having none but Indians on board.
In the bottom of the bay we met with a great junk belonging to theMogul's court, with a great many people, passengers as we supposed themto be: it seems they were bound for the river Hooghly or Ganges, andcame from Sumatra. This was a prize worth taking indeed; and we gotso much gold in her, besides other goods which we did not meddlewith--pepper in particular--that it had like to have put an end to ourcruise; for almost all my men said we were rich enough, and desired togo back again to Madagascar. But I had other things in my head still,and when I came to talk with them, and set friend William to talk withthem, we put such further golden hopes into their heads that we soonprevailed with them to let us go on.
My next design was to leave all the dangerous straits of Malacca,Singapore, and Sunda, where we could expect no great booty, but what wemight light on in European ships, which we must fight for; and though wewere able to fight, and wanted no courage, even to desperation, yet wewere rich too, and resolved to be richer, and took this for our maxim,that while we were sure the wealth we sought was to be had withoutfighting, we had no occasion to put ourselves to the necessity offighting for that which would come upon easy terms.
We left, therefore, the Bay of Bengal, and coming to the coast ofSumatra, we put in at a small port, where there was a town, inhabitedonly by Malays; and here we took in fresh water, and a large quantity ofgood pork, pickled up and well salted, notwithstanding the heat of theclimate, being in the very middle of the torrid zone, viz., in threedegrees fifteen minutes north latitude. We also took on board both ourvessels forty hogs alive, which served us for fresh provisions, havingabundance of food for them, such as the country produced, such as guams,potatoes, and a sort of coarse rice, good for nothing else but to feedthe swine. We killed one of these hogs every day, and found them to beexcellent meat. We took in also a monstrous quantity of ducks, and cocksand hens, the same kind as we have in England, which we kept for changeof provisions; and if I remember right, we had no less than two thousandof them; so that at first we were pestered with them very much, butwe soon lessened them by boiling, roasting, stewing, &c., for we neverwanted while we had them.
My long-projected design now lay open to me, which was to fall inamongst the Dutch Spice Islands, and see what mischief I could do there.Accordingly, we put out to sea the 12th of August, and passing the lineon the 17th, we stood away due south, leaving the Straits of Sunda andthe isle of Java on the east, till we came to the latitude of elevendegrees twenty minutes, when we steered east and E.N.E., having easygales from the W.S.W. till we came among the Moluccas, or Spice Islands.
We passed those seas with less difficulty than in other places, thewinds to the south of Java being more variable, and the weather good,though sometimes we met with squally weather and short storms; but whenwe came in among the Spice Islands themselves we had a share of themonsoons, or trade-winds, and made use of them accordingly.
The infinite number of islands which lie in these seas embarrassedus strangely, and it was with great difficulty that we worked our waythrough them; then we steered for the north side of the Philippines,when we had a double chance for purchase, viz., either to meet withthe Spanish ships from Acapulco, on the coast of New Spain, or we werecertain not to fail of finding some ships or junks of China, who, ifthey came from China, would have a great quantity of goods of value onboard, as well as money; or if we took them going back, we should findthem laden with nutmegs and cloves from Banda and Ternate, or from someof the other islands.
We were right in our guesses here to a tittle, and we steered directlythrough a large outlet, which they call a strait, though it be fifteenmiles broad, and to an island they call Dammer, and from thence N.N.E.to Banda. Between these islands we met with a Dutch junk, or vessel,going to Amboyna: we took her without much trouble, and I had much adoto prevent our men murdering all the men, as soon as they heard them saythey belonged to Amboyna: the reasons I suppose any one will guess.
We took out of her about sixteen ton of nutmegs, some provisions, andtheir small-arms, for they had no great guns, and let the ship go: fromthence we sailed directly to the Banda Island, or Islands, where wewere sure to get more nutmegs if we thought fit. For my part, I wouldwillingly have got more nutmegs, though I had paid for them, but ourpeople abhorred paying for anything; so we got about twelve ton more atseveral times, most of them from shore, and only a few in a small boatof the natives, which was going to Gilolo. We would have traded openly,but the Dutch, who have made themselves masters of all those islands,forbade the people dealing with us, or any strangers whatever, and keptthem so in awe that they durst not do it; so we could indeed have madenothing of it if we had stayed longer, and therefore resolved to be gonefor Ternate, and see if we could make up our loading with cloves.
