Mr Courthop went immediately over to Nero in their galley, and had a long conference with the Dutch, in which they used many threats, and complained of many injuries they pretended to have suffered from the English, but of which I shall only briefly treat, as the letter from Mr Courthop, which I brought over from Banda and delivered to Captain Ball, will certify your worships at large on this matter. They complained, that Sir Henry Middleton had used the Dutch colours, when in the Red Sea, pretending to be Holland ships, to their injury and discredit. To this Mr Courthop replied, that it was false, as he had sailed with Sir Henry, and never knew him to wear Dutch colours; which, moreover, Sir Henry was too much a gentleman to have done. They pretended to have our king's letter, authorizing them to capture any English ship seen to the eastwards of the Celebes. Mr Courthop urged them to produce this letter, on seeing which he declared his readiness to obey the authority of his sovereign, and to evacuate Puloroon; but they had none such to produce. They alleged many other things, equally false, and used many arguments to induce us to quit Puleroon. All this time, neither Mr Davies nor any other of the English in their hands were permitted to come near Mr Courthop.
Finding he could not prevail, Lawrence Ryall, the Dutch general, grew much discontented, throwing his hat on the ground and pulling his beard for sheer anger. At length Mr Courthop told him, that he could conclude nothing of his own authority, being joined with a council, but should relate every thing that had passed at Puloroon, which should be taken into consideration and an answer sent. I had advised him to say this, to get the easier away. Mr Courthop also urged them to restore our ship the Defence, with her men and goods; but they would not, unless we agreed to surrender Puloroon: offering, if we would deliver up Nylacka and our fort, in which we had twelve pieces of ordnance, that they would then restore both the Swan and Defence, with all our men and goods. Ryall then desired Mr Courthop to sign a note which he had drawn, acknowledging the proffers he had made, but this Mr Courthop refused.
They had so wrought upon Mr Davies, that they expected he might be able to prevail upon Mr Courthop to come into their terms, and now therefore brought him to Mr Courthop, with whom he had much discourse, and particularly urged the truth of the letter they pretended to have from the king of England, as before mentioned. When Mr Courthop told him what he had offered, in case that letter were produced, Mr Davies distinctly saw he had been imposed upon, and broke out into a rage against them, for having told so many falsehoods;[257] adding, that they had promised him and his men good treatment, but that his men complained of being in great want of food and clothing, and of general hard usage. They had sat in judgment upon him and his men, condemning them to remain as prisoners till they had orders from Holland as to their ultimate destination. He even said, that he was willing to continue in durance, provided we could keep them out of Puloroon. The conference being ended, Mr Courthop came back to Nylacka in the galley, and the pledges were restored.
[Footnote 257: Purchas, in a side note at this place, quaintly converts the name of the Dutch general into Lawrence Ly-all.--E.]
The eastern monsoon being now come, we fitted out a proa to send with dispatches to Bantam, giving an account of what had passed; and it was agreed that Mr Hinchley and I were to go, accompanied by four Englishmen and fourteen natives of Puloroon, of whom five were chiefs, or orancays, one of them being son to the sabander, who is the principal man of the island. We set sail from Puloroon on the 17th April, 1617, and when in sight of Bottone on our way for Macassar, we descried a large ship and a pinnace, which gave us chase under a press of sail, so that we had no means of escape, except by standing in for Bottone. After being chased half a day, we got near the town of Bottone by night, thinking the ships could not have got so far up the river; but seeing the ship and pinnace almost within musket-shot of us next morning, we presently landed most of what we had in the proa, taking refuge in the woods. Having so done, we went immediately to the king, to whom we gave a present of such things as we had, to the value of about thirty dollars, desiring his protection, which he promised in the kindest manner, and faithfully performed. He sent his servants along with us, to put all our things into a house, giving us also two houses for our lodging, desiring us to remain within, that we might not be discovered by our enemies.
Almost immediately afterwards, the Hollanders went to the king, giving him a present three times the value of ours, and enquired who we were that had landed. To which the king answered that he knew not who we were. On being asked by the king how long they meant to stay, the Dutch said they proposed remaining six days; of which the king sent us notice, advising us to keep close for that time, that we might proceed in greater security after they were gone. But at the end of these six days the Dutch said they would stay six days longer, pretending they had to repair one of their masts. Seeing their intention, and because our proa lay in view of the Dutch, we bought another proa, into which the king made all our things be carried by his slaves, causing them to navigate that proa past the Hollanders, and to carry her to the back of the island, whither he sent us over land under the protection of fifty men. We went immediately aboard, but remained under the island till near night, when we stood our course for Macassar, and saw no more of the Hollanders.
We arrived at Macassar on the 7th May, where we found the Attendance intending for Banda, but was unable to beat up, owing to the change of the monsoon. Having shipped in the Attendance 180 suckles of mace, purchased at Macassar, we sent the proa to Banjarmassen and Succadanea in Borneo, with advice that a supply of goods could not be sent there as expected, owing to the non-arrival of the Solomon, which had been long expected at Bantam. The 3d June we arrived at Bantam. As Captain George Barkley was dead, to whom Mr Ball succeeded as chief of the factory, I have delivered all the papers to him, and doubt not that your worships may receive them by the first conveyance. Those are, two surrenders, the letters from the Hollanders with our answers, and every thing relative to our proceedings in Banda.
When I left Puloroon, it was agreed that another proa was to be dispatched for Bantam in twenty days after our departure, lest we might have been pursued and taken by the Hollanders. Accordingly a proa[258] was sent, in which was laden 170 suckles of mace, containing 3366 cattees, each cattee being six English pounds and nearly two ounces, costing at the rate of one dollar the cattee;[259] which, had it gone safe, might have sold in England for £5000. In this proa there were eight Englishmen and thirty Bandanese, under the charge of Walter Stacie, who had been mate under Mr Hinchley in the Defence. His knowledge and care, however, did not answer expectation, for he ran the proa on the rocky shoals near the island of Bottone, where she bilged and lost all the mace, the men getting ashore. Stacie is much blamed by the rest, some of whom told him they saw land on the lee-bow, but he was peevish and headstrong, calling them all fools, and would not listen to them.
[Footnote 258: In a marginal note, this is called a junk.--E.]
[Footnote 259: From the statement in the text, the suckle appears to have been about 122 English pounds, and the quantity of mace accordingly, shipped on this occasion, about 185 cwt. or 9 1/4 tons.--E.]