Socotora has abundance of civet cats,[215] which are taken in traps in the mountains by the cafrs, who sell them for twelve-pence each. Flesh is dear in this island; a cow costing ten dollars, and one goat or two sheep a dollar. Their cattle have good firm and fat beef, like those in England. The goats are large, and have good flesh; and the sheep are small with coarse wool. The goats and sheep are very abundant. They make very good butter, but it is always soft like cream, and is sold for four-pence or six-pence a pound. Goat's milk may be bought for three-pence the quart. Plenty of hens may be had, at the rate of five for a dollar, or about twelve-pence each. In the whole island there are not above two or three small horses of the Arab breed, and a few camels. At Delisha they take great quantities of lobsters and other good fish. A few cotton plants are found growing on the strand; where likewise there grows among the stones a shrubby plant, having large thick round green leaves, as big as a shilling, with a fruit like capers, of which it is a kind, called eschuc, and is eaten in sallads. Oranges are scarce and dear. There is very fine sweet bazil. On the shore, many fine shells are found, mixed with cuttle-fish bones, and vast quantities of pearl-oyster shells, which the people say are driven thither by the winds and waves, as no pearl-oysters are to be found here-about. The people are very poor, and rank beggars, who buy what they are able and beg all they can get, yet are honest and give civil usage. Their best entertainment is a china dish of coho, a black bitterish drink, made of a berry like that of the bay tree, which is brought from Mecca. This drink is sipped hot, and is good for the head and stomach.[216]
[Footnote 215: The Civet, or Vierra Civetta of naturalists, is an animal somewhat allied to the weazel; but the genus is peculiarly distinguished by an orifice or folicle beneath the anus, containing an unctuous odorant matter, highly fetid in most of the species; but in this and the Zibet the produce is a rich perfume, much esteemed in the east.--E.]
[Footnote 216: This Coho of Finch is evidently coffee.--E.]
At our first landing in Socotora, the people all fled from us for fear into the mountains, having formerly received injurious treatment from the Portuguese, who they said had carried off some of them forcibly. Their town which they left, is all built of stone covered with spars and palm branches, with wooden doors, and very ingenious wooden locks. Near the sea-side stands their church, enclosed by a wall like that of a church-yard, having within a couple of crosses and an altar, on which lay frankincense, with sweet wood and gums. When we first got speech of them, they pretended this was Abba del Curia, and not Socotora, which we afterwards found to be false. We walked up two or three miles into the country, not seeing a single pile of green grass, but many date trees. We saw one other very strange tree or plant, something more than the height of a man, very thick at the root, and tapering upwards almost to a point. The trunk was very smooth and without bark, and near the top some long branches without leaves, bearing reddish flowers, which change afterwards to a fruit not unlike the date in form and size, which is at first green. It contains many small whitish kernels, which as well as the branches are very bitter, and full of a resinous substance. We also saw another church having a cross on its top.[217]
[Footnote 217: Of this church and the whole island, see the voyage of Juan de Castro. For, in times past, the natives were Christians; which, as all others not of their faith, the Mahometans call cafrs. Being rude and brutish, they were the easier prey to the Arabs.--Purch.]
SECTION 3. Occurrences in India, respecting the English, Dutch, Portuguese, and Moguls.
The 28th August, 1608, Captain Hawkins with the merchants and some others landed at Surat. He was received into a coach and carried before the dawne, [or dewan.] We had very poor lodgings allotted to us, being only the porter's lodge of the custom-house; where next morning the customers came and tumbled about our trunks to our great displeasure, though we had only brought our necessaries on shore. We were invited to dinner by a merchant, who gave us good chear, but we had sour sauce to our banquet, for he was the person who had sustained almost the whole loss in the ship taken by Sir Edward Michelburne. The captain also of that ship dined with us. When that affair was told us, our captain said he had never heard of any such matter, and supposed it must have been done by a Hollander; but they affirmed it was to their certain knowledge an English ship, and deplored their hard fortunes, affirming there were thieves of all nations, yet they were not disposed to impute that fault to honest merchants. This liberal sentiment somewhat revived us; and we were invited the day after to supper by Mede Colee, the captain of that ship.
The 2d October we embarked our goods and provisions, gave a present to Schekh Abdel-reheime, and got a dispatch for our departure; but the customers refused a licence till they should search our ship, yet meeting with some frigates in their own river, which they supposed to be Malabars, they durst not venture down to our ship. These frigates [grabs] were Portuguese, who desired that no one should come to talk with them; yet Mr Buck rashly went on board and was detained.[218]
[Footnote 218: At this place is given a confused relation of several incidents at Surat, obviously garbled and abbreviated by Purchas, so as to be difficultly intelligible. As these are already contained in the journal of Hawkins, they are here omitted.--E.]
At this time I was ill of the bloody flux, of which Mr Dorchester died, but I was cured under God by an Englishman, named Careless.[219] From him I learnt many things respecting India; and particularly of the great spoil done by the Hollanders to the Portugals at Malacca the last year. The Hollanders were lying before Malacca with sixteen ships, besieging that place by sea and land, in conjunction with several native kings, when news were sent to the Portuguese viceroy, then before Acheen with all the gallants of India, having with him a very great fleet of ships, gallies, and frigates, with 4000 soldiers, having been commanded to conquer Acheen and to build a castle there, and afterwards to plunder Johor, and to chastise the Moluccas for trading with the Hollanders. Upon notice from Andrea Hurtado, who then commanded at Malacca, of the distress to which that place was reduced, the viceroy set sail from Acheen to attack the Hollanders. The Dutch general got timely notice of his motions, and having re-embarked his men and artillery, went forth to meet the viceroy. After a long and bloody fight, the Dutch had to draw off to stop the leaks of their admiral; on which the Portuguese let slip the opportunity, and fell to rioting and merriment, with great boasts of their victory, not looking any more for the Hollanders. But they, having stopped their leaks and refitted at Johor, came unexpectedly on the Portuguese, most of whom were feasting ashore, and sunk and burnt all their ships; insomuch, if the viceroy had not previously detached six ships on some other service, the Portuguese naval power in India had been all utterly destroyed. After this, the Portuguese in Malacca were infected by a heavy sickness, in which most of them died, among whom was the viceroy, and the governor of Manilla, who had brought a reinforcement of 2000 Spanish troops, so that their power was laid in the dust.