brave kingdom, fallen, in six or eight months, into a most miserable
sad condition, as it hath been many times in most kings' reigns, God
knows why! for I presume not to say; but the natives seem to me a very
loving people to each other, and constantly false to all strangers,
the Spaniards only excepted. The country exceeds in timber and sea-
ports, and great plenty of fish, fowl, flesh, and, by shipping, wants
no foreign commodities. We pursued our voyage with prosperous winds,
but with a most tempestuous master, a Dutchman, which is enough to
say, but truly, I think, the greatest beast I ever saw of his kind.

When we had just passed the Straits, we saw coming towards us, with
full sails, a Turkish galley well manned, and we believed we should be
all carried away slaves, for this man had so laden his ship with goods
for Spain, that his guns were useless, though the ship carried sixty
guns. He called for brandy; and after he had well drunken, and all his
men, which were near two hundred, he called for arms and cleared the
deck as well as he could, resolving to fight rather than lose his
ship, which was worth thirty thousand pounds. This was sad for us
passengers; but my husband bade us be sure to keep in the cabin, and
the women not to appear, which would make the Turks think that we were
a man-of-war, but if they saw women they would take us for merchants
and board us. He went upon the deck, and took a gun and bandoliers,
and sword, and, with the rest of the ship's company, stood upon deck
expecting the arrival of the Turkish man-of-war. This beast, the
Captain, had locked me up in the cabin; I knocked and called long to
no purpose, until, at length, the cabin-boy came and opened the door;
I, all in tears, desired him to be so good as to give me his blue
thrum cap he wore, and his tarred coat, which he did, and I gave him
half a crown, and putting them on and flinging away my night clothes,
I crept up softly and stood upon the deck by my husband's side, as