men close stowed
below, and not one to be seen. The master of the Hope hailed them twice,
but they would give no answer; on which they let fly at them from the
bow-chases of the Hope, which only could be brought to bear, and by
which they were forced with some loss to stand away. The master of the
Hope was satisfied, if he had not shot at them, that they would have
attempted to board, or to have set his ship on fire, as they had the
advantage of both wind and tide, and were so directly a-head of his ship
that he could hardly get any of his guns to bear upon them, while the
rest of our ships could not have come up to his rescue. In the
afternoon, I sent the Salomon to keep company with the Hope; and, going
to the northwards of her, she made several shots at the frigates, but we
did not perceive that any harm was done. I therefore ordered a gun to be
fired, as a warning to desist, on which the Salomon stood in again and
came to anchor.

In the morning of the 28th, I went in the pinnace aboard the Hope and
Salomon, to enquire the reason of their firing. And the Portuguese,
seeing our boats pass to and fro, removed in the afternoon, and anchored
a little way without us, obviously for the purpose of cutting off our
intercourse. In the meantime, the boat which had been chased ashore on
the 25th, came aboard the Gift, bringing some letters from Mr Elkington,
which our master sent to me, as I was then in the Hope. Having answered
Mr Elkington's letter, I sent back the _gelliwat_ to the Gift, with
directions to go thence to Surat in the night. But, as the _gelliwat_
[galivat] returned, she was chased by the frigates; which perceiving, I
waved her to return, but she held on her way, not observing my signal.
The frigates held her so close in chase, that they got within shot of
her, and even fired one gun; and had not the Gift slipped one cable and
veered another, and plied her ordnance at the Portuguese, they had
surely taken or sunk the _gelliwat_. This forced the Portuguese to give
over the chase, not without damage. Late at night, on the tide of ebb, I
made the Hope and Salomon set sail and come near the other two ships,
and then returned on board the Gift.

Perceiving on the 29th, that my continuing off the bar of Surat was
quite unavailing, as the Portuguese frigates could pass and repass to
and from the river, by going across the sands, where there was not
water to float my ships; and that no boats could come to us to fetch