The 18th, I stood over to Mokha in the Pepper-corn, and arrived there on the 19th. Before I had anchored, I had a letter from the general, giving me to understand that the presence of my ship alarmed the Dabullians and displeased the aga, wherefore he wished me to go back to Assab. I immediately sent George Jeff ashore with two letters, by one of which I gave a brief account of our wants, and my opinion that the Turks only fed him with false hopes to serve their own purposes. In the other, written purposely that he might shew it to the aga, I stated, that so long as he was detained a prisoner, he had no power to command us who were free, and could not therefore keep us from the road of Mokha, or from doing whatever we saw meet for ourselves. To these the general wrote me the following answer:
Captain Downton, your overmuch care may work your own harms, and do me and my company no good, and therefore take nothing to heart more than is cause, for I have had and still have my full share. And whereas you allege, you are loth to depart this road without me, I am more loth to stay behind, if there were any remedy. I made a forced agreement with the pacha at Zenan, that our ships were to absent themselves from this road, till all the India ships were come in; and then, at the first coming of the westerly wind, I and all my company were to be set free. If they fail to perform with me, then I would have you shew your endeavours. In the mean time you must have patience, as well as myself. I would be loth the agreement should be first broken on our side, without any cause given by them.
For the provision that should have been sent in the jelba, it was my fault it was not sent, in that I did not urge it to the aga. After your departure to-morrow, as I desire you to see performed, I will go in hand with the lading of the goods in the jelba, which shall not be above three days absent from you. I have promised the ships shall not come into the roads till the westerly winds be come, which will be a month hence at the farthest; in the mean time you shall hear from me by jelbas or boats, which I will send of purpose. I doubt not but there will be good performance made with me by the Turks, in that my agreement was made with the pacha and not with Regib aga. If I doubted any new stratagem, I would have attempted to have escaped away by this time. I have had, and still have means for my escape, were it not to leave my people in danger of their lives: Doubt not, if they perform not with me, when the westerly winds come, but I shall have good opportunity. I had laid a plot to have escaped, if I could have persuaded Mr Femell, but he will by no means be drawn to any thing, till he see whether the Turks will perform or no, and he makes no doubt but to be sent aboard with the first of the westerly winds, when you shall come to demand us. You may ride in your quiet road-stead on the other side with all your ships, till God send us that long-wished-for westerly wind, unless you get a slatch of wind to carry one of your ships to the bab, to see if all be well there, and so return back to you. I know that all sorts of provisions waste apace in the ships; which, God sending me aboard, I hope quickly to renew.
The 27th March I sent over the Darling to Mokha, at the general's request, and she returned on the 6th April to Assab road, to deliver the victuals and other provisions, which had so long been detained by the Turks, and brought me a very kind letter from the general. The 21st, the King of Rahayta sent me a present of a fat cow and a slave, by a kinsman of his, who staid all night in the Trades-increase. At various times the Budwees[359] brought us abundant supplies of bullocks, goats, and sheep, which they sold to us for cloth, preferring that to money: But by the beginning of May, our cloth fit for their use being all gone, we could only purchase with money, after which our supply became scanty. The 11th May, our general happily effected his escape from Mokha aboard the Darling, with fifteen more of his people.[360]
[Footnote 359: Badwis, or Bedouins; the nomadic Mahometan tribes on the African coast of the Red Sea, are here meant--E.]
[Footnote 360: The narrative of Sir Henry Middleton in the preceding section, giving a sufficiently ample account of the incidents in the voyage, till the return of the ships to Mokha, it has not been thought necessary to continue the relation of Downton so far as regards the intermediate transactions, for which we refer to the account of the voyage already given by Sir Henry Middleton. But as his narrative breaks off abruptly soon after the return to the Red Sea, we resume that of Downton in the subsequent subdivisions.--E.]
SECTION 3. Account of Proceedings in the Red Sea on the second Visit.
The 1st April, 1612, on our return from India toward the Red Sea, we were by estimation eighteen leagues short of Aden. It was now ordered by the general, that I was to remain before or near the town of Aden, to enforce any Indian ships that should arrive there to proceed into the Red Sea, for which I received a commission, or written instructions, from the general, who was with all expedition to proceed with the Trades-increase to the bab, or gate of the Red Sea, both for the safety of the company's ship, of which we had intelligence from Masulipatam, that she was following our track into the mouths of the wolves, from whom by God's mercy we had escaped, and there to take revenge of the Turks and the subjects of the Great Mogul, for the wrongs done to us, our king, and our country. The 2d we found the Darling at anchor some eight leagues eastward of Aden, having got before us by reason of our having lingered four days for her. She had completed her business at Socotora, and had departed thence before we past it, going by Saboyna, Abdal Curia, and Mount Feluk, where we lingered for her. She brought from Socotora a letter left with the king, written by Captain John Saris, general of the Clove, Hector, and Thomas, ships belonging to our India company, signifying that he was gone into the Red Sea, notwithstanding the letter of Sir Henry Middleton, giving an account of the villanies there done to us. The general immediately departed toward the bab, with the Trades-increase and Darling, leaving me in the Pepper-corn at anchor, about eight leagues east from Aden.
Early in the morning of the 3d we set sail to the southwards, the better to discover, and so all day we kept to windward of Aden. We soon descried three sail bound for Aden, but they stood away from us, and we could not get near them, as it blew hard. At night we did not come to anchor, but lay to, to try the current by our drift, which I found to be three leagues in ten hours. The morning of the 4th I came to anchor a league or four miles from Aden, in twelve fathoms. Seeing a ship approaching, we set sail very early in the morning of the 12th to intercept her; and at day-light saw her at anchor about three miles south of us. We immediately made sail towards her, which she perceiving, got under weigh for Aden. Between nine and ten, by firing a shot, she struck her top-sails, and sent her boat to us, saying she belonged to the Zamorin, or King of Calicut, whence they had been forty days. The nakhada, or commander of this ship, was Abraham Abba Zeinda,[361] and her cargo, according to their information, consisted of tamarisk,[362] three tons; rice, 2300 quintals; jagara, or brown sugar, forty bahars; cardamoms, seven bahars; dried ginger, four and a half quintals; pepper, one and a half ton; cotton, thirty-one bales, each containing five or six maunds. Her crew and passengers consisted of seventy-five persons, of whom twenty were appointed to bale out water and for other purposes below, eight for the helm, four for top and yard and other business aloft, and twenty boys for dressing the provisions, all the rest being merchants and pilgrims. Her burden was 140 tons. Having carefully examined them, and finding they belonged to a place which had never wronged our nation, I only took out two tons of water, with their own permission, and dismissed them, giving them strict injunctions not to go to Aden, or I would sink their ship. So they made sail, standing farther out from the land, but going to leewards, we were forced to stand off and on all day and night, lest in the night she might slip into Aden.
[Footnote 361: Perhaps rather Ibrahim Abu Zeynda, or Sinda.--Astl. I. 421. b.]