My clerk answered him that, had we
been enemies, we must have come ashore among them for water: but, said
the governor, you are come to inspect into our trade and strength; and I
will have you therefore be gone with all speed. My clerk answered him
that I had no such design but, without coming nearer them, would be
contented if the governor would send water on board where we lay, about 2
leagues from the fort; and that I would make any reasonable satisfaction
for it. The governor said that we should have what water we wanted,
provided we came no nearer with the ship: and ordered that as soon as we
pleased we should send our boat full of empty casks, and come to an
anchor with it off the fort, till he sent slaves to bring the casks
ashore and fill them; for that none of our men must come ashore. The same
afternoon I sent up my boat as he had directed with an officer and a
present of some beer for the governor; which he would not accept of, but
sent me off about a ton of water.

On the 24th in the morning I sent the same officer again in my boat; and
about noon the boat returned again with the two principal merchants of
the factory and the lieutenant of the fort; for whose security they had
kept my officer and one of my boat's crew as hostages, confining them to
the governor's garden all the time: for they were very shy of trusting
any of them to go into their fort, as my officer said: yet afterwards
they were not shy of our company; and I found that my officer maliciously
endeavoured to make them shy of me. In the evening I gave the Dutch
officers that came aboard the best entertainment I could; and, bestowing
some presents on them, sent them back very well pleased; and my officer
and the other man were returned to me. Next morning I sent my boat ashore
again with the same officer; who brought me word from the governor that
we must pay 4 Spanish dollars for every boat-load of water: but in this
he spoke falsely, as I understood afterwards from the governor himself
and all his officers, who protested to me that no such price was
demanded, but left me to give the slaves what I pleased for their labour:
the governor being already better satisfied about me than when my clerk
spoke to him, or than that officer I sent last would have caused him to
be: for the governor being a civil, genteel, and sensible man, was
offended at the officer for his being so industrious to misrepresent me.
I received from the governor a little lamb,