f her stern, were shot quite away; so they handed
their sail immediately, and were in great disorder; but, to complete
their misfortune, our gunner let fly two guns at them again; where he
hit them we could not tell, but we found the boat was sinking, and some
of the men already in the water. Upon this I immediately manned out our
pinnace, which we had kept close by our side, with orders to pick up
some of the men, if they could, and save them from drowning, and
immediately to come on board with them; because we saw the rest of the
boats began to come up. Our men in the pinnace followed their orders,
and took up three men; one of which was just drowning, and it was a good
while before we could recover him. As soon as they were on board, we
crowded all the sail we could make, and stood farther out to sea; and we
found, that when the other three boats came up to the first two, they
gave over their chase.

Being thus delivered from a danger, which though I knew not the reason
of it, yet seemed to be much greater than I apprehended, I took care
that we should change our course, and not let any one imagine whither we
were going; so we stood out to sea eastward, quite out of the course of
all European ships, whether they were bound to China, or any where else
within the commerce of the European nations.

When we were now at sea, we began to consult with the two seamen, and
inquire first, what the meaning of all this should be? The Dutchman let
us into the secret of it at once; telling us, that the fellow that sold
us the ship, as we said, was no more than a thief that had run away with
her. Then he told us how the captain, whose name too he mentioned,
though I do not remember it now, was treacherously murdered by the
natives on the coast of Malacca, with three of his men; and that he,
this Dutchman, and four more, got into the woods, where they wandered
about a great while; till at length he, in particular, in a miraculous
manner, made his escape, and swam off to a Dutch ship, which sailing
near the shore, in its way from China, had sent their boat on shore for
fresh water; that he durst not come to that part of the shore where the
boat was, but made shift in the night to take in the water farther off,
and swimming a great while, at last the ship's boat took him up.

He then told us, that he went to Batavia, where two of the seamen
belonging to the ship had arrived, having deserted the rest in their
travels; and gave an acc