Volume 9, Chapter 11, Section 12 -- Journal of a Voyage to Surat and Jasques, in 1620.[296]

"According to the title of this journal in the Pilgrims, the fleet which sailed on this voyage consisted of the London, of 800 tons, William Baffin master, on board of which was Captain Andrew Shilling, chief in command, or general; the Hart, of 500 tons, Richard Blithe master; the Roebuck, of 300 tons, Richard Swan master; and the Eagle, of 280 tons, Christopher Brown master. The account of the voyage in Purchas is said to consist of extracts from the journal written by Richard Swan, the master or captain of the Roebuck."--E.

§1. Voyage from England to Surat.

We sailed from Tilbury-hope on the 26th of February, 1620, and anchored in Saldanha road [Table Bay, at the Cape of Good Hope] on 24th of June, where we found the Lion homewards-bound, and nine Dutch ships bound for Bantam, commanded by a gentleman named Nicolas van Baccum, who was said to have studied seven years at Oxford. Next morning the Lion and the Dutch fleet departed, each their several way; and in the evening arrived the Schidam belonging to Deft, outward-bound, which being suspected by both admirals, the master was sent for, and producing his commission, gave satisfaction. On the 3rd of July we made a solemn proclamation of the right and title of his majesty King James to Saldania, and on the 7th King James's mount was erected.[297]

We sailed from the Cape of Good Hope on the 25th of July, and 26th of October we put into Dabul roads, where we remained till the 2nd of November to refresh our men, and to provide the two ships bound for Persia. The 6th November, the Hart and Eagle took leave of us, and the 9th we anchored in Swally roads, where we found the Wappen van Zeland, of 1000 tons, which at our arrival took in her colours, and saluted the London with three guns, and the Roebuck with two.

I was sent on shore, and brought off Mr. Thomas Kerridge, the president of the factory at Surat, with Mr. James, and Mr. Hopkinson. Next day, in a consultation, it was determined to dispatch us speedily after the Hart and Eagle, as we had intelligence that four Portuguese galleons were waiting at Ormus, or in Jasques roads, to intercept them.

§2. Voyage from Surat towards Jasques.

The 19th November, having dispatched our business at Swally with all expedition, we set sail towards Jasques. The 21st we chased a ship, which surrendered without resistance, being the Nostra Sennora de Merces, of 200 tons, bound from Muscat for Chaul, having on board forty-two Arabian horses, her principal loading, and for which trade she was built. The residue of her cargo consisted of dates and raisins. The name of her captain was Francisco de Mirando.

The 5th December, when in latitude 24° 55' N., we met the Hart and Eagle coming from Jasques for Surat, because not of sufficient strength to encounter the Portuguese force which was waiting for them with the intention of ruining our Persian trade. Thus happily rejoined to our former consorts, we shaped our course for Jasques to accomplish our purpose. The 8th, at the earnest desire of the Portuguese and Moors taken in the prize, we set them on shore, except some Moor seamen whom we detained in our service, and the Portuguese pilot, who entreated to stay, as he feared some hard usage from his own people.

On the 12th, certain volunteers who had engaged to set fire to our prize, and run her aboard the Portuguese admiral, were put on board of her, and she was fitted as a fire-ship. The 15th we had sight of the east point of Jasques roads, having upon it a tomb or old square flat-roofed house, which bore W.N.W. by compass, twelve miles off. From Diu head to this point, I make the longitude, by the ordinary plain chart, 9° 55' 36" W.; but by Mercator's projection, 10° 51'.

From where we were, we could see the Portuguese men of war sent from Lisbon to oppose our trade with Persia, consisting of two Portuguese galleons, one of which was larger than the London, and two Dutch ships, one as large as the Hart, while the other was less than the Eagle. Their general was Don Ruy Frere de Andrado; the vice-admiral, Joam Boralio; and the two Dutch ships were commanded by Antonio Musquet and Baltazar de Chaves.[298]

§3. Account of the first Fight with the Portuguese.

In the morning of the 16th December, our admiral and all the masters of our squadron went on board the prize, carrying two barrels of powder, some tar, and other combustible materials, to fit her up as a fire-ship, intending to lay her on board the Portuguese admiral athwart his hawse, that both might burn together. After she was fitted, we bore up for the Portuguese squadron, but it fell calm, and the current set us so near them, that they reached us with their shot. We kept under sail all night, and in the morning of the 17th, being to leeward of them in consequence of the land breeze, they weighed and made toward us, when we waited their approach, although they preserved the advantage of the weather-gage.

