The voyages and adventures of Fernand Mendez Pinto, a Portugal, during his travels for the space of one and twenty years in the Kingdoms of Ethiopia, China, Tartaria, Cauchinchina, Calaminham, Siam, Pegu, Japan, and a great part of the East-Indiaes with a relation and description of most of the places thereof, their religion, laws, riches, customs, and government in time of peace and war : where he five times suffered shipwrack, was sixteen times sold, and thirteen times made a slave / written originally by himself in the Portugal tongue and dedicated to the Majesty of Philip King of Spain ; done into English by H.C. Gent.

CHAP. X. By what means I was carried to the Town of Ciaca, and that which befell me there; my going to Malaca with a Mahometan Merchant; and the Tyrant of Achems Army marching against the King of Aaru. (Book 10)

FInding my self reduced to that extremity I have spoken of, I was above three hours so be∣sides my self,* 1.1 as I could neither speak, nor weep; At length the other Mariner and I went into the Sea again, where we continued the rest of that day. The next morning having disco∣vered a Ba••que, that was seeking the mouth of the River, as soon as it was near we got out of the water, and falling on our knees with our hands lift up we desired them to come and take us up; whereupon they gave over rowing, and considering the miserable state we were in they judged immediately that we had suffered shipwrack, so that coming somewhat nearer they asked us what we desired of them; we answered, that we were Christians, dwelling at Ma∣laca, and that in our return from Aaru we were cast away by a storm about nine days before, and therefore prayed them for Gods sake to take us away with them whithersoever they pleased. Thereupon one amongst them, whom we guessed to be the chiefest of them, spake to us thus, By that which I see, you are not in case to do us any service, and gain your meat, if we should receive you into our Barque, wherefore if you have any mony hidden, you shall do well to give it us aforehand, and then we will use towards you that charity you require of us, for otherwise it is in vain for you to hope for any help from us: Saying so, they made shew as though they would be gone; whereupon we besought them again weeping, that they would take us for slaves, and go sell us where they pleased; hereunto I added, how they might have any ran∣som for me they would require, as having the honor to appertain very nearly unto the Captain of Malaca. Well, answered he then, we are contented to accept of thy offer, upon condition, that if that which thou sayst be not true, we will cast thee, bound hand and foot, alive into the Sea. Having replyed, that they might do so if they found it otherwise, four of them got pre∣sently to us, and carried us into their Barque, for we were so weak at that time, as we were not able to stir of our selves. When they had us aboard, imagining that by whipping they might make us confess where we had hid our mony, for still they were perswaded that we had som••, they tyed us both to the foot of the Mast, and then with two double coards they whipped us till we were nothing but blood all over. Now because that with this beating I was almost dead, they gave not to me, as they did to my companion, a certain drink, made of a kind of Lime, ••••eep••d in Urine, which he having taken it, made him fall into such a furious vomiting, as he cast up both his lungs and his liver, so as he dyed within an hour after. And for that they found no gold come up in his vomit, as they hoped, it pleased God that that was the cause why they deal•• not so with me, but only they washed the stripes they had given me with the said liquor, to keep them from festering, which notwithstanding put me to such pain, as I was even at the point of death. Being departed from this River, which was called Arissumhea, we went the next day after dinner ashore at a place, where the houses were covered with straw, named Ciaca, in the Kingdom of Iambes, there they kept me seven and twenty days, in which time by the assistance of Heaven I got my self throughly cured of all my hurts. Then they that had a share in my person, who were seven in number, seeing me unfit for their Trade, which was fishing, exposed me to sale three several times, and yet could meet with no body that would buy me; whereupon being out of hope of selling me, they turned me out of doors, be∣cause they would not be at the charge of feeding me. I had been six and thirty days thus aban∣doned by these Inhumanes, and put a grasing like a cast Horse, having no other means to live but what I got by begging from door to door, which God knows was very little, in regard

