From the QDL records description: «Journal of the voyage of the East India Company ship Compton from England to Bombay [Mumbai] (Captain William Mawson). The Compton departed from the Downs on 1 April 1723, and the journal covers the ship's visits to the following destinations (dates are those of arrival): 23 August 1723, Bombay; 17 October 1723, Carwar [Karwar]; 26 October 1723, Tellicherry [Thalassery]; 3 November 1723, Cocheen [Kochi]; 13 November 1723, Anjango [Anchuthenguu]; 5 December 1723, Cocheen; 10 December 1723, Callicut [Kozhikode]; 12 December 1723, Tellicherry; 16 January 1724, Bombay; 15 February 1724, Surat; 4 Apr 1724, Bombay; 18 June 1724, Gombroon [Bandar-e ʻAbbās]; 12 August 1724, Bussora [Basra]; 28 November 1724, Gombroon; 7 January 1725, Surat; 10 February 1725, Bombay; 23 March 1725, Goa; 8 April 1725, Tellicherry; 10 May 1725, Madrass [Madras, i.e. Chennai]; 11 November 1725, Cape Good Hope [Cape of Good Hope]; 26 December 1725, St Hellena [Saint Helena]; 19 January 1726, Ascention [Ascension]; 9 April 1726, the Downs; 9 April 1726, Woolwich». The Compton sailed towards Bombay in company of the Duke of York, as it is recorded in the logbook. After sailing back and forth along the Malabar Coast, on January 16, 1724, the Compton reached Bombay where on February 1, «the Governour and Councill taken up [my] ship to Freight for Bussora and give fourteen thousand Rupees for her hire and am not to be dispatched from the said place till the last of October». This seems to be the reason why the Compton, having ended its duties, left Bombay to Surat and then to Basra, delivering goods for the EIC [33r]. According to some logbook’s entries, the captain had on board the East India Pilot, a collection of charts and sailing directions in use of the EIC’s commanders, necessary to support the navigation with information about port-cities, anchorages, fathoms, soundings, draught, and sailing directions. The inter-Asian voyage did not end at Bombay, where the Compton arrived from Persia. Once there, on 17 March 1725, the captain received the order to complete the ship’s cargo before leaving India. For this reason, the Compton sailed again down the Malabar Coast, collecting pepper and cardamom for the cargo, losing the right season for the inbound voyage. This is why the Compton bound for Madras, where the captain was ordered to wait for the right season. Finally, on August 25 the Compton sailed in company of the James and Mary towards England. The passage resulted very long «and tedious» because of the navigation’s difficulties which affected especially the James and Mary, forcing the Compton to slow down its course and lay in open ocean, waiting for the other ship. This delay worsened the conditions on board which led to the spread of scurvy and other diseases among the crewmen. For that reason the officers decided to stop at Table Bay for provisioning and taking care of those men (November 11, 1725). The ship made another stop – this time planned and ordinary for the EIC’s ships – at St. Helena (December 26, 1725) for delivering the EIC’s cargo, and the last one at Ascension Island, before heading North towards England, probably for capturing some turtles for the rest of the voyage (January 19, 1726). The practice to «turn turtles» at Ascension Island was common between December and June, when these animals arrived there in great quantity. They were captured by passing ships' crews and turned upside down and brought on board ship, kept alive there and later killed and eaten to combat scurvy. Once there, the captain made an interesting discovery: «[Thursday the 20th]We found a Tent a Shore in the Bay [Clarence Bay] and Beding in it a Tea Kettle and Tea. Pipes a Hatchet and Nails and several other things with some Writings Papers by which we found the Dutch Fleet the fifth of May last their Stile had put a Shore one of their Men for some Crime he had Committed on board. his Writing continue to November but we have not Dutch enough amongst us to read them. we made search in several places to find the Man or his Body but could not and we doe believe he is not gon off the Island because his Paper and a great many Necessaries are left in the Tent» [80v]. No more references to the event or the story of the Dutch man are recorded in this logbook, but, according to the literature, that single passage will prove to be the perfect incipit of a story within a story. Within a few years, in fact, the story would turn into a pamphlet published in London in three different editions, with different titles and versions of the story, of the castaway’s diary and of his own identity, which are still the subject of historiographical debate today. On 22 January 1726, the ship was ready to depart from the island and reached the Downs, on 5 April 1726, after 74 days at sea. Hints of the presence of pirates along the Malabar coast during the inter-Asian voyage deserve to be highlighted. The first entry is dated 23 December 1723, when the logbook records that in Tellicherry it enters «the Fancy from Bengall which is the Ship the Pirates had when they took Mackrey and afterwards they give it him to come to Bombay» [f. 30v]. The Fancy is one of the two ships of the Irish pirate Edward England who attacks two EIC vessels, Captain James MacRae’s [Makrey] Cassandra and Captain Richard Kirby’s Greenwich off the Comoros Islands on 7 August 1720. After a bloody battle between the East Indiamen and England’s flotilla, the English survivors abandon their ships and take refuge on Mauritius until MacRae surrenders to England. The pirate allows him and his men to depart for Bombay with the Fancy as mentioned by Mawson. The second and third references to pirates are, respectively, on 11 January 1724, when, sailing up the coast towards Bombay, the captain sees some boats that he «took to be Angrys Grabs” [f. 32r]; and on 22 March 1725, in the vicinity of Goa, when “two of Angry Grabs and seven Gallyvats» come dangerously close to the Compton, prompting the captain to make a maneuver to escape. The EIC vessel is pursued by pirates «but it being dark they could not fire their Prow Guns» [f. 57r]. Kanhoji Angre or Conajee Angria [Angrys] is an Indian admiral of the Maratha Navy, known to the chronicles for being the strongest opponent of the EIC colonial establishment in India at sea, undefeated until his death in 1729.