The fight began about nine in the morning, and continued without intermission for nine hours. In the afternoon, a fine gentle sea-breeze sprung up from the westwards, which gave us the weather-gage; and the Portuguese admiral anchored, either of necessity to repair some defect about his rudder, or of policy to gain some expected advantage. His vice-admiral and the large Dutch ship anchored to the eastwards, and the lesser Dutch ship to leeward of them all, stopping his leaks. We were now in great hopes of putting our fire-ship to a good purpose; but being too soon fired and forsaken by those who had her in charge, she drove clear of them all, to their joy and our disgrace.

Seeing them remain at anchor, and keeping to windward of them, we turned to and again close ahead of them as they rode at anchor, raking them as we passed, through and through, fore and aft, especially the admiral, receiving only in return their prow and bow-chases. By these, as I passed to the north, two unfortunate shots cut asunder the weather leech ropes of the Roebuck's foresail and fore-topsail, in the middle depth of both sails; owing to which we could not bring her into stays, and were forced, for repairing these sails, to bear down to leeward, between the enemy and the shore; in which course, the three great ships plied their whole broadsides against us, but with less hurt than I could have imagined, God be praised.

Having compassed the three large ships, I luffed up to rejoin our squadron, which still held the advantage of the wind, and plied their great guns on the Portuguese like so many muskets. When I had got to windward of the smaller Dutch ship, which stood off as I did till he had our fire-ship directly between him and me, he turned tail, and steered right before the wind along shore to the eastwards, with all the sail he could carry. The other three now set sail to his rescue, and were now so tame, that as the Hart passed along their broadsides, she received only a few shots great and small from any of them, and from some none at all. The night now coming on, and our people being all wearied by the long continuance of the fight, we all desisted from any farther chase, and came to anchor in our usual road.

In this fight, the London and Hart had very little harm in their hulls and tackling; and less, or rather none, in their men. The main-mast of the Eagle was hurt in five places, four of which were quite through, and one of her men lost his right arm. In the Roebuck, I had one man slain by a cannon ball striking his head. A piece of his skull and some splinters of the ball wounded one of my mates in the forehead, and destroyed his left eye; and two others of my men lost the use of their right hands. God be praised for our good fortune; for I never heard of so small loss in so long a fight as we now sustained. I cannot truly state the loss of the enemy: but, by the report of our merchants, their vice-admiral and another captain were slain, and thirty or forty men in the admiral's ship alone, the rest as yet unknown. As to their Moors, they do not count them among the number of their men.

In the morning of the 18th, the day after the action, we could see the Portuguese at anchor ten miles to the east of us, having the wind fair to have come down, but they did not. We then held a consultation, whether it were better for us to take the first of the sea breeze, which usually begins about noon, to stand towards them and try it out for the mastery, before they could receive supplies from Ormus, Muskat, or Goa, or else to make sail for Jasques roads, on purpose to land our goods and money, in case of the worst, these being the prize they sought to obtain and we to defend. Accordingly, the London got that night into Jasques road, but the rest could not get in before the 20th, by reason of contrary winds. On the 21st and 22nd most of our goods were landed.

§4. Second Sea Fight with the Portuguese.

On the 22nd, seeing the Portuguese galleons open the road of Jasques, and supposing they might intend to come in with the sea breeze, we set sail and stood off for them. At first, they made a shew of giving us battle, but soon afterwards made off upon a tack; and till the 28th, they were either to windward, or so favourably placed at anchor, that we could not attempt to attack them without manifest disadvantage. During this time, they were joined by two or three frigates, or barks, from Ormus, bringing them a supply of men and ammunition. We made one attempt on Christmas day, but were forced back by a sudden flaw of wind; on which occasion, some blacks aboard of us said the Portuguese had brought a witch from Ormus, to supply them with favourable winds.

On Innocents day, 28th December, perceiving the drift of our Portuguese Fabius cunclator, to protract and avoid fighting, that by delays and the advantage of his frigates, he might hinder us from prosecuting your business in Persia, we determined to attempt closing with him. About one o'clock there sprung up a favourable east wind for our purpose, on which we immediately weighed and put every thing in order for battle. The London and Hart came to anchor within a cable's length and half of their broadsides, and so endured the main brunt of this second fight; for no sooner were they at anchor, but it fell calm and so continued all day, insomuch that the Roebuck and Eagle, which had steered nearer to the shore, with the intention of coming to anchor, one on the bow of their admiral, and the other on the bow of their vice-admiral, got astern, and could not with all our diligence be of any service for a full half hour after the action began. At length we got within point-blank shot of them, and then were forced either to anchor or drive farther off with the current, as there was not a breath of wind.

We now brought our broadsides to bear, and our whole squadron plied their ordnance upon them so fast that had the knowledge of our men equalled their resolution, not one of them had escaped from us. Not willing to endure such hot entertainment, they cut their cables about three o'clock, and drove from us with the tide to the westwards, till out of our reach. Then came their frigates, which the day before had made a bravado along shore with drums, trumpets, flags, and streamers; and now, employed in a fitter task, towed them away all mangled and torn. 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, showing 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 our 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]

§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.

