This day came another French ship belonging to Dieppe, which remained till night, expecting our other seven men to come down; but though several shots were fired to call them, none of them came. Next morning, therefore, we departed thence for the north side of St Domingo, where we remained till April, 1594, spending two months in traffic, upon permission, with the inhabitants, for hides and other articles, six of us being in one of the ships and six in the other. In this time we were joined by a third French ship of Newhaven, by which we had intelligence of the seven men who were left by us at the island of Mona. Two of them had broken their necks by clambering on the cliffs to catch fowls; other three were slain by the Spaniards, who came over from St Domingo, having received information of our being on Mona, from our people who went away in the Edward; the other two were in this ship of Newhaven, which had relieved them from the bloody hands of the Spaniards.
From this place Captain Lancaster and I shipped ourselves in another ship belonging to Dieppe, of which one Monsieur Jean la Noe was captain, being the first that was ready to come away, leaving the rest of our men in the other ships, where they were all well treated. We sailed for Europe on Sunday the 7th April, 1594; and passing through the Caycos, we arrived safe in Dieppe in forty-two days after, on the 19th of May. After staying two days to refresh ourselves, giving thanks to God and to our friendly preservers, we took our passage for Rye, where we landed on Friday the 24th May, 1594, having spent in this voyage three years, six weeks, and two days, which the Portuguese perform in half the time, chiefly because we lost the fit time and season to begin our voyage.
We understood, in the East Indies, from certain Portuguese, that they have lately discovered the coast of China as high as the latitude of 59° N. finding the sea still open to the northwards, by which great hopes are entertained of finding the north-east or north-west passage.
Witness, JAMES LANCASTER.
SECTION VII.
Supplementary Account of the former Voyage, by John May.[23]
We departed from Plymouth on the 10th April, 1591, with three tall ships; the Penelope, Captain Raimond admiral; the Merchant Royal, Captain Samuel Foxcroft[24] vice-admiral; and the Edward Bonadventure, Captain James Lancaster rear-admiral; on board of which I sailed, together with a small pinnace. In May following we arrived at Gran Canaria, one of the Fortunate Islands; and towards the end of that month, being within three degrees of the equator on the north side, we took a Portuguese ship, bound for Brasil, which tended much to our refreshment. The 29th July we came to Saldanha Bay. (Aguada Saldania,) a good harbour, near the Cape of Good Hope, where we staid about a month, and whence we sent home the Merchant Royal for England, because of great sickness among our people, with a considerable number of our weak men. We here bought an ox for a knife worth three-pence, a sheep for a broken knife, or any other odd trifle, from the natives, who are negroes, clad in cloaks of raw-hides, both men and women.
[Footnote 23: Hakluyt, III. 52.]
[Footnote 24: In the account of this voyage, penned from the relation of Edmund Barker, forming the immediately preceding section, the captain of the Merchant Royal is named Abraham Kendal.--E.]
The 8th of September the Penelope and Edward Bonadventure weighed anchor, and that day we doubled the cape. The 12th following we were assailed by a fierce tempest, or hurricane; and in the evening we saw a great sea break over our admiral, the Penelope, which struck out their light, and we never saw them any more. In October we in the Edward fell in with the westernmost part of the island of St Lawrence about midnight, not knowing where we were. Next day we came to anchor at Quitangone, a place on the main-land of Africa, two or three leagues north of Mozambique, which is supplied from hence with fresh water. We here took a pangaia, in which was a Portuguese boy, being a vessel like a barge, with one mat-sail of cocoa-nut leaves. The hull of this barge is pinned with wooden pins, and sewed with cord made of the bark of trees. In this pangaia we found a kind of corn called millio, or millet, a considerable number of hens, and some bales of blue calicut cloth. We took the Portuguese boy with us, and dismissed the rest. From this place we went to an island called Comoro, off the coast of Melinda, in about 11° S., where we staid all November, finding the people black and comely, but very treacherous; for the day before we left that island they killed thirty of our men on shore, among whom was William Mace our master, and two of his mates, one of them being in the boat along with him to fetch water, and the other on shore, over against the ship. They first took possession of our boat, and then slaughtered our men. From thence we went to the island of Zanzibar, on the coast of Melinda, where we staid to winter, till the beginning of February, 1592.