There came that day on board our ship the secretary,
named Corcoun, and the chief sabander, named Abdala, accompanied by
many soldiers armed with cutlasses, darts, crisses, and targets.
They
brought with them many kinds of meats, and a great jar of aquavitae,
making a great shew of friendship and banqueting. Suspecting some
treachery, we filled our tops with stones, made fast and prepared our
gratings, all without orders from our baas, who was exceedingly angry,
and ordered us to discontinue, but we would not.
There is a kind of seed in this country, by eating a little of which a
man becomes quite foolish, all things seeming to be metamorphosed; but,
above a certain quantity, it is deadly poison. With this all the meat
and drink they brought on board was infected. While banqueting, the
sabandar sent for me and Mr Tomkins, who kept me company, and said some
words to one of their attendants, which I did not understand. In a short
time we were foolishly frolicsome, gaping one upon another in a most
ridiculous manner, our captain, or baas, being at that time a prisoner
in their hands, yet knew it not. A signal was made from the other ship,
where the like treachery was going on under the direction of the
secretary, who went there from our ship for that purpose. They
immediately set upon us, murdered our baas, and slew several others.
Mr Tomkins and I, with the assistance of a Frenchman, defended the poop,
which, if they had gained, our ship had been lost, for they already had
the cabin, and some of their fellows were below among our guns, having
crept in at the port-holes. The master of our ship, whom the Dutch call
captain, leapt into the sea, with several others, but came on board
again when all was over. In the end, we put them to flight, for our
people in the tops annoyed them sore; and, when I saw them run, I leapt
from the poop to pursue them, Mr Tomkins following my example. At this
time a Turk came out of the cabin, who wounded him grievously, and they
lay tumbling over each other on the deck. On seeing this, I ran the Turk
through the body with my rapier, and our skipper thrust him down the
throat into the body with a half pike.
All the principal people in the other ship were murdered, and the ship
obviously in possession of the Acheenese; on which we instantly cut our
cables and drove towards her, and, with our shot, made the Indians
abandon her, so that we recovered her likewise. The gallies did not
venture near us. In our great distress, it was some comfort to see how
these base Indians fled, how they were killed, and how they were
drowned; the whole sea being covered with dead Indians, floating about
in hundreds. Abdala, the sabandar, and one of the king's near kinsmen,
were slain, with many others, and the secretary was wounded. The king
was by the shore at this time, attended by a vast many, people; and, on
learning the death of the sabandar, and the overthrow of this treachery,
the furious infidels murdered all of our people who were on shore,
except eight, who were put in irons as slaves. In this great calamity we
lost sixty-eight persons, of whom we are not certain how many may be in
captivity, having only knowledge of these eight. We lost at this time
two fine pinnaces of twenty tons each, and our ship's boat.
We left Acheen that same day, and anchored at Pedier, where we had
sent a small pinnace for rice, but could get no tidings of her. Next
day, the 2d September, there came eleven gallies to take our ships,
having Portuguese in them, as we thought. We sank one of them, and
defeated all the rest, so that they fled amain. That same afternoon, the
son of Lafort, a French merchant, dwelling in Seethinglane, London, came
on board of us, being one of the eight prisoners. He brought the
following message from the king: - "Are you not ashamed to be such
drunken beasts, as, in your drunkenness, to murder my people whom I sent
on board of you in kindness?" He farther required of us, in satisfaction
of his pretended wrong, that we should give up our best ship, on which
he would release our men, telling Lafort, if he could succeed in this,
that he would make him a great nobleman. To this ridiculous proposal we
gave a flat denial; and, being in distress for water, we went over to
Pulo Lotum, on the coast of Queda, or northern part of Malacca, on its
western coast, in lat. 6 deg. 50' N. where we refreshed and watered.
During our stay at Acheen, we received into both our ships 140 tons of
pepper, what precious stones and other merchandize besides I know not.
But, on the day of treason, our merchants lost all the money and goods
they had on shore, which was said to be of great value. On this
occasion, many of our young adventurers were utterly ruined; among whom,
I most grieve at the loss sustained by poor John Davis, having not
only lost my friendly factor, but all my European commodities, with
those things I had provided to shew my love and duty to my best friends;
so that, though India did not receive me rich, she hath sent me back
sufficiently poor.
The island of Sumatra is pleasant and fertile, abounding in many
excellent fruits; but their only grain is rice, which serves them for
bread. They plough the land with buffaloes, which they have in great
numbers, but with small skill, and less industry. The rice grows in all
respects like our barley. They have plenty of pepper, which is grown in
large gardens or plantations, often a mile square.
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