tants; and
as soon as they knew who we were, they directed us to the city of
Gundavee, of which a great man was governor, who seemed sorry for our
misfortunes, and gave us a kind welcome; and here ended our unfortunate
voyage.
Sec.2. _Supplement to the foregoing Narrative, from the Account of the same
unfortunate Voyage, by Thomas Jones._[293]
Thus was our tall ship lost, to the great detriment of the worshipful
company, and the utter ruin of all us poor mariners, our voyage being
altogether overthrown, with the loss of all the treasure and goods both
of the merchants and all of us, who were now far from our native
country. We took to our boats on the night of the 5th September, it
being almost miraculous that in two so small boats so many men should be
saved, being at the least eighteen leagues from the shore.[294] We
remained at sea in our boats till about four p.m. of the 6th, when we
discovered land, which we made towards by all the means in our power,
endeavouring to get into the river of Surat. But Providence, which had
already saved us from the shipwreck, would not now suffer us to fall
into the hands of our enemies the Portuguese, who then lay off the bar
of Surat with five frigates to take us and our boats, as they had
intelligence of the intended coming of our ill-fated ship; for, contrary
to our wish and intention, we fell in with the river of Gundavee, about
five leagues to the southward of the bar of Surat, where we were kindly
entertained by the governor of the town. We here learnt that our pinnace
had come into the same river, and had been taken possession of by the
Portugueze, but all her men got ashore, and were gone by land to Surat.
[Footnote 293: Purch. Pilgr. I.228. Astl. I.344. We have here given only
so much of the narrative of Jones as supplies additional circumstances
after the end of that by Coverte.--E.]
[Footnote 294: This surely is a gross error, as they could hardly exceed
the distance of a league or two from shore, though the shore is said in
the former narrative to have been twenty leagues from where the ship was
lost.--E.]
The governor of this town of Gundavee is a Banian, and one of those
people who observe the law of Pythagoras. They hold it a great sin to
eat of any thing that hath life, but live on that which the earth
naturally produces. They likewise hold the cow in great honour and
reverence, and also observe the ancient custom of burning their dead.
It has also been
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