a dram of the bottle, but would not suffer them to come on board; however, one or two of them got leave to get in at one of the ports, and got between decks among our men; here they made terrible complaints of their condition, and begged hard to be entertained in our service; they were

ally and unfairly treated; and when a number of men had been granted us, an inferior fellow, a gunner, was set to call such and such men out, just whom he pleased, to go with us, whereas the whole body ought to have had the appointing whom they would or would not give leave to go in the ship; that when they came in a peace-full of money, and gave twenty or thirty pieces able manner to have demanded justice, and to have treated amicably of these things, our men had denied them admittance, had committed hostilities against them, had fired at their men and staved their boat, and had afterwards received on board their deserters, all contrary to the rules of friendship; and in all these cases they de-stop their men without their consent, but the manded satisfaction.

Our new commander was a ready man enough, and he answered all their complaints with a great deal of gravity and calmness: he told them that it was true we came to them as friends, and had received friendly usage from them, which we had not in the least dishonoured; but that, as friends in distress, we had never pretended to be, and really were not; for that we were neither in danger of anything or in want of anything; that, as to provisions, we were strong enough, if need were, to procure ourselves provisions in any part of the island, and had been several times supplied from the shore by the natives, for which we had always fully satisfied the people who furnished us, and that we scorned to be ungrateful for any favour we should have received, much less to abuse it, or them for it.

of eight among our men, and by this present prevailed for two men to speak to my mate, who appeared as captain, to take the boat's crew on board; the mate very gravely told the two ambassadors of it, and told them that, seeing they were come with a flag of truce, he would not men being so earnest he thought it would do better not to oppose them; the ambassadors, as I call them, opposed it, however, vehemently, and at last desired to go and talk with the men, which was granted them readily. When they came into their boat, their men told them plainly that one and all they would enter themselves with their countrymen; that they had been forced already to turn pirates, and they thought they might very justly turn honest men again by force, if they could not get leave to do it peaceably; and that, in short, they would go on shore no more; that if the ambassadors desired it they would set them on shore with the boat, but, as for themselves, they would go along with the new captain.

board.

When the ambassadors saw this they had no more to do but to be satisfied, and so were set on That we had paid the full price of all the pro-shore where they desired, and their men stayed on visions we had received, and for the work that had been done to the ship, that what we had bargained for, as the price of the ship, had been paid, as far as the agreement made it due, and that what remained was ready to be paid as soon as the ship was finished, which was our bargain.

During this transaction my mate had sent a full account to me of all that passed, and had desired me to come on board and give further directions in all that was to come; so I took our supercargo and Captain Merlotte along with me, and some more of our officers, and went to them; it was my lot to come on board just when those famous ambassadors were talking with my mate, so I heard most of what they had to say, and heard the answer my mate gave them, as above, which was extremely to my satisfaction; nor did I

interrupt him or take upon me any authority, though he would very submissively have had me shown myself as captain, but I bid him go on, and sat down as not concerned in the affair at all.

That as to the people who were willing to take service with us and enter themselves on board, it is true that the gunner and some other men offered themselves to us, and we had accepted of them, and we thought it was our part to accept or not to accept of such men as we thought fit. As for what was among themselves, that we had nothing to do with; that if we had been publicly warned by them not to have entertained any of their men, but with consent of After the ambassadors were gone the first the whole body, then indeed we should have had thing I did was in the presence of all the comreason to be cautious; otherwise we were not in pany, and having before had the opinion of those the least concerned about it. That it is true we I brought with me to tell my second mate how refused to let their boats come on board us, be-well we were all satisfied with his conduct, and ing assured that they came in a hostile manner, either to take away the men by force, which had been entered in our service, or perhaps even to seize the ship itself; and why else was the first boat followed by two more full of men, armed and prepared to attack us? That we not only came in a friendly manner to them, but resolved to continue in friendship with them, if they thought fit to use us as friends; but that considering what part of the world we were in, and what their circumstances were, they must allow us to be on our guard, and not put ourselves in a condition to be used ill.

While he was talking thus with them in the cabin he had ordered a can of flip to be made and given their men in the boat, and every one

to declare him captain of the ship that he was
in, only demanding his solemn oath to be under |
orders of the great ship as admiral, and to carry
on no separate interest from us, which he thank-
fully accepted, and, to give him his due, as faith-
fully performed all the rest of our very long
voyage, and through all our adventures.

It was upon my seeming intercession, that he gave consent to the boat's crew who brought the ambassadors to remain in our service, and se their statesmen on shore; and, in fine, I told hin that as far as about one hundred and fifty, or tw hundred men, he should entertain whom he though fit; thus having settled all things in the ship t our satisfaction, we went back to our great sh the next day.

ROUND THE WORLD.

