and as for their arms, they desired we would send men on board the boat,
and that they would deliver them all to us, which was done. The fellow
that came up to me told me how they had been used by their captain, how
he had starved the men, and used them like dogs, and that, if the rest
of the men knew they should be admitted, he was satisfied two-thirds
of them would leave the ship. We found the fellows were very hearty in
their resolution, and jolly brisk sailors they were; so I told them I
would do nothing without our admiral, that was the captain of the other
ship; so I sent my pinnace on board Captain Wilmot, to desire him to
come on board. But he was indisposed, and being to leeward, excused his
coming, but left it all to me; but before my boat was returned, Captain
Wilmot called to me by his speaking-trumpet, which all the men might
hear as well as I; thus, calling me by my name, "I hear they are honest
fellows; pray tell them they are all welcome, and make them a bowl of
punch."
As the men heard it as well as I, there was no need to tell them what
the captain said; and, as soon as the trumpet had done, they set up a
huzza, that showed us they were very hearty in their coming to us; but
we bound them to us by a stronger obligation still after this, for when
we came to Madagascar, Captain Wilmot, with consent of all the ship's
company, ordered that these men should have as much money given them out
of the stock as was due to them for their pay in the ship they had
left; and after that we allowed them twenty pieces of eight a man bounty
money; and thus we entered them upon shares, as we were all, and brave
stout fellows they were, being eighteen in number, whereof two were
midshipmen, and one a carpenter.
It was the 28th of November, when, having had some bad weather, we came
to an anchor in the road off St Augustine Bay, at the south-west end
of my old acquaintance the isle of Madagascar. We lay here awhile and
trafficked with the natives for some good beef; though the weather was
so hot that we could not promise ourselves to salt any of it up to keep;
but I showed them the way which we practised before, to salt it first
with saltpetre, then cure it by drying it in the sun, which made it eat
very agreeably, though not so wholesome for our men, that not agreeing
with our way of cooking, viz., boiling with pudding, brewis, &c., and
particularly this way, would be too salt, and the fat of the meat be
rusty, or dried away so as not to be eaten.
This, however, we could not help, and made ourselves amends by feeding
heartily on the fresh beef while we were there, which was excellent,
good and fat, every way as tender and as well relished as in England,
and thought to be much better to us who had not tasted any in England
for so long a time.
Having now for some time remained here, we began to consider that
this was not a place for our business; and I, that had some views a
particular way of my own, told them that this was not a station for
those who looked for purchase; that there were two parts of the island
which were particularly proper for our purposes; first, the bay on the
east side of the island, and from thence to the island Mauritius, which
was the usual way which ships that came from the Malabar coast, or the
coast of Coromandel, Fort St George, &c., used to take, and where, if we
waited for them, we ought to take our station.
But, on the other hand, as we did not resolve to fall upon the European
traders, who were generally ships of force and well manned, and where
blows must be looked for; so I had another prospect, which I promised
myself would yield equal profit, or perhaps greater, without any of the
hazard and difficulty of the former; and this was the Gulf of Mocha, or
the Red Sea.
I told them that the trade here was great, the ships rich, and the
Strait of Babelmandel narrow; so that there was no doubt but we might
cruise so as to let nothing slip our hands, having the seas open from
the Red Sea, along the coast of Arabia, to the Persian Gulf, and the
Malabar side of the Indies.
I told them what I had observed when I sailed round the island in my
former progress; how that, on the northernmost point of the island,
there were several very good harbours and roads for our ships; that
the natives were even more civil and tractable, if possible, than those
where we were, not having been so often ill-treated by European sailors
as those had in the south and east sides; and that we might always be
sure of a retreat, if we were driven to put in by any necessity, either
of enemies or weather.
