an ancient custom among them, for the women to burn
themselves alive along with the bodies of their deceased husbands; but
of late years they have learnt more wisdom, and do not use this custom
so commonly; yet those women who do not, have their hair cut out, and
are ever afterwards held as dishonoured, for refusing to accompany their
husbands into the other world.

On the 7th of September, we left Gundavee to travel by land to Surat,
which might be some thirty or forty miles distant, and we arrived there
on the 9th, where we were met by William Finch, who kept the English
factory at that place. Captain Hawkins had gone up to Agra, which is
about thirty days journey up into the interior country from Surat, and
at which place the King, or Emperor of the Moguls, resides. Our general,
Captain Alexander Sharpey, remained at Surat with his company till the
end of September, when he and the rest of our people went from Surat to
Agra, intending to go by land through Persia in the way to England. But
I, holding this to be no fit course for me, determined to try some other
method of endeavouring to get home. While I was in much uncertainty how
to proceed, it pleased God of his infinite goodness to send a father of
the order of St Paul, who was a Portuguese, who came from Cambaya to
Surat by land, and with whom I became acquainted. He offered, if I would
commit myself to his guidance, to procure me a passage home, or at least
to Portugal, and which promise he most faithfully performed.

In company with this father, myself and three more of our company left
Surat on the 7th of October: these were Richard Mellis, who died
afterwards in the carak during our voyage to Europe, John Elmor, who was
master of the pinnace Good Hope, and one Robert Fox. We arrived at the
strong town and fortress of Daman, where I again saw our pinnace, the
Good Hope, which we built at Saldanha Bay, near the Cape of _Bona
Esperanza_. From Daman we went to Chaul, and thence to Goa, where we
arrived on the 18th November, 1609.

We embarked on the 9th January, 1610, in a carak called _Our Lady of
Pity_, being admiral of a fleet of four sail bound for Lisbon, and
immediately sailed. The 28th, we crossed the equinoctial line on the
eastern coast of Africa.[295] The 21st March, we fell in with the land
in lat. 33 deg. 30' S. about five leagues east of Cape Aguillas, where we
lay with contrary winds till the second of April, when we had a terrible
storm at W.S.W