C H A P . X.
'TranfaBions off Macaffar, and the Paffage thence to
Bonthain.
i?67. r p H E fame night that we came to an anchor, at about
December,^ eleven o'clock, a Dutchman came on board, who had
Tuefday ij. t,een difpatched by the Governor, to learn who we were.
When I made him underhand that the fhip was an Englifh
man o f war, he feemed to be greatly alarmed, no man of
war belonging to the King o f Great Britain having ever been
there before, and I could not by any means perfuade him to
leave the deck, and go down into the cabbin; we parted,
however, to all appearance, good friends.
Wednef. 16. The next morning, at break of day, I fent the Lieutenant
to the town, with a letter to the Governor, in which I acquainted
him with the reafon o f my coming thither, and
requefted the liberty of the port to procure refrefhments for
my fhip’s Company, who were in a dying condition, and
fhelter for the veflel againft the approaching ftorms, till the
return of a fit feafon for failing to the wellward. I ordered
that this letter fhould, without good reafon to the contrary,
be delivered into the Governor’s own hand; but when my
officer got to the wharf of the town, neither he nor any
other perfon in the boat was fuffered to land. Upon his re-
fufal to deliver the letter to a mefienger, the Governor was
made acquainted with it, and two officers, called the fhe-
bander and the fifcal, were fent down to him, who, as a
reafon why he could not deliver the letter to the Governor
himfelfi, pretended that he was fick, and faid, that they
came
•came by his exprefs order to fetch i t ; upon this the letter i767-
* * ** December.
was at length delivered to them, and they went away; — $— j
While they were gone, the officer and men were kept on 'Vedncr' l6-
board their boat, expofed to the burning heat of the fun,
which was almofl vertical at noon, and none o f the
country boats were fuffered to come near enough to fell
them any refrefhment. In the mean time, our people :ob-
ferved a great hurry and buflle on fhore, and a ll’ the floopS
and veffels that were proper for war were fitted out with the
utmofl expedition : we fhould, however, I believe, have been
an overmatch for their whole fea force, i f all our people
had been well. In the mean time I intended to have gone
and anchored clofe to the town, but now the boat was ab-
fent, our united ftrength was not fufficient to weigh the
anchor, though a fmall one. After waiting five hours in the
boat, the Lieutenant was told that the Governor had ordered
two gentlemen to wait upon me with ah anfwer to my letter.
Soon after he had returned, and made this report, the
two gentlemen came on board, and we afterwards learnt
-that ope of them was an enfign of the garrifon, named Le
Cerf, and the other Mr. Douglas, a writer o f the Dutch Eaft
India Company: they delivered me the Governor’s letter,
but it proved to be written in Dutch, a language which not
a fingle perfon on board could underftand: the two gentlemen
who brought it, however, both fpoke French, and one
o f them interpreted the contents to me in that language.
The purport o f it was, “ that I fhould inftantly depart from
the port, without coming any nearer to the town; that I
fhould not anchor on any part o f the coaft, or permit any of
my people to land in any place that was under his jurifdic-
tion.” Before I made any reply to, this letter, I fhewed the
gentlemen who brought it the number of my fick: at the
fight of fo many unhappy wretches, who were dying o f lan-
3 G 2 guor