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 merchant-ships 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 homeward-bound, 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 of 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 water and
some 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 S. and S.S.E. from May to September, we had good weather; and
in about twenty days we made the island of Socotra, 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, but 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 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 laden 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 Socotra; 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 that 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 loth to part with the Red Sea at so
cheap a rate, and pressed them to tarry a little longer, which at my
instance they did; but three days afterwards, to our great misfortune,
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 wind
continued still to blow at S.S.E. by S., we were obliged to stand away
towards the coast of Africa and the Cape Guardafui, 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 200,000 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 200,000 pieces of eight with him, all his own; but his good
fortune, springing out of his ill fortune, hindered him, or he fell sick
at Mocha, and could not be ready to travel, which was the saving of his
money.
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 bays at
Mangahelly, where he 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 200,000 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 by 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 importunate. He told me, the last
night he had a dream, which was so forcible, and made such an impression
upon his mind, that he could not be quiet till he had made the proposal
to me to go; and if I refused him, then he thought his dream was
significant; and if not, then his dream was at an end.
His dream was, he said, that he went on shore with thirty men, of which
the cockswain, he said, was one, upon the island; and that they found a
mine of gold, and enriched them all. But this was not the main thing, he
said, but that the same morning he had dreamed so, the cockswain came
to him just then, and told him that he dreamed he went on shore on the
island of Madagascar, and that some men came to him and told him they
would show him where he should get a prize which would make them all
rich.
These two things put together began to weigh with me a little, though I
was never inclined to give any heed to dreams; but William's importunity
turned me effectually, for I always put a great deal of stress upon his
judgment; so that, in short, I gave them leave to go, but I charged them
not to go far off from the sea-coast; that, if they were forced down to
the seaside upon any occasion, we might perhaps see them, and fetch them
off with our boats.
They went away early in the morning, one-and-thirty men of them in
number, very well armed, and very stout fellows; they travelled all the
day, and at night made us a signal that all was well, from the top of a
hill, which we had agreed on, by making a great fire.
Next day they marched down the hill on the other side, inclining towards
the seaside, as they had promised, and saw a very pleasant valley before
them, with a river in the middle of it, which, a little farther below
them, seemed to be big enough to bear small ships; they marched apace
towards this river, and were surprised with the noise of a piece going
off, which, by the sound, could not be far off. They listened long, but
could hear no more; so they went on to the river-side, which was a very
fine fresh stream, but widened apace, and they kept on by the banks of
it, till, almost at once, it opened or widened into a good large creek
or harbour, about five miles from the sea; and that which was still more
surprising, as they marched forward, they plainly saw in the mouth of
the harbour, or creek, the wreck of a ship.
The tide was up, as we call it, so that it did not appear very much
above the water, but, as they made downwards, they found it grow bigger
and bigger; and the tide soon after ebbing out, they found it lay dry
upon the sands, and appeared to be the wreck of a considerable vessel,
larger than could be expected in that country.
After some time, William, taking out his glass to look at it more
nearly, was surprised with hearing a musket-shot whistle by him, and
immediately after that he heard the gun, and saw the smoke from the
other side; upon which our men immediately fired three muskets, to
discover, if possible, what or who they were. Upon the noise of these
guns, abundance of men came running down to the shore from among the
trees; and our men could easily perceive that they were Europeans,
though they knew not of what nation; however, our men hallooed to them
as loud as they could, and by-and-by they got a long pole, and set it
up, and hung a white shirt upon it for a flag of truce. They on the
other side saw it, by the help of their glasses, too, and quickly after
our men see a boat launch off from the shore, as they thought, but it
was from another creek, it seems; and immediately they came rowing over
the creek to our men, carrying also a white flag as a token of truce.
It is not easy to describe the surprise, or joy and satisfaction, that
appeared on both sides, to see not only white men, but Englishmen, in
a place so remote; but what then must it be when they came to know one
another, and to find that they were not only countrymen but comrades,
and that this was the very ship that Captain Wilmot, our admiral,
commanded, and whose company we had lost in the storm at Tobago, after
making an agreement to rendezvous at Madagascar!
