On Innocents day, 28th December, perceiving the drift of our Portuguese Fabius cunclator, to protract and avoid fighting, that by delays and the advantage of his frigates, he might hinder us from prosecuting your business in Persia, we determined to attempt closing with him. About one o'clock there sprung up a favourable east wind for our purpose, on which we immediately weighed and put every thing in order for battle. The London and Hart came to anchor within a cable's length and half of their broadsides, and so endured the main brunt of this second fight; for, no sooner were they at anchor, but it fell calm and so continued all day, insomuch that the Roebuck and Eagle, which had steered nearer to the shore, with the intention of coming to anchor, one on the bow of their admiral, and the other on the bow of their vice-admiral, got astern, and could not with all our diligence be of any service for a full half hour after the action began. At length we got within point-blank shot of them, and then were forced either to anchor or drive farther off with the current, as there was not a breath of wind.
We now brought our broadsides to bear, and our whole squadron plied their ordnance upon them so fast, that had the knowledge of our men equalled their resolution, not one of them had escaped from us. Not willing to endure such hot entertainment, they cut their cables about three o'clock, and drove from us with the tide to the westwards, till out of our reach. Then came their frigates, which the day before had made a bravado along shore with drums, trumpets, flags, and streamers, and, now employed in a fitter task, towed them away all mangled and torn. Their admiral, in the very hottest of the fight, was under the necesity of giving his ship a heel to stop his leaks, his main-top-mast and the head of his main-mast having fallen overboard. The great Dutch ship had both his top-masts and part of his boltsprit shot away, and the smaller lost all his shrouds and top-masts. Their vice-admiral escaped best this day, having commonly one or other of their own ships between him and us.
We kept them company all night, in hope of being able next morning to give them their passports; but having taken a survey of our shot, which we found scanty, and considering the importance of the voyage we still had to perform, we thought it best to give over the chase and return to Jasques; leaving them glad of our absence, their two great ships towing the two smaller. We have had no account of their loss in this action. All your worships ships remain serviceable, God be praised, and only five men slain outright in these two long and severe engagements. Our worthy admiral and kind commander, Captain Andrew Shilling, received a great and grievous wound by a cannon ball through his left shoulder, which he bore with such wonderful courage and patience, that we were in great hopes of his much-wished-for recovery: But he had likewise two of his uppermost ribs broken on the left side, and died on the 6th January, 1621, shewing himself a resolute commander in the action, and an assured Christian in his death. We intended to have carried his body to Surat, to have there performed his funeral rites according to his great merit, and oar surgeons undertook to preserve his body by means of embalming and cere-cloth, but it became so noisome that we were forced to bury him at Jasques, which was done on the 7th, with all the solemnity and respect in our power.
In this engagement, the London expended 1382 great shot of several sorts, the Hart 1024, the Roebuck 815, and the Eagle 800, in all 4021. In consequence of the death of our worthy admiral, the white box, No. I. was opened; and according to your worships appointment, Captain Richard Blithe succeeded to the supreme command of the London, I was removed into the Hart, Christopher Brown into the Roebuck, and Thomas Taylor was made master of the Eagle.[299]
[Footnote 299: This account does not agree with an accompanying official letter, dated 13th January, 1621, giving a similar account of the two engagements, often in the very identical words used by Swan, in which the name of Thomas Taylor is omitted, instead of whom William Baffin is the last in the list of signatures; and the Christian name of Swan is made Robert instead of Richard.--E.]
S.5. Sequel of the Voyage.
The 14th January, 1621, having had forty-eight hours continual and excessive rain, which, or much wind, is usual at Jasques for three or four days at the full and change of the moon, and having finished our business at Jasques, we set sail on our return to Surat, where we arrived on the 1st February. Nothing material occurred on the passage, except that, on the 27th January, between Diu and the sand-heads, we surprised a small ship of war, called Nostra Senaora de Remedio, of 100 tons, commanded by Francisco de Sylva, manned by thirty-five Portuguese and twenty-five Moors, sent out by the governor of Diu to protect their small merchant ships against the Malabar rovers. We dismissed the men and kept the ship for our use, calling her the Andrew, after our late excellent general. She had in her neither meat, money, nor commodities, and scarcely as many poor suits of clothes as there were backs.
The 27th of February we began to take in our loading. The 5th of March, the, Eagle was sent down to keep guard over the junk belonging to the prince, and to hinder her from any farther loading, till they granted free passage for our carts with goods and provisions, which had been restrained for six or seven days by the vexatious procedure of the governor of Olpar, a town near Surat. By this means, no cotton wool was allowed to come down till our ships were fully laden. On the 16th of March, having notice that the Camla, from Agra, had been robbed by the Deccan army, we resolved to seek restitution upon the ships of the Deccan prince and his confederates in this transaction, as we intended wintering in the Red Sea. The 19th, the governor of Surat having given us satisfaction in regard to the carts, and a supply of powder and shot for our money, and promise under his hand for redress of other injuries, we dismissed the junk belonging to the prince from duress.
From the 25th of March to the 6th of April, 1621, the winds have been S. and S.S.W. or W. and blowing so hard from noon till midnight, raising so great a surf on the shore, that no business could be done except on the last quarter of the ebb and first of the flood tide. We sailed on the 7th April. The 9th, the Eagle and a Dutch pinnace, called the Fortune, parted company, being consigned to Acheen and Bantam. The London, Hart, Roebuck, and Andrew, were intended for the Red Sea, if not too late.
The 1st May, the Andrew and our boats surprised a Portuguese ship of 200 tons called the St Antonio, which we named the May-flower. Her principal lading consisted of rice taken in at Barcelor, whence she had gone to Goa, and sailed from thence for Ormus and Muskat on the 8th of April. We learnt from this prize, that Ruy Frere de Andrada was busy in repairing his ships at Ormus, and that Don Emanuel de Azeredo had departed from Gor fifty days before for Ormus, to reinforce Andrada with two galleons, one of these being the same in which the viceroy was personally, when he engaged our fleet under Captain Downton. During a calm on the 7th, we captured a small frigate-built ship called the Jacinth, which we named the Primrose, which had come from Mozambique and was bound for Goa. Thence to the 13th, we had variable winds, with calms and much rain. Finding the May-flower delayed us much, and that our pilots were either ignorant or malicious, we resolved to trust to our own endeavours for finding an anchoring place, for our safe riding till the strength of the adverse monsoon was over, for which purpose we determined upon going to Macera.[300]