The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton

continued cruising up and down here till we began to find ourprovisions grow low, when Captain Wilmot, our admiral, told us it wastime to think of going back to the rendezvous; and the rest of the mensaid the same, being a little weary of beating about for above threemonths together, and meeting with little or nothing compared to ourgreat expectations; but I was very loth to part with the Red Sea at socheap a rate, and pressed them to tarry a little longer, which at myinstance they did; but three days afterwards, to our great misfortune,understood that, by landing the Turkish merchants at Dofar, we hadalarmed the coast as far as the Gulf of Persia, so that no vessel wouldstir that way, and consequently nothing was to be expected on that side.

  I was greatly mortified at this news, and could no longer withstand theimportunities of the men to return to Madagascar. However, as the windcontinued still to blow at S.S.E. by S., we were obliged to stand awaytowards the coast of Africa and the Cape Guardafui, the winds being morevariable under the shore than in the open sea.

  Here we chopped upon a booty which we did not look for, and which madeamends for all our waiting; for the very same hour that we made land wespied a large vessel sailing along the shore to the southward. The shipwas of Bengal, belonging to the Great Mogul's country, but had on boarda Dutch pilot, whose name, if I remember right, was Vandergest, andseveral European seamen, whereof three were English. She was in nocondition to resist us. The rest of her seamen were Indians of theMogul's subjects, some Malabars and some others. There were five Indianmerchants on board, and some Armenians. It seems they had been at Mochawith spices, silks, diamonds, pearls, calico, &c., such goods as thecountry afforded, and had little on board now but money in pieces ofeight, which, by the way, was just what we wanted; and the three Englishseamen came along with us, and the Dutch pilot would have done so too,but the two Armenian merchants entreated us not to take him, for that hebeing their pilot, there was none of the men knew how to guide the ship;so, at their request, we refused him; but we made them promise he shouldnot be used ill for being willing to go with us.

  We got near 200,000 pieces of eight in this vessel; and, if they saidtrue, there was a Jew of Goa, who intended to have embarked with them,who had 200,000 pieces of eight with him, all his own; but his goodfortune, springing out of his ill fortune, hindered him, or he fell sickat Mocha, and could not be ready to travel, which was the saving of hismoney.

  There was none with me at the taking this prize but the sloop, forCaptain Wilmot's ship proving leaky, he went away for the rendezvousbefore us, and arrived there the middle of December; but not liking theport, he left a great cross on shore, with directions written on aplate of lead fixed to it, for us to come after him to the great bays atMangahelly, where he found a very good harbour; but we learned a pieceof news here that kept us from him a great while, which the admiral tookoffence at; but we stopped his mouth with his share of 200,000 piecesof eight to him and his ship's crew. But the story which interruptedour coming to him was this. Between Mangahelly and another point, calledCape St Sebastian, there came on shore in the night an European ship,and whether by stress of weather or want of a pilot I know not, but theship stranded and could not be got off.

  We lay in the cove or harbour, where, as I have said, our rendezvouswas appointed, and had not yet been on shore, so we had not seen thedirections our admiral had left for us.

  Our friend William, of whom I have said nothing a great while, had agreat mind one day to go on shore, and importuned me to let him havea little troop to go with him, for safety, that they might see thecountry. I was mightily against it for many reasons; but particularlyI told him he knew the natives were but savages, and they were verytreacherous, and I desired him that he would not go; and, had he goneon much farther, I believe I should have downright refused him, andcommanded him not to go.

  But, in order to persuade me to let him go, he told me he would give mean account of the reason why he was so importunate. He told me, the lastnight he had a dream, which was so forcible, and made such an impressionupon his mind, that he could not be quiet till he had made the proposalto me to go; and if I refused him, then he thought his dream wassignificant; and if not, then his dream was at an end.

  His dream was, he said, that he went on shore with thirty men, of whichthe cockswain, he said, was one, upon the island; and that they found amine of gold, and enriched them all. But this was not the main thing, hesaid, but that the same morning he had dreamed so, the cockswain cameto him just then, and told him that he dreamed he went on shore on theisland of Madagascar, and that some men came to him and told him theywould show him where he should get a prize which would make them allrich.

  These two things put together began to weigh with me a little, though Iwas never inclined to give any heed to dreams; but William's importunityturned me effectually, for I always put a great deal of stress upon hisjudgment; so that, in short, I gave them leave to go, but I charged themnot to go far off from the sea-coast; that, if they were forced down tothe seaside upon any occasion, we might perhaps see them, and fetch themoff with our boats.

  They went away early in the morning, one-and-thirty men of them innumber, very well armed, and very stout fellows; they travelled all theday, and at night made us a signal that all was well, from the top of ahill, which we had agreed on, by making a great fire.

  Next day they marched down the hill on the other side, inclining towardsthe seaside, as they had promised, and saw a very pleasant valley beforethem, with a river in the middle of it, which, a little farther belowthem, seemed to be big enough to bear small ships; they marched apacetowards this river, and were surprised with the noise of a piece goingoff, which, by the sound, could not be far off. They listened long, butcould hear no more; so they went on to the river-side, which was a veryfine fresh stream, but widened apace, and they kept on by the banks ofit, till, almost at once, it opened or widened into a good large creekor harbour, about five miles from the sea; and that which was still moresurprising, as they marched forward, they plainly saw in the mouth ofthe harbour, or creek, the wreck of a ship.

  The tide was up, as we call it, so that it did net appear very muchabove the water, but, as they made downwards, they found it grow biggerand bigger; and the tide soon after ebbing out, they found it lay dryupon the sands, and appeared to be the wreck of a considerable vessel,larger than could be expected in that country.

  After some time, William, taking out his glass to look at it morenearly, was surprised with hearing a musket-shot whistle by him, andimmediately after that he heard the gun, and saw the smoke from theother side; upon which our men immediately fired three muskets, todiscover, if possible, what or who they were. Upon the noise of theseguns, abundance of men came running down to the shore from among thetrees; and our men could easily perceive that they were Europeans,though they knew not of what nation; however, our men hallooed to themas loud as they could, and by-and-by they got a long pole, and set itup, and hung a white shirt upon it for a flag of truce. They on theother side saw it, by the help of their glasses, too, and quickly afterour men see a boat launch off from the shore, as they thought, but itwas from another creek, it seems; and immediately they came rowing overthe creek to our men, carrying also a white flag as a token of truce.

  It is not easy to describe the surprise, or joy and satisfaction, thatappeared on both sides, to see not only white men, but Englishmen, ina place so remote; but what then must it be when they came to know oneanother, and to find that they were not only countrymen but comrades,and that this was the very ship that Captain Wilmot, our admiral,commanded, and whose company we had lost in the storm at Tobago, aftermaking an agreement to rendezvous at Madagascar!

  They had, it seems, got intelligence of us when they came to the southpart 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 richprizes, and, amongst the rest, one ship with the Great Mogul's daughter,and an immense treasure in money and jewels; and from thence they cameabout the coast of Coromandel, and
afterwards that of Malabar, into theGulf of Persia, where they also took some prize, and then designed forthe south part of Madagascar; but the winds blowing hard at S.E. andS.E. by E., they came to the northward of the isle, and being after thatseparated by a furious tempest from the N.W., they were forced into themouth 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 notfar off.

  When they had thus acquainted one another with their fortunes, the pooroverjoyed men were in haste to go back to communicate their joy to theircomrades; 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 backwith 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 gottheir guns on shore, and some ammunition, but a good deal of theirpowder was spoiled; however, they had raised a fair platform, andmounted twelve pieces of