1780. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 411 



By means of my money, and pointing at different 

 objects in sight, I had no difficulty in making a man, 

 who seemed to be the principal person of the com- 

 pany, comprehend the main business of our errand ; 

 and T as readily understood from him that the chief 

 or captain was absent, but would soon return, and 

 that, without his consent, no purchases of any kind 

 could be made. We availed ourselves of the oppor- 

 tunity which this circumstance afforded us to walk 

 about the town ; and did not forget to search, though 

 in vain, for the remains of a fort, which had been 

 built by our countrymen near the spot we were now 

 upon in 1702. * 



On returning to the captain's house, we were 

 sorry to find that he was not yet arrived, and the 

 more so, as the time was almost elapsed which Cap- 

 tain Gore had fixed for our return to the boat. The 

 natives were desirous we should lengthen our stay ; 

 they even proposed our passing the night there, and 

 offered to accommodate us in the best manner in 

 their power. I had observed when we were in the 

 house before, and now remarked it the more, that 

 the man I have mentioned above, frequently retired 

 into one of the end rooms, and staid there some little 

 time before he answered the questions that were put 

 to him ; which led me to suspect that the captain 

 was all the time there, though, for reasons best 

 known to himself, he did not choose to appear ; and 

 I was confirmed in this opinion by being stopped as 



* The English settled here in the year 1702, when the factory 

 of Chusan, on the coast of China, was broken up, and brought with 

 them some Macassar soldiers, who were hired to assist in building 

 a fort ; but the president not fulfilling his engagement with them, 

 they watched an opportunity, and one night murdered all the 

 English in the fort. Those without the fort hearing a noise, took 

 the alarm and ran to their boats, very narrowly escaping with their 

 lives, but not without much fatigue, hunger, and thirst, to the 

 Johore dominions, where they were treated with great humanity. 

 Some of these afterward went to form a settlement at Benjar- 

 Massean, on the island of Borneo. East India Directory, p. 86. 



