The 29th of October, four Portuguese galleons and a whole fleet of frigates, or armed grabs, hove in sight. Our general went immediately to meet them in the Dragon, and fired not one shot till he came between their admiral and vice-admiral, when he gave each of them a broadside and a volley of small arms, which made them come no nearer for that day. The other two galleons were not as yet come up, and our consort the Hosiander could not get clear of her anchors, so that she did not fire a shot that day. In the evening both sides came to anchor in the sight of each other. Next morning the fight was renewed, and this day the Hosiander bravely redeemed her yesterday's inactivity. The Dragon drove three of them aground, and the Hosiander so danced the hay about them, that they durst never show a man above hatches. They got afloat in the afternoon with the tide of flood, and renewed the fight till evening, and then anchored till next day. Next day, as the Dragon drew much water, and the bay was shallow, we removed to the other side of the bay at Mendafrobay, [Jaffrabat], where Sardar Khan, a great nobleman of the Moguls, was then besieging a castle of the Rajaputs, who, before the Mogul conquest, were the nobles of that country, and were now subsisting by robbery. He presented our general with a horse and furniture, which he afterwards gave to the governor of Gogo, a poor town to the west of Surat.
After ten days stay, the Portuguese having refreshed, came hither to attack us. Sardar Khan advised our general to flee; but in four hours we drove them out of sight, in presence of thousands of the country people. After the razing of this castle, Sardar Khan reported this gallant action to the Great Mogul, who much admired it, as he thought none were like the Portuguese at sea. We returned to Swally on the 27th December, having only lost three men in action, and one had his arm shot off: while the Portuguese acknowledged to have lost 160, though report said their loss exceeded 300 men.
The 13th January, 1613, I was appointed factor for the worshipful company, and bound under a penalty of four hundred pounds. Our ships departed on the 18th, the galleons not offering to disturb them: and at this time Anthony Starkey was ordered for England. Mr Canning was seventy days in going from Surat to Agra, during which journey he encountered many troubles, having been attacked by the way, and shot in the belly with an arrow, while another Englishman in his company was shot through the arm, and many of his peons were killed and wounded. Two of his English attendants quitted him, and returned to Surat, leaving only two musicians to attend upon him. He arrived at Agra on the 9th April, when he presented our king's letter to the Great Mogul, together with a present of little value; and being asked if this present came from our king, he answered that it only came from the merchants. The Mogul honoured him with a cup of wine from his own hand, and then referred him, on the business of his embassy, to Morak Khan. One of his musicians died, and was buried in the church-yard belonging to the Portuguese, who took up the body, and buried it in the highway; but on this being complained of to the king, they were commanded to bury him again, on penalty of being all banished the country, and of having all the bodies of their own dead thrown out from the church-yard. After this, Mr Canning wrote that he was in fear of being poisoned by the jesuits, and requested to have some one sent up to his assistance, which was accordingly agreed to by us at Surat. But Mr Canning; died on the 29th of May, and Mr Kerridge went up on the 22d of June.
At this time I was to have been sent by the way of Mokha to England; but the master of the ship said it was impossible, except I were circumcised, to go so near Mecca. The 13th October, 1613, the ship returned, and our messenger made prisoner at the bar of Surat by the Portuguese armed frigates, [grabs] worth an hundred thousand pounds, and seven hundred persons going to Goa.[97] This is likely to be of great injury here, for no Portuguese is now permitted to pass either in or out without a surety; and the Surat merchants are so impoverished, that our goods are left on our hands, so that we had to send them to Ahmedabad. John Alkin, who deserted from Sir Henry Middleton to the Portuguese, came to us at this time, and told us that several of their towns were besieged by the Decaners, and other neighbouring Moors, so that they had to send away many hundred Banians and others, that dwelt among them, owing to want of provisions; and indeed three barks came now with these people to Surat, and others of them went to Cambaya. Their weak behaviour in the sea-fight with us was the cause of all this.
[Footnote 97: Probably owing to careless abridgement by Purchas, this passage is quite unintelligible. The meaning seems to be, That the ship in which was the English messenger, having a cargo worth 100,000l. sterling, and 700 persons aboard, bound on the pilgrimage to Mecca, was taken and carried into Goa.--E.]
