while to push it anyfurther, nor was there anything that I knew of to be got by the conquestwhen it was made, so that I thought it high time to give it over.
William acknowledged what I said was just, and that there was nothingbut our curiosity to be gratified in this attempt; and though, as hesaid, he was very desirous to have searched into the thing, yet he wouldnot insist upon it; so we resolved to quit it and come away, whichwe did. However, William said before we went he would have thissatisfaction of them, viz., to burn down the tree and stop up theentrance into the cave. And while doing this the gunner told him hewould have one satisfaction of the rogues; and this was, that he wouldmake a mine of it, and see which way it had vent. Upon this he fetchedtwo barrels of powder out of the ships, and placed them in the inside ofthe hollow of the cave, as far in as he durst go to carry them, and thenfilling up the mouth of the cave where the tree stood, and ramming itsufficiently hard, leaving only a pipe or touch-hole, he gave fire toit, and stood at a distance to see which way it would operate, when ona sudden he found the force of the powder burst its way out among somebushes on the other side the little hill I mentioned, and that it cameroaring out there as out of the mouth of a cannon. Immediately runningthither, we saw the effects of the powder.
First, we saw that there was the other mouth of the cave, which thepowder had so torn and opened, that the loose earth was so fallen inagain that nothing of shape could be discerned; but there we saw whatwas become of the garrison of the Indians, too, who had given us allthis trouble, for some of them had no arms, some no legs, some no head;some lay half buried in the rubbish of the mine--that is to say, in theloose earth that fell in; and, in short, there was a miserable havocmade in them all; for we had good reason to believe not one of them thatwere in the inside could escape, but rather were shot out of the mouthof the cave, like a bullet out of a gun.
We had now our full satisfaction of the Indians; but, in short, this wasa losing voyage, for we had two men killed, one quite crippled, and fivemore wounded; we spent two barrels of powder, and eleven days' time, andall to get the understanding how to make an Indian mine, or how to keepgarrison in a hollow tree; and with this wit, bought at this dearprice, we came away, having taken in some fresh water, but got no freshprovisions.
We then considered what we should do to get back again to Madagascar.We were much about the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, but had such avery long run, and were neither sure of meeting with fair winds nor withany land in the way, that we knew not what to think of it. Williamwas our last resort in this case again, and he was very plain with us."Friend," says he to Captain Wilmot, "what occasion hast thou to run theventure of starving, merely for the pleasure of saying thou hast beenwhere nobody has been before? There are a great many places nearerhome, of which thou mayest say the same thing at less expense. I see nooccasion thou hast of keeping thus far south any longer than till youare sure you are to the west end of Java and Sumatra; and then thoumayest stand away north towards Ceylon, and the coast of Coromandel andMadras, where thou mayest get both fresh water and fresh provisions; andto that part it is likely we may hold out well enough with the stores wehave already."
This was wholesome advice, and such as was not to be slighted; so westood away to the west, keeping between the latitude of 31 and 35, andhad very good weather and fair winds for about ten days' sail; by whichtime, by our reckoning, we were clear of the isles, and might run awayto the north; and if we did not fall in with Ceylon, we should at leastgo into the great deep Bay of Bengal.
But we were out in our reckoning a great deal; for, when we had stooddue north for about fifteen or sixteen degrees, we met with land againon our starboard bow, about three leagues' distance; so we came to ananchor about half a league from it, and manned out our boats to see whatsort of a country it was. We found it a very good one; fresh water easyto come at, but no cattle that we could see, or inhabitants; and wewere very shy of searching too far after them, lest we should make suchanother journey as we did last; so that we let rambling alone, and choserather to take what we could find, which was only a few wild mangoes,and some plants of several kinds, which we knew not the names of.
We made no stay here, but put to sea again, N.W. by N., but had littlewind for a fortnight more, when we made land again; and standing in withthe shore, we were surprised to find ourselves on the south shore ofJava; and just as we were coming to an anchor we saw a boat, carryingDutch colours, sailing along-shore. We were not solicitous to speakwith them, or any other of their nation, but left it indifferent to ourpeople, when they went on shore, to see the Dutchmen or not to see them;our business was to get provisions, which, indeed, by this time werevery short with us.
