PUT IN OFF PORT DAUPHIN.

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They were easily convinced of the reasonableness of my scheme; and Captain Wilmot, whom I now called our Admiral, though he was at first of the mind to go and lie at the island Mauritius, and wait for some of the European merchantships from the road of Coromandel, or the bay of Bengal, was now of my mind. It is true, we were strong enough to have attacked an English East India ship of the greatest force, though some of them were said to carry fifty guns; but I represented to him, that we were sure to have blows and blood if we took them; and, after we had done, their loading was not of equal value to us, because we had no room to dispose of their merchandise; and, as our circumstances stood, we had rather have taken one outward-bound East India ship, with her ready cash on board, perhaps to the value of forty or fifty thousand pounds, than three homewardbound, though their loading would at London be worth three times the money; because we knew not whither to go to dispose of the cargo; whereas the ships from London had abundance of things we knew how to make use us, besides their money; such as their stores of provisions and liquors, and great quantities of the like sent to the governors and factories at the English settlements, for their use; so that, if we resolved to look for our own country ships, it should be those that were outward-bound, not the London ships homeward.

All these things considered, brought the admiral to be of my mind entirely; so, after taking in water and some fresh provisions where we lay, which was near Cape St. Mary, on the south-west corner of the island, we weighed, and stood away south, and afterwards S.S.E. to round the island, and in about six days' sail, got out of the wake of the island, and steered away north, till we came off Port Dauphin, and then north by east, to the latitude of 13 degrees 40 minutes, which was, in short, just at the farthest part of the island; and the admiral keeping ahead, made the open sea fair to the west, clear of the whole island; upon which he brought to, and we sent a sloop to stand in round the farthest point north, and coast along the shore, and see for a harbour to put into, which they did, and soon brought us an account, that there was a deep bay, with a very good road, and several little islands, under which they found good riding, in ten to seventeen fathom water, and accordingly there we put in.

However, we afterwards found occasion to remove our station, as you shall hear presently. We had now nothing to do, but go on shore, and acquaint ourselves a little with the natives, take in fresh provisions, and then to sea again. We found the people very easy to deal with; and some cattle they had; but it being at the extremity of the island, they had not such quantities of cattle here. However, for the present, we resolved to appoint this for our place of rendezvous, and go and look out. This was about the latter end

of April.

Accordingly we put to sea, and cruised away to the northward, for the Arabian coast: it was a long run; but as the winds generally blow trade from the south and S.S.E. from May to September, we had good weather; and in about twenty days we made the island of Saccatia, lying south from the Arabian coast, and E.S.E. from the mouth of the gulf of Mocha, or the Red Sea.

Here we took in water, and stood off and on upon the Arabian shore. We had not cruised here above three days, or thereabouts, before I spied a sail, and gave her chase; but when we came up with her, never was such a poor prize chased by pirates that looked for booty; for we found nothing in her, but poor, half-naked Turks, going a pilgrimage to Mecca to the tomb of their prophet Mahomet. The junk that carried them had no one thing worth taking away, but a little rice, and some coffee, which was all the poor wretches had for their subsistence; so we let them go, for indeed we knew not what to do with them.

The same evening we chased another junk with two masts, and in something better plight to look at than the former. When we came on board, we found them upon the same errand, but only that they were people of some better fashion than the other; and here we got some plunder, some Turkish stores, a few diamonds, in the ear-drops of five or six persons, some fine Persian carpets, of which they made their saffras to lie upon, and some money; so we let them go also.

We continued here eleven days longer, and saw nothing but now and then a fishing-boat; but the twelfth day of our cruise, we spied a ship: indeed I thought at first it had been an English ship; but it appeared to be an European,

TAKE AN EUROPEAN SHIP AND AN ARABIAN JUNK. 159

freighted for a voyage from Goa, on the coast of Malabar, to the Red Sea, and was very rich. We chased her, and took her without any fight, though they had some guns on board too, but not many. We found her manned with Portuguese seamen, but under the direction of five merchant Turks, who had hired her on the coast of Malabar of some Portugal merchants, and had loaden her with pepper, saltpetre, some spices, and the rest of the loading was chiefly calicoes and wrought silks, some of them very rich.

