The Ship's Crew Who Set The Author Ashore At Nicobar

Two Passages to Sumatra

After returning from Malacca a little before Christmas 1689, I found at Achin Mr. Morgan.

• He was one of our ship’s crew that left me ashore at Nicobar..
• He was now mate of a Danish ship of Trangambar which is a town on the coast of Coromandel, near Cape Comorin, belonging to the Danes.

I received an account of our crew from him and others, I thought it might not be amiss to gratify the reader’s curiosity therewith; who would probably be desirous to know the success of those ramblers in their new-intended expedition towards the Red Sea.

And withal I thought it might not be unlikely that these papers might fall into the hands of some of our London merchants who were concerned in fitting out that ship; which I said formerly was called the Cygnet of London, sent on a trading voyage into the South Seas under the command of Captain Swan: and that they might be willing to have a particular information of the fate of their ship. And by the way, even before this meeting with Mr. Morgan while I was at Tonquin, January 1689, I met with an English ship in the river of Tonquin called the Rainbow of London, Captain Poole commander; by whose mate, Mr. Barlow, who was returning in that ship to England, I sent a packet which he undertook to deliver to the merchants, owners of the Cygnet, some of which he said he knew: wherein I gave a particular account of all the course and transactions of their ship, from the time of my first meeting it in the South Seas and going aboard it there, to its leaving me ashore at Nicobar. But I never could hear that either that or other letters which I sent at the same time were received.

SOME GO TO TRANGAMBAR, A DANISH FORT ON COROMANDEL; OTHERS TO FORT ST. GEORGE; MANY TO THE MOGUL’S CAMP.

Mr. Morgan’s relation told me that, when they in the Cygnet went away from Nicobar planning to go to Persia, they directed their course towards Ceylon.

But the westerly monsoon went hard against them. They were obliged to seek refreshment on the coast of Coromandel.

Here, this mad fickle crew were on new projects again. Their designs meeting with such delays and obstructions that many of them grew weary of it and about half of them went ashore.

Of this number Mr. Morgan, who told me this, and Mr. Herman Coppinger the surgeon went to the Danes at Trangambar, who kindly received them. There they lived very well;

Mr. Morgan was employed as a mate in a ship of theirs at this time to Achin: and Captain Knox tells me that he since commanded the Curtana; the ship that I went in to Tonquin, which Captain Welden, having sold to the Mogul’s subjects, they employed Mr. Morgan as captain to trade in her for them; and it is a usual thing for the trading Indians to hire Europeans to go officers on board their ships; especially captains and gunners.

About 2-3 more of these that were set ashore went to Fort St. George. But the main body of them were for going into the Mogul’s service. Our seamen are apt to have great notions of I know not what profit and advantages to be had in serving the Mogul; nor do they want for fine stories to encourage one another to it. It was what these men had long been thinking and talking of as a fine thing; but now they went upon it in good earnest.

The place where they went ashore was at a town of the Moors: which name our seamen give to all the subjects of the great Mogul, but especially his Mohammedan subjects; calling the idolaters gentous or rashbouts. At this Moors town they got a peun to be their guide to the Mogul’s nearest camp; for he has always several armies in his vast empire.

THE PEUNS; AND HOW JOHN OLIVER MADE HIMSELF A CAPTAIN

These peuns are some of the gentous or rashbouts who in all places along the coast, especially in sea-port towns, make it their business to hire themselves to wait upon strangers, be they merchants, seamen, or what they will.

To qualify them for such attendance they learn the European languages, English, Dutch, French, Portuguese, etc., according as they have any of the factories of these nations in their neighbourhood, or are visited by their ships. No sooner does any such ship come to an anchor and the men come ashore but a great many of these peuns are ready to proffer their service. It is usual for the strangers to hire their attendance during their stay there, giving them about a crown a month of our money, more or less.