I had not been many hours on board our ship, but I was surprised with the firing of three muskets from the shore; we wondered what should be the meaning of it, knowing that it was an unusual thing in that place, where we knew the natives of the country had no firearms, so we knew not what to make of it, and therefore took no notice of it other than, as I say, to wonder at it; about half an hour after that we heard three muskets more, and still not knowing anything of the matter, we made them no return to the signal; some time after three muskets were fired again, but all was one, we took no notice, for we knew nothing of what return was to be made

to it.

When night came on we observed two great fires upon two several hills on that part of the ahore opposite to us, and after that three rockets were fired, such as they were, but they went off ill; I suppose their gunner was ill provided for We such things; but all signified nothing. would have made any return to them that would have been understood, but we knew nothing of any agreed signal; however, I resolved that in the morning I would send a boat on shore well manned, to learn if possible what the meaning of all this was, and accordingly in the morning I sent our long boat and shallop on shore, with thirty-two men in them both, to get intelligence, ordering them, if possible, to speak with somebody before they went on shore, and know how things stood; that then, if it was a party of the pirates, they should by no means come near them but parley at a distance, till they knew what the meaning of it all was.

As soon as my men came near the shore they

saw plainly that it was a body of near a hundred of the pirates, but seeing them so strong they stood off, and would not come nearer, nor near enough to parley with them; upon this the men on shore got one of the islanders' canvas boats, or rather boats made of skins, which are but sorry ones at best, and put off, with two men to manage the sails, and one sitter, and two paddles for oars, and away they came towards us, carrying a flag of truce, that is to say an old white rag; how they came to save so much linen among them all was very hard to say.

among them,
their pursuit, to face about and fire
by which they had killed six or seven of them,
and wounded others, and that they had sworn
they would give them no quarter if they could
come fairly up with them.

Our men told them they must be contented to
remain on shore where they were for some time,
for that they could do nothing till they had been
on board and acquainted their captain with all
the particulars; so they came back immediately
to me for orders.

As to me, I was a little uneasy at the thoughts I knew they were a of taking them on board. gang of pirates at best, and what they might do knew not; but I sent them this message, that though all their tale might be very good for ought I knew, yet that I must take so much time as to send an express to the captain of the other ship, to be informed of the faith of it, and that if he brought a satisfactory answer, I would send for them all on board.

This was very uncomfortable news to them, for they expected to be surrounded every hour for no mercy; however seeing no remedy, they by their comrades, from whom they were to look resolved to march about twenty miles farther we agreed to send to them; concluding that south, and lie by in a place near the sea, where their comrades not finding them near the place where we lay, would not imagine they could be As they guessed, so it gone farther that way. proved, for the pirates came to the shore, where there, but concluded that, seeing they could not they saw tokens enough of their having been

be found there, they were all gone on board our

ship.

The wind proving contrary, it was no less than four days before our boat came back, so that the poor men were held in great suspense; ner with them, who had selected those men from but when they returned, they brought the gun. all the rest for our new ship; and who, when he came, gave me a long account of them, and what care he had taken to pick them out for our serUpon all which captain to the same purpose. vice, delivering me also a letter from my new concurring circumstances we concluded to take them on board; so we sent our boats for them, Our men could do no less than receive their who at twice brought them all on board, and very ambassador, and a flag of truce gave no appre-stout, honest fellows they were. hension, especially considering the figure they made, and that the men on shore had no other boats to supprise or attack us with, so they lay by upon their oars till they came up, when they soon understood who they were: viz., that they were the gunner's selected men, that they came too late to have their signal perceived from the other ship, which was gone out of sight of the place they were directed to; that they had with great difficulty, and five days' and nights' march-worthy ambassadors, and would not go on shore ing, got through a woody and almost impassable country, to come at us; that they had fetched a circuit of near an hundred miles to avoid being attacked by their comrades, and that they were pursued by them, with their whole body, and therefore they begged to be taken on board; they said if they should be overtaken by their comrades they should be all cut in pieces, for that they had broke away from them by force, and moreover, had been obliged, at the first of

When they had been on board some days, and refreshed themselves, I concluded to send them all on board the new ship; but upon advice I resolved to send sixty of my own men joined to forty of these, and keep thirty-four of them on board my ship, for their number was just seventymen, and the sixteen men who came with the four, which, with the gunner and his twenty-one

as we all thought were enough for us, though we again, made one hundred and twelve men; and took in between forty and fifty more afterwards.

We were now ready to go to sea, and I caused the new ship and the brigantine to come away from the place where they lay and join us; which they did, and then we unloaded part of our provisions and ammunition; of which, as I observed at first, we had taken in double quantity; and having furnished the new ship with a proportion

We were now a little fleet; viz. two large ships and a brigantine, well manned and furnished with all sorts of necessaries for any voyage or any enterprise that was fit for men in our posture to undertake; and particularly here, I made a full design of the whole voyage, to be again openly declared to the men, and had them asked, one by one, if they were willing and re-bought a box of choice pearls, which the chief solved to undertake it, which they all very cheerfully answered in the affirmative.

of scissars, pulled them out and stabbed the man that had laid hold of him into the shoulder, and was going to double his blow, when the poor fellow that had been wounded having struck up his heels and fallen upon him, had killed him if I had not called to take him off and bring the thief up to me.

