. They met the Globe and James at the Cape, to which ships they
spared eighteen men. These ships departed for England on the 17th July,
and the Advice and her consort on the 18th, meeting a ship near the
Cape, which we suppose might be either the Samaritan or the Hope, bound
for England.
The 5th of August I went aboard to visit the general, Captain Nicholas
Downton, who was then very ill, and we got word of his death next
day.[133] Mr Evans the preacher, and Mr Hambdon, followed him, on the
8th, as we supposed by taking laudanum, as they were both well a little
before. On the 11th the Advice was sent to Japan, having a complement of
twenty-two Englishmen, together with five blacks, and Fernando the
Spaniard. The Concord returned on the 14th from Succadanea in Borneo and
Macasser. That night we had a prodigious tempest of rain, with thunder
and lightning, and the mosque of Bantam was split in two by a
thunderbolt, on which occasion the chief priest was nearly slain, which
the king and people took for a bad omen, and therefore determined to
make peace with Jacatra.
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