The richest sort of men will ordinarily hire two or three peuns to wait upon them; and even the common seamen, if able, will hire one apiece to attend them, either for convenience or ostentation; or sometimes one peun between two of them. These peuns serve them in many capacities, as interpreters, brokers, servants to attend at meals and go to market and on errands, etc. Nor do they give any trouble, eating at their own homes and lodging there; when they have done their masters’ business for them, expecting nothing but their wages, except that they have a certain allowance of about a fanam, or three pence in a dollar, which is an 18th part profit, by way of brokerage for every bargain they drive; they being generally employed in buying and selling. When the strangers go away their peuns desire them to give them their names in writing, with a certificate of their honest and diligent serving them: and these they show to the next comers to get into business; some being able to produce a large scroll of such certificates.

The Moor town where these men landed was not far from Cunnimere, a small English factory on the Coromandel Coast.

The governor whereof, having intelligence by the Moors of the landing of these men and their intended march to the Mogul’s camp, sent out a captain with his company to oppose it. He came up with them and gave them hard words: but they being thirty or forty resolute fellows, not easily daunted, he durst not attack them, but returned to the governor, and the news of it was soon carried to Fort St. George. During their march John Oliver, who was one of them, privately told the peun who guided them that himself was their captain. So when they came to the camp, the peun told this to the general: and when their stations and pay were assigned them John Oliver had a greater respect paid him than the rest; and whereas their pay was ten pagodas a month each man (a pagoda is two dollars or 9 shillings English) his pay was twenty pagodas: which stratagem and usurpation of his occasioned him no small envy and indignation from his comrades.

Soon after this two or three of them went to Agra to be of the Mogul’s guard. A while after the governor of Fort St. George sent a message to the main body of them and a pardon to withdraw them from thence; which most of them accepted and came away. John Oliver and the small remainder continued in the country; but, leaving the camp, went up and down, plundering the villages and fleeing when they were pursued; and this was the last news I heard of them. This account I had partly by Mr. Morgan, from some of those deserters he met with at Trangambar; partly from others of them whom I met myself afterwards at Fort St. George. And these were the adventures of those who went up into the country.

CAPTAIN READ, WITH THE REST, HAVING PLUNDERED A RICH PORTUGUESE SHIP NEAR CEYLON, GOES TO MADAGASCAR, AND SHIPS HIMSELF OFF THENCE IN A NEW YORK SHIP.

Captain Read thus lost the best half of his men and sailed away with the rest of them after having filled his water and got rice, still intending for the Red Sea.

When they were near Ceylon they met with a Portuguese ship richly laden, out of which they took what they pleased and then turned her away again.

From thence they pursued their voyage: but, the westerly winds bearing hard against them, and making it hardly feasible for them to reach the Red Sea, they stood away for Madagascar.

There they entered into the service of one of the petty princes of that island to assist him against his neighbours with whom he was at wars. During this interval a small vessel from New York came hither to purchase slaves: which trade is driven here, as it is upon the coast of Guinea; one nation or clan selling others that are their enemies.

Captain Read, with about five or six more, stole away from their crew and went aboard this New York ship, and Captain Teat was made commander of the residue.

THE TRAVERSES OF THE REST TO JOHANNA, ETC.

Soon after which a brigantine from the West Indies, Captain Knight commander, coming thither with a design to go to the Red Sea also, these of the Cygnet consorted with them and they went together to the island Johanna. Thence, going together towards the Red Sea, the Cygnet proving leaky and sailing heavily, as being much out of repair, Captain Knight grew weary of her company and, giving her the slip in the night, went away for Achin: for, having heard that there was plenty of gold there, he went thither with a design to cruise: and it was from one Mr. Humes, belonging to the Ann of London, Captain Freke commander, who had gone aboard Captain Knight, and whom I saw afterwards at Achin, that I had this relation. Some of Captain Freke’s men, their own ship being lost, had gone aboard the Cygnet at Johanna: and after Captain Knight had left her she still pursued her voyage towards the Red Sea: but, the winds being against them, and the ship in so ill a condition, they were forced to bear away for Coromandel, where Captain Teat and his own men went ashore to serve the Mogul.

THEIR SHIP, THE CYGNET OF LONDON, NOW LIES SUNK IN AUGUSTIN BAY AT MADAGASCAR.

But the foreigners of Captain Freke’s ship, who kept still aboard the Cygnet, undertook to carry her for England.

The last news I heard of the Cygnet was from Captain Knox who tells me that she now lies sunk in St. Augustin Bay in Madagascar. This digression I have made to give an account of our ship.