The Fifteenth, The Mast Being
Repaired, And All Our Water-Casks Full, We Stowed Our Boats At Night,
And Prepared To Be Gone Next Morning.
Cape Verd is the best place I know
of for our outward-bound ships; not being out of the way, the road being
good and fit for the dispatch of any kind of business, and fresh fish to
be had in great plenty.
In a council with Captain Downton and the
masters, it was agreed that our best course to steer for the line from
hence was S.S.W. for sixty leagues, then S.S.E. till near the line, and
then easterly. We dismissed the Samuel to return home, and held on our
way.
We came into Saldanha roads the 24th July, and saluted the Dutch admiral
with five guns, which he returned. There were also two other Holland
ships there, which came to make train-oil of seals,[318] and which had
made 300 pipes. This day I went a-land, and found the names of Captain
Keeling and others, homewards-bound in January, 1610; also my brother
David's name, outward-bound, 9th August, 1609, and likewise a letter
buried under ground, according to agreement between him and me in
England, but it was so consumed with damp as to be altogether illegible.
The 26th, we set up a tent for our sick men, and got them all ashore to
air our ships. From this till we departed, nothing happened worth
writing.
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