One of the blacks, who brought off the letter went on board their boat, carried them to the place called Olumbah, a point of land made by a river on one side, and the sea on the other, where twelve of them lived together in a large house they had built, and fortified with about twenty pieces of cannon.
The rest of them were settled in small companies of about 12 or 14 together, more or less, up the said river, and along the coast, every nation by itself, as the English, French, Dutch, &c. They made inquiry of their consorts after the different prizes which belonged to them, and they found all very justly laid by to be given them, if ever they returned, as were what belonged to the men who went over land. Captain White, hankering after home, proposed going out again in the boat; for he was adverse to settling with them; and many others agreed to go under his command; and if they could meet with a ship to carry them to Europe, to follow their old vocation. But the others did not think it reasonable he should have the boat, but that it should be set to sale for the benefit of the company. Accordingly it was set up, and Captain White bought it for 400 pieces of eight, and with some of his old consorts, whose number was increased by others of the ship's crew, he went back the way he had come to Methelage. Here he met with a French ship of about 50 tons, and 6 guns, which had been taken by some pirates who lived at Maratan, on the east side of the island, and some of the Degrave East-Indiaman's crew, to whom the master of her refused a passage to Europe; for as he had himself been a pirate, and quarter-master to Bowen, in the Speaker, he apprehended their taking away his ship. War then existing between England and France, he thought they might do it without being called in question as pirates. The pirates who had been concerned in taking Herault's ship, for that was his name, had gone up the country, and left her to the men belonging to the Degrave, who had fitted her up, cleaned and tallowed her, and got in some provision, with a design to go to the East-Indies, that they might light on some ship to return to their own country.
Captain White, finding these men proposed joining him, and going round to Ambonavoula, to make up a company, it was agreed upon, and they unanimously chose him commander. They accordingly put to sea, and stood away round the south end of the island, and touched at Don Mascarenhas, where he took in a surgeon, and stretching over again to Madagascar, fell in with Ambonavoula, and made up his complement of 60 men. From hence he shaped his course for the island of Mayotta, where he cleaned his ship, and waited for the season to go into the Red Sea. His provisions being taken in, the time proper, and the ship well fitted, he steered for Babel-Mandeb, and running into a harbor, waited for the Mocha ships.