ten in the morning
They often met with bears , hogs , deer , and wild buffaloes ; but they all ran away as soon as they saw them . The river was exceedingly full of alligators ; in the evening they used to pitch their tents , and make great fires both before and behind them , to affright the wild beasts ; and though they heard the voices of all sorts , they saw none . On Thursday , at noon , they crossed the river Coronda -LSB- ? Kannadera Oya -RSB- , which parts the country of the Malabars from the king 's , and on Friday , about nine or ten in the morning , came among the inhabitants , of whom they were as much afraid as of the Chiangulays before ; for , though the Wanniounay , or prince of this people , payeth tribute to the Dutch out of fear , yet he is better affected to the King of Kandy , and , if he had took them , would have sent them up to their old master ; but not knowing any way to escape , they kept on their journey by the river-side by day , because the woods were not to be travelled by night for thorns and wild beasts , who came down then to the river to drink . In all the Malabar country they met with only two Brahmins , who treated them very civilly ; and for their money , one of them conducted them till they came into the territories of the Dutch , and out of all danger of the King of Kandy , which did not a little rejoice them ; but yet they were in no small trouble how to find the way out of the woods , till a Malabar , for the lucre of a knife , conducted them to a Dutch town , where they found guides to conduct them from town to town , till they came to the fort called Aripo , where they arrived Saturday , October 18 , 1679 , and there thankfully adored God 's wonderful providence , in thus completing their deliverance from a long captivity of nineteen years and six months . I come now back to my own history , which grows near a conclusion , as to the travels I took in this part of the world . We were now at sea , and we stood away to the north for a while , to try if we could get a market for our spice , for we were very rich in nutmegs , but we ill knew what to do with them ; we durst not go upon the English coast , or , to speak more properly , among the English factories to trade ; not that we were afraid to fight any two ships they had , and , besides that , we knew that , as they had no letters of marque , or of reprisals from the government , so it was none of their business to act offensively , no , not though we were pirates .