We took her, and carried her to Saccatia; but we really knew not what to do with her, for the same reasons as before; for all their goods were of little or no value to us. After some days, we found means to let one of the Turkish merchants know, that if he would ransom the ship, we would take a sum of money, and let them go. He told me, if I would let one of them go on shore for the money, they would do it: so we adjusted the value of the cargo at 30,000 ducats. Upon this agreement, we allowed the sloop to carry him on shore at Dofar in Arabia, where a rich merchant laid down the money for them, and came off with our sloop; and on payment of the money, we very fairly and honestly let them go.

Some days after this, we took an Arabian junk, going from the gulf of Persia to Mocha, with a good quantity of pearl on board. We gutted him of the pearl, which, it seems, was belonging to some merchants at Mocha, and let him go; for there was nothing else worth our taking.

We continued cruising up and down here, till we began to find our provisions grow low, when Captain Wilmot, our admiral, told us, it was time to think of going back to the rendezvous; and the rest of the men said the same, being a little weary of beating about for above three months together, and meeting with little or nothing, compared to our great expectations; but I was very loath to part with the Red Sea at so cheap a rate, and pressed them to tarry a little longer, which at my instance we did; but three days afterwards, to our great misfortune, we understood, that, by landing the Turkish merchants at Dofar, we had alarmed the coast as far as the gulf of Persia, so that no vessel would stir that way, and consequently nothing was to be expected on that side.

I was greatly mortified at this news, and could no longer withstand the importunities of the men, to return to Madagascar. However, as the winds continued still to blow at S.S.E. to E. by S., we were obliged to stand away towards the coast of Africa, and the Cape Guardefoy, the winds being more variable under the shore than in the open sea.

Here we chopped upon a booty which we did not look for, and which made amends for all our waiting; for, the very same hour that we made land, we spied a large vessel sailing along the shore, to the southward. The ship was of Bengal, belonging to the Great Mogul's country, but had on board a Dutch pilot, whose name, if I remember right, was Vandergest, and several European seamen, whereof three were English. She was in no condition to resist us. The rest of her seamen were Indians of the Mogul's subjects, some Malabars, and some others. There were five Indian merchants on board, and some Armenians. It seems they had been at Mocha with spices, silks, diamonds, pearls, calico. &c., such goods as the country afforded, and had little on board now but money, in pieces of eight, which, by the way, was just what we wanted; and the three English seamen came along with us; and the Dutch pilot would have done so too, but the two Armenian merchants entreated us not to take him; for that, he being their pilot, there was none of the men knew how to guide the ship: so, at their request, we refused him; but we made them promise he should not be used ill for being willing to go with us.

We got near two hundred thousand pieces of eight in this vessel; and, if they said true, there was a Jew of Goa, who intended to have embarked with them, who had two hundred thousand pieces of eight with him, all his own; but his good fortune hindered him; for he fell sick at Mocha, and could not be ready to travel, which was the saving of his money.

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CHAPTER XIII.

WILLIAM'S DREAM, AND STRANGE ADVENTURE IN CONSEQUENCE THEREOF JOIN CAPTAIN WILMOT AT MANGAHELLY-CAPTAIN AVERY JOINS US-DISSENSIONS ARISE AMONGST US-WE PART COMPANY, AND I LEAVE THEM, HAVING THE GREAT SHIP UNDER MY COMMAND-OCCURRENCES OF OUR VOYAGE.

THERE was none with me at the taking this prize, but the sloop; for Captain Wilmot's ship proving leaky, he went away for the rendezvous before us, and arrived there the middle of December; but not liking the port, he left a great cross on shore, with directions written on a plate of lead fixed to it, for us to come after him to the great bay at Mangahelly, where we found a very good harbour; but we learned a piece of news here, that kept us from him a great while, which the admiral took offence at; but we stopped his mouth with his share of two hundred thousand pieces of eight to him and his ship's crew. But the story which interrupted our coming to him was this. Between Mangahelly, and another point, called Cape St. Sebastian, there came on shore, in the night, an European ship; and whether stress of weather, or want of a pilot, I know not, but the ship stranded, and could not be got off.

We lay in the cove, or harbour, where, as I have said, our rendezvous was appointed, and had not yet been on shore; so we had not seen the directions our admiral had left for us.

Our friend William, of whom I have said nothing a great while, had a great mind one day to go on shore, and importuned me to let him have a little troop to go with him, for safety, that they might see the country. I was mightily against it for many reasons; but particularly I told him, he knew the natives were but savages, and they were very treacherous, and I desired him that he would not go; and, had he gone on much farther, I believe I should have downright refused him, and commanded him not to go.

But, in order to persuade me to let him go, he told me, he would give me an account of the reason why he was so im

M