Upon this order, they took up the barbarian and brought him up with the shoes and the scissars that he had stolen, and as the facts were plain, and needed no witnesses, I caused all the rest of them to be brought up also; and, as well as we could, made them understand what he had done. They made pitiful signs of fear, lest they should all be punished for his crime, and particularly when they saw the man whom he had wounded brought in; then they expected nothing but death, and they made a sad lamentation and howling, as if they were all to die immediately. It was not without a great deal of difficulty that I found ways to satisfy them, that nobody was to be punished but the man that had committed the fact; and then I caused him to be brought to the geers, with a halter about his neck, and be soundly whipped; and indeed our people did scourge him severely from head to foot; and I believe if I had not run myself to put an end to it, they had whipped him to death. When this execution was over, they put him into their boat and let them all go on shore; but no sooner were they on shore but they raised a terrible hubbub among all the villages and towns near them, and they were now a few, the country being very populous, and a vast multitude of them came down to the shore, staring at us, and making confused ugly noises, and abundance of arrows they shot at the ship, but we rode too far from the shore for them to do us any hurt.

While this was doing, another fray happened on shore, where two of our men chaffering with an islander and his wife for some fowls, they took his money, or what else it was he was to give, and gave him part of the fowls, but they pretended the woman should go and fetch the rest. While the woman was gone, three or four more of the same sort came to the man that was left, and talking a while together, seeing they were so many, and our men but two, they began to take hold of the fowls they had sold, and would take them away again; at which one of our men stepped up to the fellow that had taken them up, and went to lay hold of him, but he was too nimble for him, and ran away and carried off the fowls and the money too. The seaman was so enraged to be served so, that he took up his piece, for they had both fire-arms with them, and fired immediately after him, and afmed his shot so luckily, that, though the fellow flew like the wind, he shot him through the head, and he dropped down dead upon the spot.

The rest of them, though terribly frightened, yet seeing our men were but two, and the noise bringing twenty or thirty more immediately to them, attacked our men with their lances, and bows and arrows; and in a moment there was a pitched battle of two men only against twenty or thirty, and their number increasing too.

In short, our men spent their shot freely among them as long as it lasted, and killed six or seven, besides wounding ten or eleven more; and this

cooled their courage, and they seemed to give over the battle; and our men, whose ammunition was almost spent, began to think of retreating to their boat, which was near a mile off, for they were very unhappily gotten from their boat so far up the country.

They made their retreat pretty well for about half the way, when, on a sudden, they saw they were not pursued only, but surrounded, and that some of their enemies were before them. This made them double their pace, and seeing no remedy, they resolved to break through those that were before them, who were about eleven or twelve. Accordingly, as soon as they came within pistol shot of them, one of our men having, for want of shot, put almost a handful of gravel and small stones into his piece, and fired among them, and the gravel and stones scattering, wounded almost all of them; for they being naked from the waist upwards, the least grain of sand scratched and hurt them, and made them bleed if it did but touch them.

Being thus completely scared, and, indeed, more afraid than hurt, they all run away except two, who were really wounded with the shot or stones, and lay upon the ground. Our men let them lie, and made the best of their way to their boat, where at last they got safe, but with five hundred of the people at their heels; their fellows did not stay to fire from the boat, but put off with all the speed they could, for fear of their poisoned arrows, and the country people poured so many of their arrows into the boat after them, and aimed them also so true, that two of our men were hurt with them, but whether they were poisoned or no, our surgeons cured them both.

We had enough of Ceylon, and having no business to make such a kind of a war as this must have been, in which we might have lost, but could get nothing, we weighed and stood away to the east; what became of the fellow that we lashed, we know not, but as he had but little flesh left on his back, which was not mangled and torn with our whipping him, and we suppose they are but indifferent surgeons, our people said the fellow could not live; and the reason they gave for it was, because they did not pickle him after it. Truly, they said, that they would not be so kind to him as to pickle him; for though pickling, that is to say, throwing salt and vinegar on the back after the whipping be cruel enough as to the pain it is to the patient, yet 'tis certainly the way to prevent mortification, and causes it to heal again with more ease.

We stood over from Ceylon E. S. E. across the great Bay of Bengal, leaving all the coast of Coromandel, and standing directly for Anchin, on the north point of the great Island of Sumatra, and in the latitude of six degrees thirty-one minutes north.

Here we spread our French colours, and coming to an anchor, suffered none of our men to go on shore but Captain Merlotte and his French men ; and having nothing to do there, or anywhere else in the Indian Seas but to take in provisions and fresh water, we stayed but five days; in which time we supplied ourselves with what the place would afford; and pretending to be bound for China, we went on to the south, through the

1