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.
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