A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 09: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 09: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
The 24th we saw a fleet of sixty or eighty frigates or barks bound to
the southwards, being in lat. 13° 00' 30". The high land by the sea now
left us, and the shore became very low, yet with fair shoaling of
sixteen and seventeen fathoms some three or four leagues off. In the
afternoon we went into a bay, where all the before-mentioned frigates
were at anchor, together with three or four gallies. We brought out a
ship with us, whence all the Portuguese fled in their boats, and as two
frigates lay close aboard of her, they had carried away every thing
valuable. Next day we examined our prize, and found nothing in her
except rice and coarse sugar, with which we amply supplied both ships;
and having taken out her masts, and what firing she could afford, we
scuttled and sunk her, taking out likewise all her people, being twenty
or twenty-five Moors. The 26th we met a boat belonging to the Maldives
laden with cocoa-nuts and bound for Cananor, into which I put all the
people of the prize, except eight, whom I kept to assist in labour, one
of them being a pilot for this coast.
The 27th we were a little past Calicut, abreast of Paniany, our lat. at
noon being 10° 30' N. In the morning of the 28th, we saw Cochin, which
is known by the towers and castle, being in lat 9° 40' N. or thereby.
All the way from Goa to Cochin we never had above twenty fathoms,
though, sometimes four or five leagues from the land; and when only
three, four, or six miles off, the depths were from ten to twelve
fathoms. From lat 11° 30' N. to Cochin, the land was all very low by the
water side; but up the country it was very high all along. Four or five
leagues to the north of Cochin, there is a high land within the country,
somewhat like a table mountain, yet rounded on the top, having long high
mountains to the north of this hill. All this day, the 28th, we sailed
within six or eight miles of the land, in nine, ten, and twelve fathoms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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