They had, it seems, got intelligence of us when they came to the south
part of the island, and had been a-roving as far as the Gulf of Bengal,
when they met Captain Avery, with whom they joined, took several rich
prizes, and, amongst the rest, one ship with the Great Mogul's daughter,
and an immense treasure in money and jewels; and from thence they came
about the coast of Coromandel, and afterwards that of Malabar, into the
Gulf of Persia, where they also took some prize, and then designed for
the south part of Madagascar; but the winds blowing hard at S.E. and
S.E. by E., they came to the northward of the isle, and being after that
separated by a furious tempest from the N.W., they were forced into the
mouth of that creek, where they lost their ship. And they told us, also,
that they heard that Captain Avery himself had lost his ship also not
far off.
When they had thus acquainted one another with their fortunes, the poor
overjoyed men were in haste to go back to communicate their joy to their
comrades; and, leaving some of their men with ours, the rest went back,
and William was so earnest to see them that he and two more went back
with them, and there he came to their little camp where they lived.
There were about a hundred and sixty men of them in all; they had got
their guns on shore, and some ammunition, but a good deal of their
powder was spoiled; however, they had raised a fair platform, and
mounted twelve pieces of cannon upon it, which was a sufficient defence
to them on that side of the sea; and just at the end of the platform
they had made a launch and a little yard, and were all hard at work,
building another little ship, as I may call it, to go to sea in; but
they put a stop to this work upon the news they had of our being come
in.
When our men went into their huts, it was surprising, indeed, to see the
vast stock of wealth they had got, in gold and silver and jewels, which,
however, they told us was a trifle to what Captain Avery had, wherever
he was gone.
It was five days we had waited for our men, and no news of them; and
indeed I gave them over for lost, but was surprised, after five days'
waiting, to see a ship's boat come rowing towards us along shore. What
to make of it I could not tell, but was at least better satisfied when
our men told me they heard them halloo and saw them wave their caps to
us.
In a little time they came quite up to us; and I saw friend William
stand up in the boat and make signs to us; so they came on board; but
when I saw there were but fifteen of our one-and-thirty men, I asked him
what had become of their fellows. "Oh," says William, "they are all very
well; and my dream is fully made good, and the cockswain's too."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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