that followed made up to the boat which we had disabled, to relieve
her, and we could see her take out the men. We then called again
to the foremost boat, and offered a truce, to parley again, and to
know what her business was with us; but had no answer, only she
crowded close under our stern. Upon this, our gunner who was a
very dexterous fellow ran out his two case-guns, and fired again at
her, but the shot missing, the men in the boat shouted, waved their
caps, and came on. The gunner, getting quickly ready again, fired
among them a second time, one shot of which, though it missed the
boat itself, yet fell in among the men, and we could easily see did
a great deal of mischief among them. We now wore the ship again,
and brought our quarter to bear upon them, and firing three guns
more, we found the boat was almost split to pieces; in particular,
her rudder and a piece of her stern were shot quite away; so they
handed her sail immediately, and were in great disorder. To
complete their misfortune, our gunner let fly two guns at them
again; where he hit them we could not tell, but we found the boat
was sinking, and some of the men already in the water: upon this,
I immediately manned out our pinnace, with orders to pick up some
of the men if they could, and save them from drowning, and
immediately come on board ship with them, because we saw the rest
of the boats began to come up. Our men in the pinnace followed
their orders, and took up three men, one of whom was just drowning,
and it was a good while before we could recover him. As soon as
they were on board we crowded all the sail we could make, and stood
farther out to the sea; and we found that when the other boats came
up to the first, they gave over their chase.
Being thus delivered from a danger which, though I knew not the
reason of it, yet seemed to be much greater than I apprehended, I
resolved that we should change our course, and not let any one know
whither we were going; so we stood out to sea eastward, quite out
of the course of all European ships, whether they were bound to
China or anywhere else, within the commerce of the European
nations. When we were at sea we began to consult with the two
seamen, and inquire what the meaning of all this should be; and the
Dutchman confirmed the gunner’s story about the false sale of the
ship and of the murder of the captain, and also how that he, this
Dutchman, and four more got into the woods, where they wandered
about a great while, till at length he made his escape, and swam
off to a Dutch ship, which was sailing near the shore in its way
from China.
He then told us that he went to Batavia, where two of the seamen
belonging to the ship arrived, having deserted the rest in their
travels, and gave an account that the fellow who had run away with
the ship, sold her at Bengal to a set of pirates, who were gone a-
cruising in her, and that they had already taken an English ship
and two Dutch ships very richly laden. This latter part we found
to concern us directly, though we knew it to be false; yet, as my
partner said, very justly, if we had fallen into their hands, and
they had had such a prepossession against us beforehand, it had
been in vain for us to have defended ourselves, or to hope for any
good quarter at their hands; especially considering that our
accusers had been our judges, and that we could have expected
nothing from them but what rage would have dictated, and an
ungoverned passion have executed. Therefore it was his opinion we
should go directly back to Bengal, from whence we came, without
putting in at any port whatever – because where we could give a
good account of ourselves, could prove where we were when the ship