A Second LETTER
_SIR,_
I WROTE my last Letter to you from _Madagascar_, where I hadcontinu'd so long till my People began to drop from me, some and some, and,indeed, I had, at last, but few left; so that I began to apprehend theywould give an Account in _Europe_, how weak I was, and how easy it was toattack me; nay, and to make their Peace, might some of them, at least,offer their Service to be Pilots to my Port, and might guide the Fleets orShips that should attempt me.
With these Apprehensions, I not only was uneasy myself, but made all my Menuneasy too; for, as I was resolv'd to attempt my own Escape, I did not carehow many of my Men went before me: But this you must take with you by theBye, that I never let them imagine that I intended to stir from the Spotmyself; I mean, after my Return from the Ramble that I had taken round theIsland, of which I have given you an Account; but, that I resolv'd to takeup my Rest in _Madagascar_ as long as I liv'd; indeed, before, I saidotherwise, as I wrote you before, and made them all promise to fetch meaway, but now I gave it out that I was resolv'd to live and die here; andtherefore, a little before I resolv'd upon going, I set to Work to build mea new House, and to plant me a pretty Garden at a Distance from our Fort;only I had a select Company, to whom I communicated every Thing, and whoresolv'd that, at last, we would go altogether, but that we would do it ourown Way.
When I had finish'd my new House, (and a mighty Palace you would say itwas, if you had been to see it) I remov'd to it, with eight of the Gangthat were to be my Fellow adventurers; and to this Place we carry'd all ourprivate Wealth, that is to say, Jewels and Gold; as to our Share of Silver,as it was too heavy to remove, and must be done in Publick, I was oblig'dto leave it behind; but we had a Stratagem for that too, and it was thus:
We had a Sloop, as you have heard, and she lay in our Harbour, 'tis true;but she lay ready to sail upon any Occasion; and the Men, who were of ourConfederacy, who were not with me at my Country-house, were twelve inNumber: These Men made a Proposal, that they would take the Sloop, and goaway to the Coast of _Malabar_, or where else they could speed to theirMind, and buy a Fraight of Rice for the publick Account: In a free State aswe were, every Body was free to go wherever they would, so that no Bodyoppos'd them; the only Dispute at any Time, was about taking the Vessel wehad to go in: However, as these Men seem'd only to act upon the publickAccount, and to go to buy Provisions, no Body offer'd to deny them theSloop, so they prepar'd for their Voyage: Just as they were ready to go,one of them starts it to the rest, that it was very hazardous and difficultto run such a Length every now and then to get a little Rice, and if theywould go, why should they not bring a good Quantity? This was soonresolv'd; so they agreed, they should take Money with them to buy a goodShip wherever they could find her, and then to buy a Loading of Rice tofill her up, and so come away with her.
When this was agreed, they resolv'd to take no Money out of the grandStock, but to take such Mens Money as were gone, and had left their Moneybehind; and this being consented to, truly, my Friends took the Occasion,and took all their own Money, and mine, (being 64 little Chests of Piecesof Eight) and carry'd it on Board, as if it had been of Men that werePrick'd-run, and no Body took any Notice of it. These twelve Men had alsonow got twelve more with them, under Pretence of manning a Ship, if weshould buy one, and in this Pickle away they put to Sea.
We had due Notice of every Thing that was done; and having a Signal givenof the Time they resolv'd to go, we pack'd up all our Treasure, and beganour March to the Place appointed, which from our Quarters was about fortyMile farther North.
Our Habitation, that is to say, my new House, was about sixteen Miles upthe Country, so that the rest of our People could have no Notice of ourMarch, neither did they miss us, at least, as I heard of, for we neverheard any more of them; nor can I imagine what Condition or Circumstancethey can be in at present, if they are still upon the Place, as, however, Ibelieve some of them are.
We join'd our Comrades, with a great Deal of Ease, about three Daysafterwards, for we march'd but softly, and they lay by for us: The Nightbefore we went on Board, we made them a Signal by Fire, as we had appointedto let them know where we were, and that we were at Hand; so they senttheir Boat and fetch'd us off, and we embark'd without any Notice taken bythe Rest.
