Page 37 - History of Portuguese in the Gulf_Neat

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lxvi INTRODUCTION. INTRODUCTION. lxvii ii

cused himself on account of indisposition, but sent a nephew1 of and of the voyage of the other two we have no detailed
his with the most honourable men of his ship. And being drunk f!
at the banquet, the Achens set upon them and murdered them ;2 account. Almost all that is known of them is, that they
and at the same time the whole fleet sallied out and attacked the reached Bantam in February and March, 1599, and left
ships with great fury. The Hollanders, seeing this onset, had no there for Europe in November.1 i
other or better remedy than to hoist their sails and make their Hi
escape, with the fleet after them until they disappeared,3 leaving ■ iii
the goods that they had on shore, and two pinnaces that were in On May 1st, 1598, a fleet of eight ships, under the com­ i!
different ports, which the king at once ordered to be seized.4 mand of Jacob Cornelisz. van Neck and VVybrand van n
The Hollanders took their course for the river of Quedd, whither
they retired and reformed themselves.5 And because they had Warwijck, sailed out of the Texel for the East.2 Three of : ' ii
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few people left in the ships, since they had lost on shore more these arrived at Bantam on November 25th, and the re­
than fifty persons,6 they were obliged to abandon the smaller ship
and all get into the other one, in which they set out in the maining five came there also a month later. On January 5
direction of Magulepatdo, and got lost in the macareo of Tana$a- nth, 1599, four of the ships, under the command of ii
rim. And thus of these two ships not a single thing escaped.7 '■Hi
M
Van Neck, left Bantam, and, after coasting Sumatra and
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About the same time that the Leeuw and Leeuwin left calling at St. Helena, arrived in the Texel on July 19th, !•.
I
Middelburg for the East, three other Zeeland ships sailed 1599. The other four ships, under Van Warwijck and !•
r i t
for the same parts. One, however, was lost off Dover ; Jacob van Heemskerk, left Bantam on January 8th, 1599, 1
for the Moluccos, reaching Amboina on March 3rd3 (having
1 This apparently refers to Frederik de Houtman, who was actually had, on the way thither, a fight with the natives at Arissa- W .!
the brother of Cornelis.
baya on the west coast of Madura, losing a number of ;■ a
2 The affray really took place on board the Dutch ships, the 1 T
Achinese having drugged the wine. Cornelis de Houtman and others men by drowning, and having to ransom many prisoners).
were killed ; while of the Dutch on shore at the time only a few were On the nth of the same month two of the four ships, I
spared and kept as prisoners, among them Frederik de Houtman (see "i
Voyages of John Davis, pp. 144-145 ; De Jonge, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 214). under Van Heemskerk, left for Banda, whence, after some
This occurred on September 1st, 1599. •51
3 Davis says that while they were at Pedir seeking one of their months' stay, they sailed on July 5th for Bantam, and I
pinnaces on September 2nd, “ there came eleven Gallics with Portu­ thence for home, making a stay at St. Helena from
gal (as we thought) to take our ships. We sunke one, and beate the
rest: so they fledde” (op. cit., p. 145). December 8th, 1599, till January 1st, 1600, and reaching ■\
4 Davis says : “ Wee lost two fine Pinnasses of twentie tunnes
a piece, and one ship Boate” (Ibid.). %
4 Cf. Voyages of John Davis, pp. 146, 153. 1 See De Jonge, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 216-217, 379, 447; also footnote,
• Davis says: “We lost in this misfortune threescore and eight infra, p. Ixxiii. These two ships, the Langebercquc and the Zo?i, left
persons, of which we are not certaine how many are captived : only again for the East in 1601.
of eight wee have knowledge” (op. cit., p. 145). 3 Faria y Sousa, in giving a summary account (not very accurate)
1 Here Couto seems to confuse the fate of the Dutch ships with of this expedition, says :—“ Mauricio [Mauritius] was the name or
that of Wood's two (see supra, p. Iviii). As a matter of fact, the title of the admiral’s ship : it appears as if by a fatality, with the first
Leeuw and Leeuwin, after watering and refreshing at Pulo Butung off two syllables ever grievous to Catholic cars (let severe censors pardon M
Kedah, returned to Achin on October 6th, and fired some shots at one what they may call frivolous considerations), to be second Mauritanians
of ten galleys that they found there ; on the 18th they sailed for in those climes, like spoilers of the vineyard of Christ, which the
Tenasscrim, where they had bad weather, and were distressed for efforts of the Portuguese had planted there.” Me also somewhat
lack of food. Having overcome these difficulties, they reached St. broadly insinuates that the Hollanders took out with them the wor­
Helena on April 13th (23rd), 1600, and on the 15th (25th) had a fight ship of Bacchus (Asia Portuguese., tom. Ill, Pt. II, cap. iii). (Cf.
with a Portuguese caravel, as described in the next extract. The two Voyages of John Davis, p. 134.)
ships ultimately arrived at Middelburg on July 29th, 1600. 3 See Voyage of John Saris, p. xxxiii. !
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