The 3d September, they left the straits, and continued till the 7th, when De Wert was forced to stay by a storm, and the Faith and Fidelity were left behind in much misery, hunger, tempests, leaks, and other distress.  The death of their master, and the loss of their consorts, added much to their misery, and in the end of the month they were forced again into the straits; after which, in two months, they had not one fair day to dry their sails.  The 14th October, the Faith lost two anchors.  To one place they gave the name of Perilous bay, and called another Unfortunate bay, in remembrance of their distresses, to all of which the devil added mutiny among their people and thieving.  They took a savage woman who had two children, one of whom they thought to be only six months old, yet it could walk readily, and had all its teeth.  I loath to relate their loathsome feeding, with the blood running from their mouths.  They here met General Oliver Noort, whose men were all lusty, and was yet unable to spare them any relief.  After a world of straits in these straits, too long to rehearse, they departed thence on the 22d January, 1600, and arrived in the Maese on the 14th July.  Without the straits, in lat. 50 deg. 40’ S. they saw three islands, sixty miles from land, stored with penguins, which they called the Sebaldines of the Indies, but which are not inserted in maps.[48]

[Footnote 48:  The only islands which agree in any respect with the position assigned in the text, are the north-westermost of the Malouines or Falkland islands, which are nearly in that latitude, but much farther from the land.—­E.]

Sec. 2. First Letter of William Adams.

Hearing that some English merchants are residing in the island of Java, although by name unknown, and having an opportunity, I presume to write these lines, desiring your worshipful company, being unknown to me, to pardon my boldness.  The reason of my writing is chiefly that my conscience binds me to love my country and country men.  Your worships will therefore please to understand that I am a Kentish man, born in the town of Gillingham, two miles from Rochester and one mile from Chatham, where the king’s ships lie; and that from the age of twelve years I was brought up at Limehouse near London, being apprentice twelve years to one Mr Nicholas Diggines.  I have served both as master and pilot in her majesty’s ships; and served eleven or twelve years with the worshipful company of Barbary merchants.  When the Indian trade of Holland began, I was desirous of making some trial of the small knowledge which God hath given me in that navigation.  So, in the year 1598, I was hired as chief pilot of a fleet of five sail, which was fitted out by Peter Vanderhag and Hans Vanderuke, the chiefs of the Dutch India company.  A merchant named Jaques Mayhay,[49] was general of this fleet, in whose ship I was pilot.

[Footnote 49:  Called Mahu in the preceding narrative.—­E.]