"In Purchas this is entitled, 'The unhappy Voyage of the Vice-Admiral, the Union, outward bound, till she arrived at Priaman, reported by a Letter which Mr Samuel Bradshaw sent from Priaman, by Humphry Bidulph, the 11th March, 1610, written by the said Henry Moris at Bantam, September the 14th, 1610.' This account given by Moris, the same who wrote the brief account of the journey of Nichols, relating the voyage of the Union no farther than to Priaman, appears to have been only transcribed by him from the letter of Mr Bradshaw, one of the factors; yet in the preamble to the voyage, Moris says that he had the account from the report of others, without any mention of the letter from Bradshaw. What concerns the return of the Union from Priaman, and her being cast away on the coast of France, contained in the second subdivision of this section, is extracted from two letters, and a kind of postscript by Purchas, which follow this narrative by Moris."--Astley.
[Footnote 299: Purch. Pilgr. 1. 202 Astl. I. 348.]
SECTION 1. Of the Voyage of the Union, after her Separation from the Ascension, to Acheen and Priaman.
You have already had an account of the voyage of the two ships, the Ascension and Union, from England to the Cape of Good Hope, but of the proceedings of the Union after her separation you have not heard; therefore I have thought proper to make some relation thereof, as well as of the other, as I have heard from the report of other men, and thus it was:
The Union and Ascension were separated by a storm in doubling the Cape, during which storm the Union sprung her main-mast, and they were obliged to fish it in the midst of the storm, owing to which they lost company with the admiral; and as the storm continued, and they were hopeless of recovering the company either of the Ascension or pinnace by continuing off the Cape, they shaped their course for the Bay of St Augustine in Madagascar. Being arrived there, they went ashore, and remained twenty days, where they procured good refreshing, being always in hopes of the coming of the Ascension and pinnace, but were disappointed. Then making sail from thence, they directed their course for the island of Zanjibar, in hopes to meet the general there. On their arrival they went ashore, and were at first kindly received; but when they went ashore again, the natives lay in ambush, and sallied out upon them as soon as they landed, killed presently the purser and one mariner, and took one of the merchants prisoner; yet the rest had the good fortune to get off the boat and came on board. The names of those who were slain, were Richard Kenu, purser; I have forgotten the mariner's name, but the merchant, who was taken prisoner, was Richard Wickham.
The Union put now to sea about the month of February, 1609, having the wind at N.E. and north, which was directly contrary for their intended voyage to Socotora. After having been long at sea, and made little or nothing of their way, the men being very much troubled with the scurvy, the captain thought proper to bear up for the north part of the island of Madagascar, meaning to go into the Bay of Antongil; but they came upon the western side of the island, where they proposed to endeavour the recovery of their almost lost men, and to spend the adverse monsoon. On this side of the island, they came into an exceedingly extensive bay, which they afterwards understood was called by the natives, Canquomorra,[300] the country round being very fertile and beautiful. The first view of this place gave much pleasure to all their men, and they soon had conference with the natives, who at the first proffered great kindness, but afterwards treated them very ill.
[Footnote 300: In the margin Purchas gives Boamora as a synonimous name of this bay. Vohemaro, or Boamora, is a province or district at the northern end of Madagascar, in which there are several large bays, but none having any name resembling that in the text. The Bay of Vohemaro is on the east side of the island, in lat. 13° 30' S.--E.]
As all the merchants had been sundry times on shore visiting the king, who treated them kindly, and came aboard again as safe as if they had been in England, the captain, attended by Mr Richard Reve, chief merchant, Jeffrey Castel, and three others, adventured to go ashore to the king. Samuel Bradshaw had been often before employed about business with the king; but it pleased God at this time that the captain had other business for him, and so made him remain on board, which was a happy turn for him: For no sooner was the captain and his attendants on shore, than they were betrayed and made prisoners by the natives; but by the kind providence of the Almighty, the boats escaped, and came presently off to the ship, informing us of all that had happened.
No sooner was this doleful news communicated, than we saw such prodigious numbers of praws and large boats coming out of the river, as were quite wonderful. The master gave immediate orders to the gunner to get the ordnance in readiness, which was done with all speed. The vast fleet of the infidels came rowing up to our ship, as if they would have immediately boarded her; but by the diligence and skill of the gunner and his mates, sinking some half dozen of the boats, they were soon forced to retire like sheep chased by the wolf, faster than they had come on. But before our ordnance made such slaughter among them, they came up with so bold and determined a countenance, and were in such numbers, that we verily thought they would have carried us, for the fight continued at the least two hours, before the effect of our ordnance made them retire, and then he was the happiest fellow that could get fastest off, and we continued to send our shot after them as far as our guns could reach.
We remained after this in the bay for fourteen days, being in hopes of recovering our lost captain and men, in which time we lost seven more men by a sudden disease, which daunted us more than the malice of the infidels; those who died were among those who fought most lustily with the cannon against the savages, yet in two days were they all thrown overboard. These crosses coming upon us, and having no hopes to recover our captain and the others, we thought it folly to remain any longer at this place, and therefore we made haste away. Not being thoroughly supplied with water, we thought good to stop a little time at another place not far off; but before we could dispatch this business, the savages made another attempt with a great multitude of boats, some of them even large vessels, and so thick of men that it was wonderful; but they liked their former reception so ill, that they did not care for coming near a second time, and went all ashore, and placed themselves so as to have a view of the ship. Perceiving their intended purpose, and fearing some mischief in the night, we weighed, and stood in towards the shore where the savages sat, and gave them a whole broadside as a farewell, which fell thick among them, making visibly several lanes through the crowd, on which they all ran out of sight as fast as possible.