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At this part of the coast, not venturing to come near the castle of St George del Mina belonging to the king of Portugal, they made sale of their goods only on this side and beyond that place, receiving the gold of the country in exchange to the extent of 150 pounds weight , and they might have bartered all their merchandise for gold at that place, if the pride of Windham had allowed him to listen to the counsel and experience of Pinteado: but not satisfied with what he had got or might still have procured, if he had remained in the neighbourhood of Mina, he commanded Pinteado to navigate the ships to Benin under the equinoctial, 150 leagues beyond the Mina, where he expected to have laden the ships with pepper.
In this golden voyage Pinteado was ill-matched with an evil companion, his own various good qualities being coupled with one who had few or no virtues.
Not satisfied with this answer, more especially as the men continued to die in great numbers, Windham sent a second message ordering them to return immediately, or that he would go away and leave them. Thinking to prevail upon him by reasonable means, Pinteado returned to the ships under an escort provided by the negro king.
The copie of Anthonie Anes Pinteado his letters patents, whereby the king of Portugall made him knight of his house, after all his troubles and imprisonment, which, by wrong information made to the king, he had susteined of long time, being at the last deliuered, his cause knowen and manifested to the king by a gray Friar the kings Confessor.
The second document is merely a certificate of registration of the first. The third is a letter from the infant, Don Luis, brother to the king of Portugal, dated 8th December 1552, urging Pinteado to return to Lisbon, and intimating that Peter Gonzalvo, the bearer of the letter, had a safe conduct for him in due form.
The advice given by Pinteado, not to go farther, was for the safety of the mens lives, which would have been in great danger at that late season, during their winter or rossia, not so called on account of cold, but from the heat accompanied with close and cloudy air, alternating with great tempests, during which the air was of so putrifying a quality as to rot the clothes on their backs.
Therefore after he had commanded our men to stand vp, and demanded of them the cause of their comming into that countrey, they answered by Pinteado, that they were marchants trauelling into those parties for the commodities of his countrey, for exchange of wares which they had brought from their countries, being such as should be no lesse commodious for him and his people.
Then he perceiuing that they would needs away, desired them to tarry that he might fetch the rest of the marchants that were left at the court, but they would not grant this request. And thus was Pinteado kept ashipboord against his will, thrust among the boyes of the ship, not vsed like a man, nor yet like an honest boy, but glad to find fauour at the cookes hand.
All these writings I saw under seal in the house of my friend Nicholas Lieze, with whom Pinteado left them when he departed on his unfortunate voyage to Guinea.
Yet in the year following, the same Thomas Windham, with a Portuguese named Antonio Yanez Pinteado, who appears to have been the chief promoter of the attempt, undertook a voyage to Guinea, with three ships having an hundred and forty men; and having traded for some time on the coast for gold, they went to Benin to load pepper: But both the commanders and most of the men dying of sickness, occasioned by the climate, the rest returned to Plymouth with one ship only, having burnt the other two for want of hands, and brought back no great riches.
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