As we were now loose, and at Sea, our next Business was to resolve whitherwe should go; and I soon govern'd the Point, resolving for _Bassaro_ in theGulph of _Persia_, where I knew we might shift for ourselves: Accordingly,we steer'd away for the _Arabian_ Coast, and had good Weather for someTime, even till we made the Land at a great Distance, when we steer'dEastward along the Shore.
We saw several Ships, in our Way, bound to and from the Red Sea, as wesuppos'd, and, at another Time, we would have been sure to have spoken withthem: But, we had done Pirating; our Business now was, how to get off, andmake our Way to some Retreat, where we might enjoy what we had got; so wetook no Notice of any Thing by the Way; but, when we was thus sailingmerrily along, the Weather began to change, the Evening grew black andcloudy, and threaten'd a Storm: We were in Sight or a little Island, (Iknow nothing of its Name) under which we might have anchor'd with Safetyenough, but our People made light of it, and went on.
About an Hour after Sun-set the Wind began to rise, and blew hard at N. E.and at N. E. by N. and in two Hours Time encreas'd to such a Tempest, as inall my Rambles I never met with the like; we were not able to carry a Knotof Sail, or to know what to do, but to stow every Thing close, and let herdrive; and, in this Condition we continu'd all the Night, all the next Day,and Part of the Night after; towards Morning the Storm abated a little, butnot so as to give us any Prospect of pursuing our voyage; all the Ease wehad, was, that we could just carry a little Sail to steddy the Vessel, andrun away before it; which we did at that violent Rate, that we never abated'till we made Land on the East Side of _Madagascar_, the very Island wecame from, only on the other Side of the Island.
However, we were glad we had any Place to run to for Harbour; so we put inunder the Lee of a Point of Land that gave us Shelter from the Wind, andwhere we came to an Anchor, after being all of us almost dead with theFatigue; and, if our Sloop had not been an extraordinary Sea-boat, shecould never have born such a Sea, for twelve Days together, as we were in,the worst I ever saw before or since. We lay here, to refresh ourselves,about twenty Days; and, indeed, the Wind blew so hard all the while, thatif we had been dispos'd to go to Sea, we could not have done it; and, beinghere, about seven of our Men began to repent their Bargain, and left us,which I was not sorry for. It seems, the principal Reason of their lookingback, was, their being of those who had left their Money behind them. Theydid not leave us without our Consent, and therefore our Carpenters builtthem a Boat, during the three Weeks we stay'd here, and fitted it veryhandsomely for them, with a Cabin for their Convenience, and a Mast andSail, with which they might very well sail round to our Settlement, as wesuppose they did: We gave them Fire-arms and Ammunition sufficient, andleft them furnishing themselves with Provisions; and this, we suppose, wasthe Boat, tho' with other Men in it, which adventur'd afterwards as far asthe _Cape of Good Hope_, and was taken up by a _Portugese_ in Distress, bywhich Means they got Passage for themselves to _Lisbone_, pretending theyhad made their Escape from the Pirates at _Madagascar_; but we were told,that the _Portuguese_ Captain took a good deal of their Money from them,under Pretence of keeping it from his own Seamen; and that when they cameon Shore, and began to claim it, he threaten'd them with taking them up,and prosecuting them for Pirates, which made them compound with him, andtake about 10000 Dollars for above 120000, which they had with them; which,by the Way, was but a scurvy Trick: They had, it seems, a considerableQuantity of Gold among them, which they had the Wit to conceal from theCaptain of the Ship, and which was enough for such Fellows as them, andmore than they well knew what to do with; so that they were rich enoughstill, tho' the _Portugal_ Captain was nevertheless a Knave for all that.
We left them here, as I have said, and put to
Sea again; and, in abouttwenty Days Sail, having pretty good Weather, we arriv'd at the Gulph of_Persia_: It would be too long to give you an Account of the particularFortunes of some of our People after this, the Variety of which would filla Volume by itself: But, in the first Place, we, who were determin'd totravel, went on Shore at _Bassaro_, leaving the rest of our Men to buyRice, and load the larger Vessel back to their Comrades, which theypromis'd to do; but how far they perform'd I know not.
We were thirteen of us that went on Shore here; from whence we hir'd a kindof Barge, or rather a Bark, which, after much Difficulty, and very unhandyDoings of the Men who we had hir'd, brought us to _Babylon_, or _Bagdat_,as it is now call'd.
Our Treasure was so great, that if it had been known what we had about us,I am of Opinion