might occasion contention.

SECTION XIX.

_Voyages of the Author to different parts of India._

When I was at Pegu in August 1569, having got a considerable profit by
my endeavours, I was desirous to return to my own country by way of St
Thome, but in that case I should have been obliged to wait till next
March; I was therefore advised to go by way of Bengal, for which country
there was a ship ready to sail to the great harbour of Chittagong,
whence there go small ships to Cochin in sufficient time to arrive there
before the departure of the Portuguese ships for Lisbon, in which I was
determined to return to Europe. I went accordingly on board the Bengal
ship; but this happened to be the year of the _Tyffon_, which will
require some explanation. It is therefore to be understood that in India
they have, once every ten or twelve years, such prodigious storms and
tempests as are almost incredible, except to such as have seen them,
neither do they know with any certainty on what years they may be
expected, but unfortunate are they who happen to be at sea when this
tempest or _tyffon_ takes place, as few escape the dreadful danger. In
this year it was our evil fortune to be at sea in one of these terrible
storms; and well it was for us that our ship was newly _over-planked_,
and had no loading save victuals and ballast, with some gold and silver
for Bengal, as no other merchandise is carried to Bengal from Pegu. The
tyffon accordingly assailed us and lasted three days, carrying away our
sails, yards, and rudder; and as the ship laboured excessively, we
cut away our mast, yet she continued to labour more heavily than before,
so that the sea broke over her every moment, and almost filled her with
water. For the space of three days and three nights, sixty men who were
on board did nothing else than bale out the water continually, twenty at
one place, twenty in another, and twenty at a third place; yet during
all this storm so good was the hull of our ship that she took not in a
single drop of water at her sides or bottom, all coming in at the
hatches. Thus driving about at the mercy of the winds and waves, we were
during the darkness of the third night at about four o'clock after
sunset cast upon a shoal. When day appeared next morning we could see no
land on any side of us, so that we knew not where we were. It pleased
the divine goodness that a great wave of the sea came and floated us off
from the shoal into deep wate