letter he sent by a negro servant and a Moor, in a canoe. Our captain sent him all he asked by the Moor, but took the negro along with us, as we understood he had been formerly in the Indies, and knew something of the country. By this negro we were advertised of a small bark of some thirty tons, called junco by the Moors, which was come hither from Goa, laden with pepper for the factory, and for sale in that kingdom.

Having put our ship into as good order as we could, while we lay in the road of Zanzibar, we set sail for India on the 15th of February, 1592, as said before, intending, if we could, to have reached Cape Comorin, the head-land, or promontory, of the main-land of Malabar, and there to have lain off and on for such ships as should pass from Ceylon, San Thome. Bengal, Pegu, Malacca, the Moluccas, China, or Japan, which ships are full of wealth and riches. But in our course we were much deceived by the currents, which set into the gulf of Arabia, all along the coast of Melinda; and the winds so scanted upon us from the east and north-east, that we could not get off, and set us to the northward, within fourscore leagues of Socotoro, far from our destined course. During all this time we never wanted dolphins, bonitos, and flying fishes. Finding ourselves thus far to the northward, and the season being far spent, we determined upon going to the Red Sea, or the island of Socotoro, both for refreshment and to look out for some purchase, (prize). But, while in this mind, the wind fortunately sprung up at north-west, and carried us direct for Cape Comorin.

Before doubling that cape, it was our intention to touch at the islands of Mamale[16] in 12° of N. lat. at one of which we were informed we might procure provisions. But it was not our luck to find it, partly by the obstinacy of our master; for the day before we should have fallen in with part of these islands, the wind shifted to the south-west, and we missed finding it. As the wind now became more southerly, we feared not being able to double the cape, which would have greatly hazarded our being cast away upon the coast of Malabar, the winter season and western monsoon being already come in, which monsoon continues on that coast till August. But it pleased God that the wind came about more westerly, so that in May, 1592, we happily doubled Cape Comorin, without being in sight of the coast of India. Having thus doubled the cape, we directed our course for the islands of Nicobar, which lie north and south with the western part of Sumatra, and in lat. 7° N.[17] We ran from Cape Comorin to the meridian of these islands in six days, having a very large wind, though with foul weather, excessive rain, and gusts of wind.

[Footnote 16: Perhaps the Maldives are here meant; but the northern extremity of that group is in lat. 7° N., and the latitude of 10°, which reaches to the southernmost of the Lakedives, is very far out of the way for doubling Cape Comorin.--E.]

[Footnote 17: The Nicobar Islands are in 8° N.; but Great Sambelong is in the latitude mentioned in the text, and may have been considered as belonging to the Nicobar group.--E.]

Through the negligence of our master, by not taking due observation of the south star, we missed these islands, falling to the southward of them, within sight of the islands of Gomes Polo,[18] immediately off the great island of Sumatra, it being then the 1st of June; and we lay two or three days becalmed at the north-east side of these islands, hoping to have procured a pilot from the island of Sumatra, which was in sight, within two leagues of us. Winter now coming on, with much tempestuous weather, we directed our course for the islands of Pulo Pinao:[19] it is to be noted that Pulo, in the Malayan language, signifies island. We arrived there early in June, and came to anchor in a very good harbour between three islands. At this time our men were very sick, and many of them fallen; and we determined to remain here till the winter were well over. This place is in lat. 5° 15' N. and about five leagues from the main land, between Malacca and Tanaserim, belonging to Pegu.

[Footnote 18: Probably the islands now called Pulo Brasse, and Pulo Way.--E.]

[Footnote 19: Most probably the same with Pulo Pinang, now called Prince of Wales's Island: the Portuguese orthography being used in the text, in which language ao, or rather aom, as in the next section, has oar sound of ang.--E.]

We remained at this place till the end of August, our refreshments being very small, consisting only of oysters, growing on the rocks, great wilks, or conchs, and a few fish, which we took with hooks and lines. We landed our sick upon one of these uninhabited islands, for the sake of their health, yet twenty-six of them died here, among whom was John Hall, our master, and Rainald Golding, a merchant of much honesty and discretion. There are abundance of trees in these islands of white wood, so tall and straight as to be well fitted for masts, being often an hundred feet long. When winter was past, and our ship fitted for going to sea, we had only now remaining thirty-three men and one boy, twenty-two only of whom were sound and fit for labour, and not above a third even of these were mariners. Being under the necessity of seeking some place for refreshments, we went over to the main-land of Malacca, and came next day to anchor in a bay two leagues from the shore. Then our captain, Mr James Lancaster, with his lieutenant, Mr Edmund Barker, the author of this narrative, having manned the boat, went on shore, to see if we could fall in with any inhabitants. On landing, we could see the tracks of some barefooted people, who had been there not long before, for their foe was still burning; yet we could see no people, nor any living creature, except a fowl called oxbird, being a grey sea-bird, in colour like a snipe, but different in the beak. Being by no means shy, we killed about eight dozen of them with small shot, and having spent the day fruitlessly, we went on board in the evening.

About two o'clock next day we saw a canoe, in which were about sixteen naked Indians, who came near us, but would not come on board; yet, going afterwards on shore, we had some friendly converse with them, and they promised to bring us victuals. Next morning we espied three ships, all of them about sixty or seventy tons burden, one of which surrendered even to our boat; and understanding that they were of the city of Martaban, a chief sea-port of the great city of Pegu, and that the goods belonged to some Portuguese jesuits, and a biscuit-baker of that nation, we took that ship; but as the other two were laden on account of merchants of Pegu, we let them go. Having this other along with us, we came to anchor together at night; and in the night time all her men, being mostly natives of Pegu, fled away in their boat, except twelve, whom we had taken on board our ship. Next day we weighed anchor, and went to leeward of an island hard by, where we took out her lading of pepper, which they had taken on board at Pera, a place on the main-land, thirty leagues to the south. We likewise stopt another ship of Pegu, laden with pepper; but finding her cargo to belong to native merchants of Pegu, we dismissed her untouched.

Having employed about ten days in removing the goods from the prize into our own ship, and our sick men being greatly refreshed, and strengthened by the relief we had found in the prize, we weighed anchor about the beginning of September, determining to run into the straits of Malacca, to the islands called Pulo Sambilam, about forty-five leagues north from the city of Molucca, past which islands the Portuguese ships must necessarily pass on their voyages from Goa, or San Thome, for the Moluccas, China, or Japan. After cruizing off and on here for about five-days, we one Sunday espied a Portuguese ship of 250 tons, from Negapatnam, a town on the main-land of