We resolved to go on shore with our boats in the most convenient placewe could find, and to look out a proper harbour to bring the ship into,leaving it to our fate whether we should meet with friends or enemies;resolving, however, not to stay any considerable time, at least notlong enough to have expresses sent across the island to Batavia, and forships to come round from thence to attack us.
We found, according to our desire, a very good harbour, where we rodein seven fathom water, well defended from the weather, whatever mighthappen; and here we got fresh provisions, such as good hogs and somecows; and that we might lay in a little store, we killed sixteen cows,and pickled and barrelled up the flesh as well as we could be supposedto do in the latitude of eight degrees from the line.
We did all this in about five days, and filled our casks with water; andthe last boat was coming off with herbs and roots, we being unmoored,and our fore-topsail loose for sailing, when we spied a large ship tothe northward, bearing down directly upon us. We knew not what she mightbe, but concluded the worst, and made all possible haste to get ouranchor up, and get under sail, that we might be in a readiness to seewhat she had to say to us, for we were under no great concern for oneship, but our notion was, that we should be attacked by three or fourtogether.
By the time we had got up our anchor and the boat was stowed, the shipwas within a league of us, and, as we thought, bore down to engage us;so we spread our black flag, or ancient, on the poop, and the bloodyflag at the top-mast-head, and having made a clear ship, we stretchedaway to the westward, to get the wind of him.
They had, it seems, quite mistaken us before, expecting nothing of anenemy or a pirate in those seas; and, not doubting but we had been oneof their own ships, they seemed to be in some confusion when they foundtheir mistake, so they immediately hauled upon a wind on the other tack,and stood edging in for the shore, towards the easternmost part of theisland. Upon this we tacked, and stood after him with all the sail wecould, and in two hours came almost within gunshot. Though they crowdedall the sail they could lay on, there was no remedy but to engage us,and they soon saw their inequality of force. We fired a gun for them tobring to; so they manned out their boat, and sent to us with a flag oftruce. We sent back the boat, but with this answer to the captain, thathe had nothing to do but to strike and bring his ship to an anchorunder our stern, and come on board us himself, when he should know ourdemands; but that, however, since he had not yet put us to the troubleof forcing him, which we saw we were able to do, we assured them thatthe captain should return again in safety, and all his men, and that,supplying us with such things as we should demand, his ship should notbe plundered. They went back with this message, and it was some timeafter they were on board before they struck, which made us begin tothink they refused it; so we fired a shot, and in a few minutes more weperceived their boat put off; and as soon as the boat put off the shipstruck and came to an anchor, as was directed.
When the captain came on board, we demanded an account of their cargo,which was chiefly bales of goods from Bengal for Bantam. We told themour present want was provisions, which they had no need of, being justat the end of their voyage; and that, if they would send their boat onshore with ours, and procure us six-and-twenty head of black cattle,threescore hogs, a quantity of brandy and arrack, and three hundredbushels of rice,
we would let them go free.
As to the rice, they gave us six hundred bushels, which they hadactually on board, together with a parcel shipped upon freight. Also,they gave us thirty middling casks of very good arrack, but beef andpork they had none. However, they went on shore with our men, and boughteleven bullocks and fifty hogs, which were pickled up for our occasion;and upon the supplies of provision from shore, we dismissed them andtheir ship.
We lay here several days before we could furnish ourselves with theprovisions agreed for, and some of the men fancied the Dutchmen werecontriving our destruction; but they were very honest, and did what theycould to furnish the black cattle, but found it impossible to supply somany. So they came and told us ingenuously, that, unless we could staya while longer, they could get no more oxen or cows than those eleven,with which we were obliged to be satisfied, taking the value of themin other things, rather than stay longer there. On our side, we werepunctual