For The
Excellence Of Its Harbour And Watering-Place; Its Plenty Of Fish, Of
Which We Took Great Store With
Our nets; for sundry sorts of fruits, as
cocoa-nuts and others, which were brought to us in abundance by
The
Moors; and for oxen and poultry, this place is well worth being
carefully sought after by such of our ships as shall hereafter pass this
way; but our people had good need to beware of the Portuguese. While we
lay here their admiral of the coast, from Melinda to Mozambique, came
to view us, and would have taken our boat, if he had found an
opportunity. He was in a galley frigate, or armed pinnace, with eight or
nine oars of a side. We were advertised of the strength of this galley,
and their treacherous intentions, by an Arabian Moor, who came
frequently to us from the King of Zanzibar, about the delivery of the
priest, and afterwards by another Moor, whom we carried from thence
along with us: for, wheresoever we came, we took care to get one or two
of the natives into our hands, to learn the languages and conditions of
the parts at which we touched.
We had at this place another thunder clap, which shivered our foremast
very much, which we fished and repaired with timber from the shore, of
which there is abundance, the trees being about forty feet high, the
wood red and tough, and, as I suppose, a kind of cedar. At this place
our surgeon, Mr Arnold, negligently caught a great heat, or stroke of
the sun, in his head, while on land with the master in search of oxen,
owing to which he fell sick, and shortly died, though he might have been
cured by letting blood before the disease had settled. Before leaving
this place we procured some thousand weight of pitch, or rather a grey
and white gum, like frankincense, as clammy as turpentine, which grows
black when melted, and very brittle; but we mixed it with oil, of which
we had 300 jars from the prize taken to the north of the equator, not
far from Guinea. Six days before leaving Zanzibar, the head merchant of
the factory sent a letter to our captain, in friendship, as he
pretended, requesting a jar of wine, a jar of oil, and two or three
pounds of gunpowder. This letter he sent by a negro servant and a Moor,
in a canoe. Our captain sent him all he asked by the Moor, but took the
negro along with us, as we understood he had been formerly in the
Indies, and knew something of the country. By this negro we were
advertised of a small bark of some thirty tons, called junco by the
Moors, which was come hither from Goa, laden with pepper for the
factory, and for sale in that kingdom.
Having put our ship into as good order as we could, while we lay in the
road of Zanzibar, we set sail for India on the 15th of February, 1592,
as said before, intending, if we could, to have reached Cape Comorin,
the head-land, or promontory, of the main-land of Malabar, and there to
have lain off and on for such ships as should pass from Ceylon, San
Thome. Bengal, Pegu, Malacca, the Moluccas, China, or Japan, which ships
are full of wealth and riches. But in our course we were much deceived
by the currents, which set into the gulf of Arabia, all along the coast
of Melinda; and the winds so scanted upon us from the east and
north-east, that we could not get off, and set us to the northward,
within fourscore leagues of Socotoro, far from our destined course.
During all this time we never wanted dolphins, bonitos, and flying
fishes. Finding ourselves thus far to the northward, and the season
being far spent, we determined upon going to the Red Sea, or the island
of Socotoro, both for refreshment and to look out for some purchase,
(prize). But, while in this mind, the wind fortunately sprung up at
north-west, and carried us direct for Cape Comorin.
Before doubling that cape, it was our intention to touch at the islands
of Mamale[16] in 12 deg. of N. lat. at one of which we were informed we
might procure provisions. But it was not our luck to find it, partly by
the obstinacy of our master; for the day before we should have fallen in
with part of these islands, the wind shifted to the south-west, and we
missed finding it. As the wind now became more southerly, we feared not
being able to double the cape, which would have greatly hazarded our
being cast away upon the coast of Malabar, the winter season and western
monsoon being already come in, which monsoon continues on that coast
till August. But it pleased God that the wind came about more westerly,
so that in May, 1592, we happily doubled Cape Comorin, without being in
sight of the coast of India. Having thus doubled the cape, we directed
our course for the islands of Nicobar, which lie north and south with
the western part of Sumatra, and in lat. 7 deg. N.[17] We ran from Cape
Comorin to the meridian of these islands in six days, having a very
large wind, though with foul weather, excessive rain, and gusts of wind.
[Footnote 16: Perhaps the Maldives are here meant; but the northern
extremity of that group is in lat. 7 deg. N., and the latitude of 10 deg., which
reaches to the southernmost of the Lakedives, is very far out of the way
for doubling Cape Comorin. - E.]
[Footnote 17: The Nicobar Islands are in 8 deg. N.; but Great Sambelong is
in the latitude mentioned in the text, and may have been considered as
belonging to the Nicobar group. - E.]
Through the negligence of our master, by not taking due observation of
the south star, we missed these islands, falling to the southward of
them, within sight of the islands of Gomes Polo,[18] immediately off
the great island of Sumatra, it being then the 1st of June; and we lay
two or three days becalmed at the north-east side of these islands,
hoping to have procured a pilot from the island of Sumatra, which was in
sight, within two leagues of us.
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