They had, it seems, got intelligence of us when they came to the south
part of the island, and had been a-roving as far as the Gulf of Bengal,
when they met Captain Avery, with whom they joined, took several rich
prizes, and, amongst the rest, one ship with the Great Mogul's daughter,
and an immense treasure in money and jewels; and from thence they came
about the coast of Coromandel, and afterwards that of Malabar, into the
Gulf of Persia, where they also took some prize, and then designed for
the south part of Madagascar; but the winds blowing hard at S.E. and
S.E. by E., they came to the northward of the isle, and being after that
separated by a furious tempest from the N.W., they were forced into the
mouth of that creek, where they lost their ship. And they told us, also,
that they heard that Captain Avery himself had lost his ship also not
far off.
When they had thus acquainted one another with their fortunes, the poor
overjoyed men were in haste to go back to communicate their joy to their
comrades; and, leaving some of their men with ours, the rest went back,
and William was so earnest to see them that he and two more went back
with them, and there he came to their little camp where they lived.
There were about a hundred and sixty men of them in all; they had got
their guns on shore, and some ammunition, but a good deal of their
powder was spoiled; however, they had raised a fair platform, and
mounted twelve pieces of cannon upon it, which was a sufficient defence
to them on that side of the sea; and just at the end of the platform
they had made a launch and a little yard, and were all hard at work,
building another little ship, as I may call it, to go to sea in; but
they put a stop to this work upon the news they had of our being come
in.
When our men went into their huts, it was surprising, indeed, to see the
vast stock of wealth they had got, in gold and silver and jewels, which,
however, they told us was a trifle to what Captain Avery had, wherever
he was gone.
It was five days we had waited for our men, and no news of them; and
indeed I gave them over for lost, but was surprised, after five days'
waiting, to see a ship's boat come rowing towards us along shore. What
to make of it I could not tell, but was at least better satisfied when
our men told me they heard them halloo and saw them wave their caps to
us.
In a little time they came quite up to us; and I saw friend William
stand up in the boat and make signs to us; so they came on board; but
when I saw there were but fifteen of our one-and-thirty men, I asked him
what had become of their fellows. "Oh," says William, "they are all very
well; and my dream is fully made good, and the cockswain's too."
This made me very impatient to know how the case stood; so he told us
the whole story, which indeed surprised us all. The next day we weighed,
and stood away southerly to join Captain Wilmot and ship at Mangahelly,
where we found him, as I said, a little chagrined at our stay; but we
pacified him afterwards with telling him the history of William's dream,
and the consequence of it.
In the meantime the camp of our comrades was so near Mangahelly, that
our admiral and I, friend William, and some of the men, resolved to take
the sloop and go and see them, and fetch them all, and their goods,
bag and baggage, on board our ship, which accordingly we did, and found
their camp, their fortifications, the battery of guns they had erected,
their treasure, and all the men, just as William had related it; so,
after some stay, we took all the men into the sloop, and brought them
away with us.
It was some time before we knew what was become of Captain Avery; but
after about a month, by the direction of the men who had lost their
ship, we sent the sloop to cruise along the shore, to find out, if
possible, where they were; and in about a week's cruise our men found
them, and particularly that they had lost their ship, as well as our men
had lost theirs, and that they were every way in as bad a condition as
ours.
It was about ten days before the sloop returned, and Captain Avery with
them; and this was the whole force that, as I remember, Captain Avery
ever had with him; for now we joined all our companies together, and it
stood thus:--We had two ships and a sloop, in which we had 320 men, but
much too few to man them as they ought to be, the great Portuguese ship
requiring of herself near 400 men to man her completely. As for
our lost, but now found comrade, her complement of men was 180, or
thereabouts; and Captain Avery had about 300 men with him, whereof he
had ten carpenters with him, most of which were taken aboard the
prize they had taken; so that, in a word, all the force Avery had at
Madagascar, in the year 1699, or thereabouts, amounted to our three
ships, for his own was lost, as you have heard; and never had any more
than about 1200 men in all.
It was about a month after this that all our crews got together, and
as Avery was unshipped, we all agreed to bring our own company into the
Portuguese man-of-war and the sloop, and give Captain Avery the Spanish
frigate, with all the tackles and furniture, guns and ammunition, for
his crew by themselves; for which they, being full of wealth, agreed to
give us 40,000 pieces of eight.