those of the Country were extream poor, when as one day, as I was lying in the Sun upon the sand by the Sea side, and lamenting my ill fortune with my self, it pleased God that a Maho∣metan, born in the Isle of Palimban, came accidentally by: This man, having been sometimes at Malaca in the company of Portugals, beholding me lie naked on the ground, asked me if I were not a Portugal, and willed me to tell him the truth; whereunto I answered, that indeed I was one, and descended of very rich parents, who would give him for my ransom whatsoever he would demand, if he would carry me to Malaca, where I was Nephew to the Captain of the Fortress, as being the son of his sister. The Mahometan hearing me say thus, If it be true, replyed he, that thou art such as thou deliverest thy self to be, what so great sin hast thou com∣mitted that could reduce thee to this miserable estate wherein I now see thee? Then I recount∣ed to him from point to point how I was cast away, and in what sort the fishermen had first brought me thither in their Barque, and afterwards had turned me out to the wide world, be∣cause they could not find any body that would buy me. Hereat he seemed to be much astonish∣ed, so that musing a pretty while by himself, Know stranger, said he unto me, that I am but a poor Merchant, all whose wealth amounts not to above an hundred Pardains (which are worth two shillings a piece of our mony) with which I trade for the rows of Shads, thereby hoping to get my living; Now I am assured that I might gain something at Malaca, if so be the Cap∣tain, and the Officers of the Custom-house there, would not do me the wrong, which I have heard say they do to many Merchants that come thither to traffique; wherefore if thou thinkst that for thy sake I should be well used there, I could be contented to redeem thee from the fishermen, and go thither with thee. Thereunto I answered him, with tears in mine eyes, that considering the state I was in at the present, it was not likely he could give credit to any thing I said, because it was probable that to free my self out of my miserable captivity I would prize my person at a far higher value then it would be esteemed for at Malaca; howbeit if he would lend any belief to my oaths, since I had no other assurance to give him, I would swear to him, and also set it under my hand, that if he would carry me to Malaca, the Captain should do him a great deal of honor for my sake, and besides the exempting of his Merchandise from paying of custom, he should receive ten times as much as he should disburse for me. Well, re∣plyed the Mahometan, I am contented to redeem, and reconduct thee to Malaca, but thou must take heed that thou speakest not a word of that we have concluded on, for fear thy Ma∣sters hold thee at so dear a rate, as I shall not be able to draw thee out of their hands though I would never so fain; whereupon I gave him my faith to do nothing but what he would have me do, especially in that particular, which I held to be most necessary for the better effecting of our desire.

Four days after this agreement, the Mahometan Merchant,* 1.2 that he might the more easily redeem me, used the interposure of a man born in the Country, who under hand went to the fishermen, and carried the business so cunningly with them, as they quickly consented to my redemption, for they were already very weary of me, as well in regard that I was sickly, as for that I could no way stand them in any stead, and therefore, as I delivered before, they had turned me out of doors, where I had continued a month and better; so by the means of this third person, whom the Mahometan had employed, the fishermen sold me to the Merchant for the sum of seven mazes of gold, which amounts in our mony to seventeen shillings and six pence. The Mahometan as soon as he had redeemed me, brought me to his house, where I was five days out of the tyranny of these fishermen, and in a far better captivity then the for∣mer; At the end whereof my new Master went five leagues off to a place, named Sorobaya, where he got his Merchandise aboard, which, as I said before, was nothing but the rows of Shads; For there is such great abundance of them in that River, as the Inhabitants do there∣with every year lade above two thousand Vessels, which carry at least an hundred and fifty, or two hundred Barrels, whereof each one contains a thousand rows, the rest of the fish not yield∣ing them a peny. After that the Mahometan had laden a Lanchara with this commodity, he presently set sail for Malaca, where within a while he safely arrived, and carrying me to the Fortress presented me to the Captain, relating unto him what agreement we had made together. Pedro de Faria was so amazed to see me in such a lamentable plight, as the tears stood in his eyes, whereupon he bade me speak out aloud, that he might know whether it was I that he beheld, for that I did not seem to be my self, in regard of the strange deformity of my face. Now because that in three months space there had been no news of me, and that every one thought me to be dead, there came so manyfolks to see me, as the Fortress could scarce hold them:

Here being demanded the occasion of my mis-fortune, and who had brought me into that mi∣serable case, I recounted the adventures of my Voyage, just in the same manner as I have al∣ready delivered them, whereat the whole company were so astonished, that I saw some go a∣way without speaking a word, and others shrink up their shoulders, and bless themselves in admiration of that which they had heard from me; but in conclusion their compassion towards me was such, that with the very alms they bestowed on me I became far richer then I was be∣fore I undertook that unlucky Voyage. As for Pedro de Faria, he caused threescore duckets to be given to the Mahometan Merchant that brought me, besides two pieces of good China Damask; moreover he freed him of all the duties he was to pay for the custom of his Merchan∣dise, which amounted to very near a like sum, so as he remained exceeding well satisfied of the bargain he had made with me. After this, to the end I might be the better used and looked unto, the Captain commanded me to be lodged in the Registers house of the Kings Customs, where for that he was married there he thought I might be better accommodated then in any other place, as indeed I was very well entreated by him and his wife, so that having kept my bed about the space of a month, it pleased God to restore me unto my perfect health.