During a calm on the 7th, we captured a small frigate-built ship called the Jacinth, which we named the Primrose, which had come from Mozambique and was bound for Goa. Thence to the 13th, we had variable winds, with calms and much rain. Finding the May-flower delayed us much, and that our pilots were either ignorant or malicious, we resolved to trust to our own endeavours for finding an anchoring place, for our safe riding till the strength of the adverse monsoon was over, for which purpose we determined upon going to Macera.[300]

We descried land on the 2nd June, and anchored in seventeen fathoms three miles offshore, in lat. 20° 20' N. variation 17° W. We found plenty of water in four or five pits, three quarters of a mile from the shore. I had forty tons from one well, which we rolled in hogsheads to the beach. The people were tractable, but we got little else besides water. A tuft of date trees by the watering place bore N.W. by W. from our anchorage, and the other end of the island N.E. 1/2 E. five leagues off. The 12th we sailed for the N.E. end of the island, and in the afternoon came to anchor in a fair bay, having seven fathoms on clean ground, a black oozy sand, the N.E. point bearing S. 1/2 a league off, the landing place W.S.W. two miles off, and the north part of the bay N. by W. four miles off. The latitude of this bay is 20° 30' N. and the variation 17° W.[301]

In this bay you may ride safely in any depth between five and twelve fathoms. It is an excellently healthy place, cold and hungry, affording no refreshments except water, enough of which is to be had by digging pits; but it is ill to boat except at the usual landing place. This place afforded us no better supplies than the former, except that we got a few goats and lambs in exchange for canikens. Though good anchorage, this bay was much troubled by a tumbling rolling sea, yet we resolved to remain here with the Hart and Roebuck till the fury of the monsoon were past.

Having separated some time before from the London, our admiral, we sent on the 19th of June, one Abdelavie, an inhabitant of this island, as far as Zoar with letters in quest of the London. He returned on the 6th July with letters in answer, informing us that the London was at Zoar, seven leagues within Cape Rasalgat, having watered with difficulty at Teve, where their surgeon, Mr. Simons, and the chaplain's servant, were surprised on shore by the Portuguese and Arabs. The Hart and Roebuck sailed from Macera [Mazica] on the 6th of August, and anchored in the evening of the 8th beside the admiral in the port of Zoar. This road differs from that in which we were in, being cairn, but the air was so hot as to take away our appetites.

We sailed from Zoar on the 15th of August and returned to Swally roads. The 21st September, our whole fleet sailed from Swally, and on the 27th we took leave of the fleet bound for Jasques, consisting of the London, Jonas, Whale, Dolphin, Lion, Rose, Shilling, Richard, and Robert. The 1st January, 1622, we were between Johanna and Mayotta, two of the Comoro islands. The 29th we anchored in Saldanha roads [Table Bay], having come thither from Surat in nine weeks and three days, blessed be God for our safe and speedy passage. We here watered, bathed in the river, caught fish, and buried our letters; purchasing three cows, one calf, and four sheep, all unsavoury meat.

We sailed again on the 3rd February, and anchored on the 19th at St. Helena, where we found the Wappen and the Hollandia, two Dutch ships, the latter of which caught fire on the 22nd, owing to her cloves, which had been taken in too green at Amboina. There was likewise a third small Dutch ship. They arrived eleven days before us, and it will take them at least ten days more to discharge and reload their damaged cloves. We sailed from St. Helena on the 28th February, and anchored in the Downs on the 7th June, 1622.

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[Footnote 296: Purch. Pilgr. 1. 723.]
[Footnote 297: It thus appears that the first fortified station at the Cape of Good Hope was erected by the English, to whom that colony now belongs. It would surely be a better appellation for this important colony, which may be called the key of India, to restore its old name-of Saldania, than to continue its present awkward denomination, The Colony of the Cape of Good Hope.--E.]
[Footnote 298: According to a special account of this and the succeeding sea-fight, appended to the present relation in Purchas, the Portuguese fleet on the present occasion, besides the four galleons, consisted of two gallions and ten frigates or armed barks, none of which are here mentioned except the four galleons.--E.]
[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.]
[Footnote 300: From the latitude of this place, mentioned afterwards in the text, this seems to refer to Mazica, an island about sixty miles long and fifteen or twenty in breadth, a few miles from the oceanic coast of Arabia, in lat. 20° 48' N. and long. 57° 3O' E. from Greenwich.--E.]
[Footnote 301: The north end of Mazica is in lat. 21° 12", and its south end in 20° 15', both N.--E.]