get into the harbour before night; but, after rowing
all that day and the next night, and all the ensuing
day, we could find no harbour nor any fit place to
land; for, trusting to the ignorant counsel of the
pilot and the two Portuguese, we had overshot the
harbour and left it behind us. In this way we
twenty-eight unfortunate persons in the boat lost both
our ship and the inhabited land, and were reduced
to the utmost extremity, having no victuals along
with us. By the good providence of God, one of
the mariners in the boat had brought a small quantity
of rice along with him, intending to barter it for
some other thing, though the whole was so little that
three or four men might have eaten it all at one meal.
I took charge of this small store, engaging, with
God’s blessing, that it should serve to keep
us all in life, till it might please God to send us
to some inhabited place, and when I slept I secured
it in my bosom, that I might not be robbed of my precious
deposit. We were nine days rowing along the coast,
finding nothing but an uninhabited country and desert
islands, where even grass would have been esteemed
a luxury in our miserable state. We found indeed
some leaves of trees, but so hard that we could not
chew them. We had wood and water enough, and could
only row along with the flood tide, as when it ebbed
we had to make fast our boat to one of the desert
islands. On one of these days, it pleased God
that we discovered a nest or hole, in which were 144
tortoise eggs, which proved a wonderful help to us,
as they were as large as hens eggs, covered only by
a tender skin, instead of a shell. Every day we
boiled a kettle full of these eggs, mixing a handful
of rice among the broth. At the end of nine days,
it pleased God that we discovered some fishermen in
small barks, employed in catching fish. We rowed
immediately towards them with much delight and thankfulness,
for never were men more glad than we, being so much
reduced by famine that we could hardly stand on our
legs; yet, according to the allotment we had made of
our rice, we still had as much as would have served
four days. The first village we came to was in
the gulf of Tavay, on the coast of Tanasserim,
in the dominions of Pegu, where we found plenty of
provisions; yet for two or three days after our arrival
none of us could eat much, and most of us were at
the point of death. From Tavay to Martaban,
in the kingdom of Pegu, the distance is 72 miles[164].
We loaded our boat at Tavay with provisions sufficient
for six months, and then went in our boat to the city
and port of Martaban, in the kingdom of Pegu, and arrived
there in a short time. But not finding our ship
there as we hoped, we dispatched two barks in search
of her. They found her in great calamity at an
anchor, with a contrary wind, which was exceedingly
unfortunate for the people, especially as they had
been a whole month without a boat, which prevented
them from making any provision of wood and water.
The ship, however, arrived safe, by the blessing of
God, in the harbour of Martaban.