Accordingly we stood away north, but found ourselves so entangled amonginnumerable islands, and without any pilot that understood the channeland races between them, that we were obliged to give it over, andresolved to go back again to Banda, and see what we could get among theother islands thereabouts.
The first adventure we made here had like to have been fatal to us all,for the sloop, being ahead, made the signal to us for seeing a sail, andafterwards another, and a third, by which we understood she saw threesail; whereupon we made more sail to come up with her, but on a suddenwere gotten among some rocks, falling foul upon them in such a manneras frighted us all very heartily; for having, it seems, but just waterenough, as it were to an inch, our rudder struck upon the top of a rock,which gave us a terrible shock, and split a great piece off the rudder,and indeed disabled it so that our ship would not steer at all, at leastnot so as to be depended upon; and we were glad to hand all our sails,except our fore-sail and main-topsail, and with them we stood away tothe east, to see if we could find any creek or harbour where we mightlay the ship on shore, and repair our rudder; besides, we found the shipherself had received some damage, for she had some little leak near herstern-post, but a great way under water.
By this mischance we lost the advantages, whatever they were, of thethree sail of ships, which we afterwards came to hear were small Dutchships from Batavia, going to Banda and Amboyna, to load spice, and, nodoubt, had a good quantity of money on board.
Upon the disaster I have been speaking of you may very well suppose thatwe came to an anchor as soon as we could, which was upon a small islandnot far from Banda, where, though the Dutch keep no factory, yet theycome at the season to buy nutmegs and mace. We stayed there thirteendays; but there being no place where we could lay the ship on shore, wesent the sloop to cruise among the islands, to look out for a place fitfor us. In the meantime we got very good water here, some provisions,roots, and fruits, and a good quantity of nutmegs and mace, which wefound ways to trade with the natives for, without the knowledge of theirmasters, the Dutch.
At length our sloop returned; having found another island wherethere was a very good harbour, we ran in, and came to an anchor. Weimmediately unbent all our sails, sent them ashore upon the island, andset up seven or eight tents with them; then we unrigged our top-masts,and cut them down, hoisted all our guns out, our provisions and loading,and put them ashore in the tents. With the guns we made two smallbatteries, for fear of a surprise, and kept a look-out upon the hill.When we were all ready, we laid the ship aground upon a hard sand, theupper end of the harbour, and shored her up on each side. At low watershe lay almost dry, so we mended her bottom, and stopped the leak, whichwas occasioned by straining some of the rudder irons with the shockwhich the ship had against the rock.
Having done this, we also took occasion to clean her bottom, which,having been at sea so long, was very foul. The sloop washed and tallowedalso, but was ready before us, and cruised eight or ten days among theislands, but met with no purchase; so that we began to be tired of theplace, having little to divert us but the most furious claps of thunderthat ever were heard or read of in the world.
We were in hopes to have met with some purchase here among the Chinese,who,
we had been told, came to Ternate to trade for cloves, and to theBanda Isles for nutmegs; and we would have been very glad to have loadedour galleon, or great ship, with these two sorts of spice, and havethought it a glorious voyage; but we found nothing stirring more thanwhat I have said, except Dutchmen, who, by what means we could notimagine, had either a jealousy of us or intelligence of us, and keptthemselves close in their ports.
I was once resolved to have made a descent at the island of Dumas, theplace most famous for the best nutmegs; but friend William, who wasalways for doing our business without fighting, dissuaded me from it,and gave such reasons for it that we could not resist; particularlythe great heats of the season, and of the place, for we were now in thelatitude of just half a degree south. But while we were disputing thispoint we were soon determined by the following accident:--We had astrong gale of wind at S.W. by W., and the ship had fresh way, but agreat sea rolling in upon us from the N.E., which we afterwards foundwas the pouring