About this time also, Robert Claxon of the Dragon, who had deserted to the Portuguese for fear of punishment, came to us accompanied by a German who had been a slave among the Turks. One Robert Johnson, who was with the Portuguese, and meant to have come to us, was persuaded by another Englishman, while passing through the Decan, to turn mussulman, and remain in that country, where he got an allowance of seven shillings and sixpence a-day from the king, and his diet from the king's table. But he died eight days after being circumcised. Robert Trully, the musician, fell out with Mr Kerridge at Agra, and went to the king of Decan, carrying a German with him as interpreter. They both offered to turn Mahometans, and Trully, getting a new name at his circumcision, received a great allowance from the king, in whose service he continues; but the German, who had been, formerly circumcised in Persia, and now thought to have deceived the king, was not entertained; whereupon he returned to Agra, where he serves a Frenchman, and now goes to mass. Robert Claxon, above mentioned, had also turned Mahometan in the Decan, with a good allowance at court; but, not being contented, he came to Surat, where he was pitied by us for his seeming penitence; but being entrusted with upwards of forty pounds, under pretence of making purchases, he gave us the slip and returned to the Decan. Thus there are at present four English renegadoes in the Decan, besides many Portuguese. The 27th October, 1613, we received letters sent by Mr Gurney of Masulipatam, written by Captain Marlow of the ship Janus, informing us of his arrival and trade at that place.
From Surat I went to Periano? three coss; thence to Cossumba, a small village, ten coss; and thence to Broach, ten coss. This is a very pretty city on a high hill, encompassed by a strong wall, and having a river running by as large as the Thames, in which were several ships of two hundred tons and upwards. Here are the best calicoes in the kingdom of Guzerat, and great store of cotton. From thence I went to Saninga [Sarang], ten coss; to Carrou? ten c. and then fourteen c. to Boldia [Brodrah], a smaller city than Broach, but well built, having a strong wall, and garrisoned by 3000 horse under Mussuff Khan. I went thence ten c. to a river named, the Wussach, [the Mahy?] where Mussuff was about to engage with the rajaputs who lay on the opposite side of the river, the chief of whom was of the race of the former kings of Surat. Thence other fourteen coss to Niriand,[Nariad] a large town where they make indigo; and thence, ten c. more to Amadabar, or Ahmedabad, the chief city of Guzerat, nearly as large as London, surrounded by a strong wall, and seated in a plain by the side of the river Mehindry. There are here many merchants, Mahometans, Pagans, and Christians; with great abundance of merchandize, which chiefly are indigo, cloth of gold, silver tissue, velvets, but nothing comparable to ours, taffeties, gumbucks, coloured baffaties, drugs, &c. Abdalla Khan is governor of this place, who has the rank and pay of a commander of 5000 horse. From, thence, on my way to Cambay, I went seven c. to Barengeo, [Baregia] where every Tuesday a cafilla or caravan of merchants and travellers meet to go to Cambay, keeping together in a large company to protect themselves from robbers. From thence sixteen c. we came to Soquatera, a fine town with a strong garrison; whence we departed about midnight, and got to Cambay about eight next morning, the distance being ten coss.
In November, we rode to Sarkess, three coss from Ahmedabad, where are the sepulchres of the Guzerat kings, the church and handsome tombs being kept in fine order, and many persons resort to see them from all parts of the kingdom. At the distance of a coss, there is a pleasant house with a large garden, a mile round, on the banks of the river, which Chon-Chin-Naw,[98] the greatest of the Mogul nobles, built in memory of the great victory he gained at this place over the last king of Guzerat, in which he took the king prisoner, and subjugated the kingdom. No person inhabits this house, and its orchard is kept by a few poor men. We lodged here one night, and sent for six fishermen, who in half an hour caught more fish for us than all our company could eat.
[Footnote 98: This name seems strangely corrupted, more resembling the name of a Chinese leader than of a Mogul Khan or Amir. Perhaps it ought to have been Khan-Khanna.--E.]
The 28th November, we received intelligence at Ahmedabad, that three English ships had arrived at Larry Bunder, the port town of Guta-Negar-Tutla, [Tatta] the chief city of Sindy. I was sent thither, and came on the 13th December to Cassumparo, where I overtook a cafilla or caravan travelling to Rahdunpoor, six days journey on my way. We went thence to Callitalouny, a fair castle; thence seven c. to Callwalla, a pretty village, given by the emperor Akbar to a company of women and their posterity for ever, to bring up their children in dancing and music. They exhibited their talents to our caravan, and every man made them some present, and then they openly asked if any of us wanted bedfellows. On the 16th we went eight coss to Cartya, where is a well-garrisoned fortress. We remained here till the 18th, waiting for another caravan for fear of thieves, and then went to Deccanaura,[99] on which day our camel was stolen and one of our men was slain. The 19th we travelled ten c. to Bollodo, a fort held by Newlock Abram Cabrate for the Mogul, and who that day brought in 169 heads of the Coolies, a plundering tribe. The 20th in thirteen c. we came to a fort named Sariandgo, and the 21st in ten c. we arrived at Rhadunpoor, a large town with a fort. We remained here till the 23d, to provide water and other necessaries for our journey through the desert.