Their Admiral, In The Very Hottest Of The Fight, Was Under The
Necesity Of Giving His Ship A Heel To Stop His Leaks, His Main-Top-Mast
And The Head Of His Main-Mast Having Fallen Overboard.
The great Dutch
ship had both his top-masts and part of his boltsprit shot away, and the
smaller lost all his shrouds and top-masts.
Their vice-admiral escaped
best this day, having commonly one or other of their own ships between
him and us.
We kept them company all night, in hope of being able next morning to
give them their passports; but having taken a survey of our shot, which
we found scanty, and considering the importance of the voyage we still
had to perform, we thought it best to give over the chase and return to
Jasques; leaving them glad of our absence, their two great ships towing
the two smaller. We have had no account of their loss in this action.
All your worships ships remain serviceable, God be praised, and only
five men slain outright in these two long and severe engagements. Our
worthy admiral and kind commander, Captain Andrew Shilling, received a
great and grievous wound by a cannon ball through his left shoulder,
which he bore with such wonderful courage and patience, that we were in
great hopes of his much-wished-for recovery: But he had likewise two of
his uppermost ribs broken on the left side, and died on the 6th January,
1621, shewing himself a resolute commander in the action, and an assured
Christian in his death. We intended to have carried his body to Surat,
to have there performed his funeral rites according to his great merit,
and oar surgeons undertook to preserve his body by means of embalming
and cere-cloth, but it became so noisome that we were forced to bury him
at Jasques, which was done on the 7th, with all the solemnity and
respect in our power.
In this engagement, the London expended 1382 great shot of several
sorts, the Hart 1024, the Roebuck 815, and the Eagle 800, in all 4021.
In consequence of the death of our worthy admiral, the white box, No. I.
was opened; and according to your worships appointment, Captain Richard
Blithe succeeded to the supreme command of the London, I was removed
into the Hart, Christopher Brown into the Roebuck, and Thomas Taylor was
made master of the Eagle.[299]
[Footnote 299: This account does not agree with an accompanying official
letter, dated 13th January, 1621, giving a similar account of the two
engagements, often in the very identical words used by Swan, in which
the name of Thomas Taylor is omitted, instead of whom William Baffin is
the last in the list of signatures; and the Christian name of Swan is
made Robert instead of Richard. - E.]
Sec.5. Sequel of the Voyage.
The 14th January, 1621, having had forty-eight hours continual and
excessive rain, which, or much wind, is usual at Jasques for three or
four days at the full and change of the moon, and having finished our
business at Jasques, we set sail on our return to Surat, where we
arrived on the 1st February. Nothing material occurred on the passage,
except that, on the 27th January, between Diu and the sand-heads, we
surprised a small ship of war, called Nostra Senaora de Remedio, of 100
tons, commanded by Francisco de Sylva, manned by thirty-five Portuguese
and twenty-five Moors, sent out by the governor of Diu to protect their
small merchant ships against the Malabar rovers. We dismissed the men
and kept the ship for our use, calling her the Andrew, after our late
excellent general. She had in her neither meat, money, nor commodities,
and scarcely as many poor suits of clothes as there were backs.
The 27th of February we began to take in our loading. The 5th of March,
the, Eagle was sent down to keep guard over the junk belonging to the
prince, and to hinder her from any farther loading, till they granted
free passage for our carts with goods and provisions, which had been
restrained for six or seven days by the vexatious procedure of the
governor of Olpar, a town near Surat. By this means, no cotton wool was
allowed to come down till our ships were fully laden. On the 16th of
March, having notice that the Camla, from Agra, had been robbed by the
Deccan army, we resolved to seek restitution upon the ships of the
Deccan prince and his confederates in this transaction, as we intended
wintering in the Red Sea. The 19th, the governor of Surat having given
us satisfaction in regard to the carts, and a supply of powder and shot
for our money, and promise under his hand for redress of other injuries,
we dismissed the junk belonging to the prince from duress.
From the 25th of March to the 6th of April, 1621, the winds have been
S. and S.S.W. or W. and blowing so hard from noon till midnight, raising
so great a surf on the shore, that no business could be done except on
the last quarter of the ebb and first of the flood tide. We sailed on
the 7th April. The 9th, the Eagle and a Dutch pinnace, called the
Fortune, parted company, being consigned to Acheen and Bantam. The
London, Hart, Roebuck, and Andrew, were intended for the Red Sea, if not
too late.
The 1st May, the Andrew and our boats surprised a Portuguese ship of 200
tons called the St Antonio, which we named the May-flower. Her principal
lading consisted of rice taken in at Barcelor, whence she had gone to
Goa, and sailed from thence for Ormus and Muskat on the 8th of April. We
learnt from this prize, that Ruy Frere de Andrada was busy in repairing
his ships at Ormus, and that Don Emanuel de Azeredo had departed from
Gor fifty days before for Ormus, to reinforce Andrada with two galleons,
one of these being the same in which the viceroy was personally, when he
engaged our fleet under Captain Downton.
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