Page 25 - History of Portuguese in the Gulf_Neat

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xlii INTRODUCTION.
from which have been extracted the most important points, of
which it appeared to the Governors that your Excellency should
be advised, and they therefore go with this letter in all the four
vitis of these ships; and in the first paragraph which treats of the
bay of Antao Gil in the Island of Sad Louren^o it appears to
them that your Excellency should take heed, whenever an oppor­
tunity offers, to send and have prompt measures taken there; and
that as regards what is said in the last paragraph, of faults com-
mitted by the Portuguese in Greater Jaoa, your Excellency must
already have received information and sent to put a stop to this,
and to proceed against the culprits, and especially the one named
in the last paragraph ; but that nevertheless they remind and
advise your Excellency thereof on the part of his Majesty, to
whom they are writing on this subject, and of this dispatch being
sent to your Excellency ; and another copy like that which goes
herewith, which was extracted from the said ruttier, has been
given to Cosmo de Lafeta for him on his part to do what he was
ordered in this matter, and to advise your Excellency.
The document referred to in the above letter i
is as
follows:—1
Extract from the Ruttier of the Voyage of the Hollanders.
In this Ruttier of the voyage that the Hollanders made to Jaoa
the following is of importance.
The Bay of Antao Gil- in the Island of S. Louren£.o, which is
in an altitude of 16 degrees on the east coast of the said Island,
and is very large and capacious, having a breadth of io leagues,
and within it several small islands, and among them a larger
one very high, behind which is a good anchorage-ground ; this
island is inhabited, has many fruits, oranges, lemons and cit­
rons, and fowls, cattle, sheep and goats; from the mountain
top descends a stream of water, and a quarter of a league
above it is a village of two hundred houses, and other lesser
ones.
Outside of this Bay is the island of Santa Maria, in which
the Hollanders found the same fruits and provisions and much
fish.3
In the strait that lies between Lesser Jaoa and the island of
1 Archivo Porluguez-Oriental, fasc. iii, pp. 885-886.
2 Cf. Frank van der Does’s description, in De Jonge, op. cit. vol. ii,
p. 317 ; The Description of a Voyage, etc., p. 8. (See also Voyages of
Sir fas. Lancaster, p. 67.)
3 Cf. F. van der Does in De Jonge, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 312-314 ;
Description of a Voyage, etc., p. 7. (See also Voyage of Sir J.
Lancaster, p. 67.)
&
f.s
■ !'
i
INTRODUCTION. xliii '
■
Bale they experienced such a strong current of water to the
• f
north, that they disembarked with great trouble.1 •t
From the island of Bale they set their course steadily to the 1
west-south-west without making land,2 so that Great Jaoa cannot L
be as broad as the ordinary descriptions of those parts make it,
the south coast of this island of Greater jaoa not having hitherto
been discovered.
On arriving at the city of Bantao in Greater Jaoa (where they
loaded what they brought back), they found there many Portu­
guese, who welcomed and banqueted them, and gave them infor­ 4
mation regarding the pepper that there was in the country, and of
the novelty that was hoped for in the loading of their ships ;3 and
among these Portuguese was one, Pedro de Attaide by name, a
from Malaca,4 who advised them of all that was plotted in that
city against them, and counselled them to take in their cargo m
speedily before the Jaos should carry into effect their evil inten­ If
tions, the which maybe they would have put into execution, and \i\
these Hollanders would not have returned to their own land if $
this Portuguese had not been there, and others that are not r
named in this Ruttier.5 I
&
I must now refer to another English expedition, which ■s
ended even more disastrously than Lancaster’s, and the »?•
fate of whose participants has hitherto been involved
i
in mystery. The publication of Linschoten’s Reys- K-
ghcschrift and the departure of de Houtman’s expedition
have been the prime factors in inducing Queen %
may
Elizabeth to sanction the dispatch, in 1596, of an expedi­
tion of three ships, at the charge of Sir Robert Dudley and
•i
1 Cf. F. van dcr Does, in De Jonge, op. cit.y vol. ii, p. 34S ; The
Description of a Voyage, etc., p. 31.
5 Cf. F. van der Does, in De Jonge, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 365 ; The ■
Description of a Voyage, etc., p. 34.
3 Cf. F. van der Does, in De Jonge, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 325 ; The
Description of a Voyage, etc., p. 14 v (which does not mention the
banqueting, as does van der Does).
4 Cf. F. van dcr Does, in De Jonge, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 327 ; The ■
Dcscripiio?i of a Voyage, etc., p. 19. The former says that he was
born in Goa ; the latter says Malacca, and calls him “ Pedro Truidc.” .
Both writers speak highly of him as a skilled pilot and good friend of
the Dutch, and recount his murder in Bantam, on August 16th, 1596,
The by some slaves at the instigation of the Portuguese.
4 As a matter of fact, the ill-success of the Dutch was largely due
to the opposition of the Portuguese.
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