The exact time of this person’s setting out I am not certain of. I find him cruising on the Malabar coast in the year 1700, commanding a ship called the Speaker, whose crew consisted of men of all nations, and their piracies were committed upon ships of all nations likewise. The pirates here met with no manner of inconveniencies in carrying on their designs, for it was made so much a trade, that the merchants of one town never scrupled the buying commodities taken from another, though but ten miles distant, in a public sale, furnishing the robbers at the same time with all necessaries, even of vessels, when they had occasion to go on any expedition, which they themselves would often advise them of. Among the rest, an English East-Indiaman, Capt. Coneway, from Bengal, fell into the hands of this crew, which they made prize of, near Callequilon. They carried her in, and put her up to sale, dividing the ship and cargo into three shares; one third was sold to a merchant, native of Callequilon aforesaid, another third to a merchant of Porca, and the other to one Malpa, a Dutch factor. Loaded with the spoil of this and several country ships they left the coast, and steered for Madagascar; but in their voyage thither, meeting with adverse winds, and, being negligent in their steerage, they ran upon St. Thomas’s reef, at the island of Mauritius, where the ship was lost; but Bowen and the greatest part of the crew got safe ashore. They met here with all the civility and good treatment imaginable. Bowen was complimented in a particular manner by the governor, and splendidly entertained in his house; the sick men were got, with great care, into the fort, and cured by their doctor, and no supplies of any sort, wanting for the rest. They spent here three months, but yet resolving to set down at Madagascar, they bought a sloop, which they converted into a brigantine, and about the middle of March, 1701, departed, having first taken formal leave of the governor, by making a present of 2500 pieces of eight; leaving him, besides, the wreck of their ship, with the guns, stores, and every thing else that was saved. The governor, on his part, supplied them with necessaries for their voyage, which was but short, and gave them a kind invitation to make that island a place of refreshment in the course of their future adventures, promising that nothing should be wanting to them that his government afforded. Upon their arrival at Madagascar, they put in at a place on the east side, called Maritan, quit their vessel, and settled themselves ashore in a fruitful plain on the side of a river. They built themselves a fort on the river’s mouth, towards the sea, and another small one on the other side, towards the country; the first to prevent a surprise from shipping, and the other as a security from the natives, many of whom they employed in the building. They built also a little town for their habitation, which took up the remainder of the year 1701.