* 1.3When I had recovered my health, Pedro de Faria sent for me to the Fortress, where he questioned me about that which had past betwixt me and the King of Aaru, as also how and in what place I was cast away, whereupon I made him an ample relation thereof. But before I proceed any further, it is requisite I should here report what was the success of the War be∣tween the Kings of Aaru and Achem, to the end, that the desolation, which I have so often foretold, of our Fortress of Malaca, may the more evidently appear, it being a matter of too much importance for to be so neglected as it is by those, who ought to have more care of it. For this is certain, that either the power of the King of Achem is utterly to be ruined, or by it we shall be miserably expelled out of all the Countries we have conquered all along the South∣ern Coast, as Malaca, Banda, Maluco, Sunda, Borneo, and Timor, and Northwards, China, Iapan, and the L••qmos, as also many other parts and Ports, where the Portugals are very much interessed by reason of the Traffique which they dayly use there, and where they reap more profit then in any other place, that is yet discovered, beyond the Cape of good hope, the extent thereof being so great, that it contains along the Coast above three thousand leagues, as may easily be seen by the cards and globes of the world, if so be their graduation be true. Besides, if this loss should happen, which God of his infinite mercy forbid, though we have but two much deserved it for our carelessness and sins, we are in danger in like manner to lose the Customs of Mandorim of the City of Goa, which is the best thing the King of Portugal hath in the Indiaes, for they are Ports and Islands, mentioned heretofore, whereon depends the greatest part of his Revenue, not comprehending the Spices, namely, the Nutmegs, Cloves, and Maces, which are brought into this Kingdom from those Countries. Now to return to my discourse, I say, that the Tyrant of Achem was advised by his Councel how there was no way in the world to take Malaca, if he would assail it by Sea, as he had done divers times be∣fore, when as Dom Stephano de Gama and his Predecessors were Captains of the Fortress, but first to make himself Master of the Kingdom of Aaru, to the end he might afterwards fortifie himself on the River of Panetican, where his Forces might more commodiously and nearly maintain the War he intended to make: For then he might have means with less charge to shut up the Straights of Cincapura, and Sabaon, and so stop our Ships from passing to the Seas of China, Sunda, Banda, and the Molucques, whereby he might have the profit of all the Drugs which came from that great Archipelague; And verily this counsel was so approved by the Ty∣rant, that he prepared a Navy of an hundred and threescore Sails, whereof the most part were Lanchares with oars, Galiots, Calabuzes of Iaoa, and fifteen Ships high built, furnished with Munition and Victual. In these Vessels he imbarqued seventeen thousand men, namely twelve thousand Soldiers, the rest Sailers and Pioners. Amongst these were four thousand Strangers, Turks, Abissins, Malabares, Gusurates, and Lusons of the Isle of Borneo. Their General was one, named Heredin Mahomet, Brother-in-law to the Tyrant, by marriage with a Sister of his, and Governor of the Kingdom of Baarros. This Fleet arrived safely at the Ri∣ver of Panetican, where the King of Aaru attended them with six thousand of his own natural Subjects, and not a forraigner amongst them, both in regard he wanted mony for to entertain Soldiers, and that also he had a Country unprovided of victual to feed them. At their arrival the Enemies found them fortifying of the Trench, whereof I spake heretofore; Whereupon

without any further delay they began to play with their Ordnance, and to batter the Town on the Sea side with great fury, which lasted six whole days together. In the mean time the be∣sieged defended themselves very valiantly, so as there was much blood spilt on either side: The General of the Achems, perceiving he advanced but little, caused his Forces to Land, and mounting twelve great Pieces he renewed the battery three several times with such impetuosity, that it demolished one of the two Forts that commanded the River, by means whereof, and under the shelter of certain packs of Cotton which the Achems carried before them, they one morning assaulted the principal Fortress: In this assault an Abissin commanded, called Ma∣medecan, who a month, or thereabout, before was come from Iuda, to confirm the new League made by the Bassa of Caire on the behalf of the grand Signior with the Tyrant of A∣chem, whereby he granted him a Custom-house in the Port of Pazem. This Abissin rendered himself Master of the Bulwark, with threescore Turks, forty Ianizaries, and some Malabar Moo••s, who instantly planted five Ensigns on the walls; In the mean time the King of Aaru, encouraging his people with promises, and such words as the time required, wrought so effectu∣ally, that with a valorous resolution they set upon the Enemy, and recovered the Bulwark which they had so lately lost, so as the Abissin Captain was slain on the place, and all those that were there with him. The King following his good fortune, at the same instant caused the gates of the Trench to be opened, and sallying out with a good part of his Forces, he combated his Enemies so valiantly, as he quite routed them; In like manner he took eight of their twelve Pieces of Ordnance, and so retreating in safety he fortified himself the best he could for to su∣stain his Enemies future assaults.

Notes

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  §. 3.