There are two accounts extant of the voyage of the Ascension; one written by Captain Robert Coverte, and the other by Thomas Jones. There was a third, written by Henry Moris at Bantam, from the mouth of William Nichols, one of the sailors belonging to the Ascension; but as the voyage part was the same in substance as that given by Jones, Purchas omitted that part, and only inserted the journey of Nichols by land from Surat to Masulipatam; which requires to be inserted, although his remarks on the road to Masulipatam, and his voyage from thence to Bantam, are comprised in very few words.
The relation of Captain Coverte is not inserted in the Pilgrims of Purchas, who omitted it, because, as he tells us, it was already in print. Its title runs thus: A true and almost incredible Report of an Englishman, that, being cast away in the good Ship called the Ascension, in Cambaya, the furthest Part of the East Indies, travelled by Land through many unknown Kingdoms and great Cities. With a particular Description of all these Kingdoms, Cities, and People. As also a Relation of their Commodities and Manner of Traffic, &c. With the Discovery of a great Empire, called the Great Mogul, a Prince not till now known to the English Nation. By Captain Coverte. London, printed by William Hall, for Thomas Archer and Richard Redmer, 1612.
The circumstance of this narrative having been before printed, is a very insufficient reason for its omission, since Purchas inserted many others which were before in print, and few tracts had a better title for insertion, than this of Coverte. De Bry, however, knew its value, and gave a translation of it with cuts, in his Ind. Orient. part xi. p. 11. but divided into chapters, the original being in one continued narrative. It is true that Purchas has given an extract from it in his Pilgrimage, book V. chap. vii. sect. 5. a work on general geography entirely different from his Pilgrims, or Collection of Voyages and Travels; but this is very imperfect, and only refers to his land journey.
This voyage of Coverte contains sixty-eight pages in quarto, black letter, besides the dedication and title, which occupy four pages more. It is dedicated to Robert Earl of Salisbury, Lord High Treasurer of England; but there is nothing in the dedication worth notice, except that he says, after the wreck of the Ascension, and getting on shore with seventy-four others, he was the only one among them who would venture upon so desperate an undertaking as to travel home by land. He likewise asserts that every thing he relates is true, protesting that he speaks of nothing but what he had seen and suffered.
In this place, we shall only abstract the author's voyage to Cambaya; and, instead of his journey home through India, Persia, and Turkey, [which will be inserted among the Travels,[271] shall give the account of Jones of his own return from Cambaya by sea to England. This voyage lays claim to two discoveries, that of the Moguls country, as appears in the tide, though Captain Hawkins had got the start of him there; and the discovery of the Bed Sea by the Ascension, as mentioned in the title of the relation by Jones in Purchas.--Astley.
[Footnote 271: This promise is not however performed in Astley's Collection. In the Pilgrims, I. 235, Purchas has inserted the peregrination of Mr Joseph Salbank through India, Persia, part of Turkey, the Persian Gulf, and Arabia, in 1609, written to Sir Thomas Smith; and tells us in a sidenote, that Robert Coverte was his companion in the journey all the way through India and Persia, to Bagdat. We meant to have inserted these peregrinations as a substitute for those of Coverte, but found the names of places so inexplicably corrupted, as to render the whole entirely useless.--E.]
In Astley's Collection, copying from Purchas, a brief account of the same voyage is given, as written by Thomas Jones, who seems to have been carpenter or boatswain of the Ascension, and whose narrative differs in some particulars from that of Coverte, though they agree in general. Instead of augmenting our pages by the insertion of this additional narrative, we have only remarked in notes the material circumstances in which they differ. Neither can be supposed very accurate in dates, as both would probably lose their journals when shipwrecked near Surat.
We have likewise added, in supplement to the narrative of Coverte, such additional circumstances as are supplied by Jones, after the loss of the ship.--E.
SECTION 1. Relation of this Voyage, as written by Robert Coverte.[272]
We weighed anchor from Woolwich on the 14th of March, 1608, and came to the Downs over against Deal, three miles from Sandwich, where we remained till the 25th, when we sailed for Plymouth. Leaving that place with a fair gale on the 31st, we arrived at the Salvages, 500 leagues from thence, on the 10th of April, and came next morning in sight of the Grand Canary. Casting anchor there at midnight, we fired a gun for a boat to come off: But the Spaniards, fearing we were part of a squadron of twelve Hollanders, expected in these seas, instead of sending any one on board, sent into the country for a body of 150 horse and foot to defend the town; neither were their fears abated till two of our factors went ashore, and acquainted them that we were two English ships in want of some necessaries. Next morning we fired another gun, when the governor sent off a boat to know what we wanted. Having acquainted him, he made answer, that it was not in his power to relieve our wants, unless we came into the roads. Yet, having examined our factors upon oath, they had a warrant for a boat at their pleasure, to go between the shore and the ships with whatever was wanted. What we most wondered at, was the behaviour of two ships then in the roads, known by their colours to be English, the people of which had not the kindness to apprize us of the customs of the subtile currish Spaniards. It is the custom here, when any foreign ship comes into the roads, that no person of the same nation even, or any other, must go on board without leave from the governor and council.