Purch. Pilgr. II 1464.]

[Footnote 223: Id. I. 606.]

Sec.1. _Occurrences during the Voyage from England to Surat_.

Apologies often call truth into question, and having nothing but truth
to offer in excuse for this narrative, I omit all unnecessary preface,
desiring only that the reader may believe what I have faithfully
related. Our fleet, consisting of six goodly ships, the Charles,
Unicorn, James, Globe, Swan, and Rose, under the supreme command of
Captain Benjamin Joseph, who sailed as general in the Charles, our
admiral ship, fell down from Gravesend to Tilbury-hope on the 3d of
February, 1616.

After long and anxious expectation, it pleased God to send us a fair
wind at N.E. on the 9th March, when we departed from that road, and set
sail for the East Indies. The wind continued favourable till the 16th,
at night, when we were in the bay of Biscay, at which time we were
assailed by a most fearful storm, during which we lost sight both of the
Globe and the Rose. The Globe rejoined us on the 26th following, but the
Rose was no more heard of till six months afterwards, when she arrived
at Bantam. The storm continued with violence from the 16th to the 21st.
The 28th we got sight of the grand Canary, and of the Peak of Teneriffe,
which is so extremely high that it may be seen in a clear day more than
forty leagues out at sea, as the mariners report. The 31st, being
Easter-day, we passed under the tropic of Cancer, and on the 7th of
April had the sun in our zenith. The 16th, we met with these winds
called _tornadoes_, which are so variable and uncertain, as sometimes to
blow from all the thirty-two points of the compass within the space of a
single hour. These winds are accompanied by much thunder and lightning,
and excessive rains, of so noisome a nature, as immediately to cause
people's clothes to stink on their backs; and wherever this rain-water
stagnates, even for a short space of time, it brings forth many
offensive animalcules. The tornadoes began with us when in about 12 deg. of
N. latitude, and continued till we were two degrees to the south of the
equinoctial line, which we passed on the 28th of April. The 19th of May,
being Whitsunday, we passed the tropic of Capricorn, so that we were
complete seven weeks under the torrid zone.

Almost every day, while between the tropics, we saw various kinds of
fish, in greater abundance than elsewhere. As the whale, or mighty
_Leviathan_, whom God hath created to take