226 COMMERCE WITH English ships come to buy pepper of them ; that we were not come to quarrel, but to trade peace- ably, and would pay them very honestly, and com- ply with all reasonable demands, according to what should be hereafter agreed on. They inquired whether we were Company's ships, to which we did not readily answer them ; but before we did, they proceeded and said, That if we were, they, as friends, would advise us to depart the port forth- with, because their Sultan and Oran-Cays, or great men, would by no means have any dealings with us. The next day came on board of us a boat, with one Cay liadeiiy TacJca, and Cay Chitra Uclay^ being messengers from the king. We re- ceived them as civilly as possible. The first thing they inquired was, v,hether we were Company's ships, or separate traders ; that if the former, we need not wait for an answer, and that it would be our best ways to be gone ; desiring earnestly, that what answer we should return them might be sin- cere, for that whatever we said to them should be told the Sultan. Finding no other method to intro- duce ourselves, we were forced to assure them that xve were jjrivate traders^ and came thither on our own account to buy pepper. This we did, believing we might in time have a better opportunity of mak- ing our honourable masters known, and of excus- ing the heavy crimes laid on their former servants, whose ill conduct had been the cause of the fac-
