Not long after my friend and I had made up our accounts, to our entire
satisfaction, there came in a Dutch coaster from Batavia of about two
hundred tons. The crew of this vessel pretended themselves so sickly,
that there were not hands sufficient to undertake a voyage; and the
Captain having given out that he intended to go to Europe, public notice
was given that the ship was to be sold. No sooner did this come to our
ears, but we bought the ship, paid the master, and took possession. We
would also have very willingly entertained some of the men; but they
having received their share of booty, were not to be found, being
altogether fled to Agra, the great city of the Mogul's residence; and
from thence went to travel to Surat, and so by the sea to the Persian
Gulph. And indeed they had reason to fly in this manner; for the truth
of it was the pretended Captain was the gunner only, and not the
commander; that having been on a trading voyage, they were attacked on
shore by the Malayans, who killed three men and the Captain; after whose
death the other eleven men ran away with the ship to the Bay of Bengal,
and left the mate and five men more on shore: but of this affair we
shall have occasion to speak more at length hereafter.

However they came by the ship, we thought we bought it honestly; neither
did we suspect any thing of the matter, when the man showed us a bill of
sale for the ship (undoubtedly forged) to one Emanuel Clostershoven,
which name he went by. And so without any more to do, we picked up some
Dutch and English seamen, resolving for another voyage for cloves among
the Phillippine and Molucca Islands: in short, we continued thus five or
six years, trading from port to port with extraordinary success. In the
seventh year, we undertook a voyage to China, designing to touch at
Siam, and buy some rice by the way. In this voyage, contrary winds beat
us up and down for a considerable time among the islands in the Straits
of Molucca. No sooner were we clear of those rugged seas, but we