Page 33 - History of Portuguese in the Gulf_Neat

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iviii INTRODUCTION.
not being able to go as far as Nicubar, they returned without
news of them. Whereupon he dispatched another larger vessel
to go to the Polvoreira Island1 and as far as Nicubar to find out
about them ; in order, if they remained in this quarter, to go and
look for them with three ships that were still lying in port well
equipped; and he dispatched a boat to Sunda, by which he sent
advice to Louren^o de Brito of what was taking place.2 The
boat that the captain sent to Nicubar also returned without any
news. The enemy retired to the port of Quedri3 with many men
killed, and the rest so wounded, that they spent much time in
recuperating: and from lack of men, whom our people had
killed, they left in that port the ship of lesser burden, and in the
other, which was the admiral,4 they embarked what they had, and
went off in great haste, so much so, that they left on shore several
wounded men, because the natives wished to attack them for
various wrongs that they had done to them, and shaped their
course for Bengalla; and in the latitude of Martavao on the
coast of Pegu they were lost in that macareo.5
That the above account of the fate of the last surviving
ship of Captain Wood’s expedition is correct, I see no
1 « An island that we call the Polvoreira, and they of the country
Buraia, which means ‘ house of God,’ by reason of an ancient temple
which stood there” (Barros, Dec. II, Liv. vi, cap. i). It is the “ Pulo
Berhala (Varela)'} of the Admiralty chart. (“Pulo Bdrahla” means
“idol island :” see Hobson-Jobson, s. v. “Varela.”) In Linschoten’s
Map of the Eastern Seas {u. s.) the name appears as “ Apoluoreira.”
{Polvoreira is a pseudo-Portuguese word, which might be taken to
mean “powder-mill.” For other instances of Portuguized place-names,
see infra, p. 20.) 1
2 The extraordinary fainlance of Lourengo de Brito in regard to
the matter was due probably to mortified pride on learning that the
“ Hollanders,” whom he had set forth to chastise, had already been
effectually dealt with by a much inferior force to his.
3 “ Old Kedah ” of the Admiralty chart, a little to the north of the
Muda river. For the history of this place, see Crawfurd’s Dictionary
of the Indian Islands, s.v. “ Queda.”
4 As we do not know which of the three ships that comprised
Wood’s fleet these two were, it is impossible to say which is here
spoken of as “the admiral.” The size of the Benjamin I do not know ;
as regards the Bear and the Bear’s Whelp, see The Voyage of Robert
Dudley, p. xix. <
* See Hobson-Jobson, s.v. “ Macareo.” Barros, describing the king­
dom of Pegu, says that the coast “is very full of islands, and most of
the rivers of the principal ports have such a great macareo that many
ships perish ” (Dec. Ill, Liv. m, cap. iv).
INTRODUCTION. lix
reason to doubt.1 But, it will be asked, how is this to
f
be reconciled with the statements of Purchas? In his
Pilgrimes, Pt. I, Bk. ill, pp. 110-113, Purchas gives the
translation of an extract from a Spanish letter which he
found among Hakluyt’s papers, and to this he prefixes a i
brief introduction, under the heading, “ The Voyage of
Master Beniamin Wood into the East Indies, and the
i.
miserable disastrous success thereof.” After quoting from 1
Hakluyt («. s., p. xliv, n.) the details of the origin of this
i expedition, and a few lines of the Queen’s letter to the
Emperor of China, Purchas adds :—
M
!;
This, their honourable expedition, and gracious commendation I
by her Maiestie to the King of China in their marchandizing
affaires, had not answerable successe; but hath suffered a double
disaster: first, in the miserable perishing of the Fleet, and next {
in the losse of the Historie and Relation of that Tragedie. Some
broken Plankes, as after a shipwracke, have yet beene encountered
from the West Indies, which giue vs some notice of this East
Indian disaduenture. Quce Regio in terris nostri non plena
laboris 7 This intelligence wee have by the intercepted Letters2
?
of Licentiate Alcasar de Villa Sefior, Auditor of the Royall
Audience of Saint Domingo, and Judge of Commission in Puerto 5
Rico, and Captaine-Generall of the Prouinces of New Andalusia,
written to the King and his Royall Councell of the Indies. An 1.
extract whereof, so much as concerneth this businesse, here
followeth. Wherein, let not the imputation of Robbery or Piracie
trouble the Reader, being the words of a Spaniard, and the
deeds of English in the time of warre twixt vs and Spaine.3
The extract from the letter, which is dated “ From Porto-
rico the second of October, 1601,” commences thus :—
An other Commission your Royall Audience committed vnto
mee, to punishe offenders that did vsurpe a great quantitie of
1 Faria y Sousa, after recounting the fight, and the fate of the two
ships, adds “ This was the beginning of Holland [sic] in India ;
from which it is to be well noted, that no one should ever be dis­
heartened by a losing beginning, whence it might be supposed that
he would issue victorious” {Asia Porluguesa, tom. Ill, Pt. II, cap. i).
2 England being at war with Spain at the time, many Spanish
letters were intercepted by English ships.
3 Cf. the remarks of Thos. Astley {Collection of Voyages and
Travels, vol. i, p. 254).