Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/41

 128. V. FEB., 1919.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

35

Ballasore the 27th March 1673 Mr Richard Edwards

Esteemed Friend

I crave pardon for my long silence : it has pleased god to visset mee with a bluddy flux* ever sence your departure hence, that hath brought me so weake that I have not stured out of rny Chamber upperd of two months. But thanks be to God I am upon the mending hand.

What newes wee have from the Coast I liave sent you. Wee and the Dutch have had a great fight at home, but not much dammage don to us but the lost [sic] of the Ryall James, which was fired, where his Ryall Hiness was in, but hee made his escape aboard of another. Wee have taken and fournt a great many of there ships, which they were never so rowted befor as they have beene now.f The french and wee by land hath taken forty one townes and eeaven Castels from them, that the states of Holland are most undon, J and 'tis beleaved wee shall have sudden newes of peace, which pray god send.

The Dutch have taken seaven Metchle- patam boates laden with the Companys goods going to the Fort, to a great vally. 'They have taken a ship that Mr Lock and Mr Winter was in [? by] which our friends at Metchlepatam will have a great loss.


 * Dysentery. See Letter XXVI.

t Billingsley is referring to the battle of South wold, which took place on May 28, 1672, when De Ruyter's squadron sailed against the Duke of York. Both English and Dutch claimed the victory : the Duke of York because he had lost only one ship of the line and had destroyed three of those of his enemies, while the Dutch posed as conquerors in right of the damage they had done and of the death of the distinguished Admiral Lord Sandwich, who, with his two sons, perished in the flames on the Royal James. It was, however, the Prince from which the Duke of York escaped when she was practically wrecked, "but she was towed to the rear while the Duke, hidden by smoke, crept out of the cabin window Into his boat and passed to the St. Michael.

t In 1672 the United Provinces were attacked on all sides. Louis XIV., then in alliance with England, collected his forces on the Sambre and at Sedan, when town after town went down before them, for the Dutch were utterly un- prepared for invasion, and the battle of South- wold was the result of an attempt by De Witt and De Rnyter to make a second dash at the Thames and thus pro vent the English and French from coalescing.

In January, 1673 (O.C. 3730, 3742), Agent William Langhorne reported the loss of three boats from Masulipatam, laden with calicoes

It is reported they have taken the Com- panys ships [sic] Returne upon the south Seas, and 4 of our Europe ships upon the Coast of Surrat and one ship that belong[s] to the President that came from Jappari very richly laden, that the Dutch reports that her laden [sic] was most Gold. Wee hope this newes may not bee true.* Wee doe expect newes every day from Surrat, then wee shall know the truth of it, which shall advise you of. Bad times, pray god send us better. The Mooresf have taken Santa- may from the french so that they are all fled.J This is all the newes at present sturring, so having not more to trouble you at this time, but with mine arid my wifes kind respects to your selfe. If you lack any thing here I am free to serve you, so remaine

Your ever loving Friend to serve you

JOHN BILLINGSLEY

Mr Hall is not gon home, and is a comming from the Fort to Metchlepatam, if not here

[Endorsed] To Mr Richard Edwards

Merchant In Cassumbuzar

R. C. TEMPLE.

(To be concluded.)

valued at 5800 pagodas, and stated that they were taken by the Dutch in retaliation for the seizure of their " Vingerlah Yaucht " (yacht for Vingurla, near Goa). In February the number had increased to five (' Factory Records,' Fort St. George, vol. xvii.), but seven seems to be an exaggeration. There appears also to be an in- accuracy as regards the " ship that Mr. Lock and Mr. Winter was in," for Sir Edward Winter had already sailed to England in the Bombay Merchant in January, 1672. Edward Lock, who was " second to Sir Edward Winter " in 1668, may have been in the captured vessel, but I have found no corroboration of the statement.

Return from Japan, which was to have gone to Surat to be laden for England, was for several months thought to have fallen into the hands of the Dutch, but it was subsequently ascertained that she was left at Taiwan (Formosa) on Nov. 19, 1672, " to stay till the next Monsoon " (Letter Book, vol. v. p. 63). No ships were taken by the Dutch off Surat, but the Hannibal and Experiment were both seized near Malacca. The Recovery, belonging to Matthew Gray, President of Surat, escaped the Dutch off Ceylon, but the Philip and Ann, another privately owned vessel from Bombay, was, on her return from Sin in, r.lso taken off Malacca (O.C. 3743, 376).
 * This report was only partially correct. The

t Muhammadans.

} The French, who took St. Thom^, near Madras, in 1672, were repeatedly attacked by the forces of the King of Golconda, but had not, at this date, been compelled to relinquish their conquest.