He then sailed to Mathelage, where he designed to victual for a West-Indian cruise, but he found there a large Dutch merchantman of forty guns, whose captain curtly told Howard to get out or he’d fall foul of him. Howard’s recent experience with Dutchmen had been unpleasant, so, as his vessel was not strong enough to cope with the Amsterdamer, he made sail for Mayotta, and passed down the bay amid a volley of gibes, jeers, and ingenious Dutch profanity. On his way to Mayotta he fell in with Captain Bowen, of the pirate ship Speedy Return, of thirty guns, and communicated to him the contumely to which a “Gentleman of the Seas” had been subjected. Bowen promised to avenge the insult to their honorable craft, and accordingly anchored in the dusk of the next evening within hail of the irascible burgher. The Speedy Return was a small ship for her armament and crew, and this, with her suspicious appearance, determined the Dutchman once more to exhibit the bold front that he could assume when there seemed to be no danger in it. Accordingly he went to the rail and bawled over the quiet waters, “Vot sheep is dot, and vy for you don’d git oud to onced?”
“This is his Majesty’s cruiser Haystack,” came the unruffled response, in Bowen’s clear voice. “She has three decks and no bottom, and sails four miles to leeward and one ahead. Want to race?”
“Vot sheep is dot, and none of your tomfoolishness?” roared the Teuton, purple with rage.
“This is the Flying Dutchman, Captain Vanderdecken, and the crew’s all ghosts,” replied the pirate, in high glee. “Come aboard and cheer up our spirits.”
This was too much. The Dutchman mounted the rail and shrieked, hoarsely, “I now asks you der last time for, vot sheep you is, vere you vrom, and vot you to do goin’ about to be?”
“This is the ship Speedy Return,” sang out Bowen, “from the seas, and I’m goin’ to fire a salute.”
The pirate then gave the word, and his ship roared out a broadside that shivered the Dutchman’s rail, smashed his boats, and carried away his spanker-boom. The merchantman waited no longer, but slipped his cable and made off to sea, leaving the greater part of his cargo ashore, where it was promptly gathered in by the thrifty buccaneers.
Bowen now made sail for Mayotta, where he joined the Prosperous, and the two ships sailed together for the East Indies. After some successes there they returned by separate routes to Madagascar, for the purpose of revictualling and refitting, agreeing to meet again at St. John’s and lie in wait for the Moorish fleet. They did this, and one of the Moors fell a prize to Bowen, but Howard did not come up with them till they were anchored at the bay of Surat, where they waited to lighten.
Howard came up among them slowly, under shortened sail, and as he concealed his men and kept his ports closed, they took him for an English East-Indiaman and suffered him to approach. Howard suddenly attacked the largest vessel, and after a desperate fight, in which he lost thirty men, carried her by boarding.
On this vessel was a nobleman belonging to the court of the Great Mogul. The prize itself was immensely valuable, and the nobleman’s ransom amounted to twenty thousand pounds, so by this time Howard’s fortune was well assured. He then ran down to Malabar, where he met Bowen and his prize, a fine, stout ship of sixty guns. The two captains with their quartermasters held a consultation (on the night of their meeting) in the cabin of the Speedy Return, and their future plans were decided upon over a rich banquet provided from the stores of the prizes.