A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before. Defoe Daniel

English cloth, which I showed them, and said they would be of good merchandise at Gombaroon in the Gulf, for that the Persians made their long vests of such cloths.

      In short, for this cloth, and some money, we bought a box of choice pearls, which the chief of them had picked out from the rest for the Portuguese merchants at Goa; and which, when I came to London, was valued at two thousand two hundred pounds sterling.

      We were near two months on our voyage from Madagascar to the coast of India, and from thence to Ceylon, where we put in on the south-west part of the island, to see what provisions we could get, and to take in a large supply of water.

      The people here we found willing to supply us with provisions; but withal so sharp, imposing upon us their own rates for everything, and withal, so false, that we were often provoked to treat them very rudely. However, I gave strict orders that they should not be hurt upon any occasion, at least till we had filled all our water-casks and taken in what fresh provisions we could get, and especially rice, which we valued very much. But they provoked us at last beyond all patience; for they were such thieves when they were on board, and such treacherous rogues when we were on shore, that there was no bearing with them; and two accidents fell out upon this occasion which fully broke the peace between us; one was on board, and the other on shore, and both happened the same day.