He seems to have been in the opening years of the seventeenth century a factor of the Levant Company at Constantinople, in which capacity he probably acquired some knowledge of Arabic.
Touching at Grand Canary and at the Cape Verde Islands, they arrived on 14 July in Saldanha, (Table Bay).
There they remained till 20 September, when they sailed to the eastward; but the night coming on stormy and dark, the two ships lost sight of each other and did not again meet.
Touching on the way at the Comoro Islands, at Pemba, where her men had a severe conflict with the natives and some white Moors, and at Almirante, the Ascension came to Socotra on 29 March 1609, and on 10 April crossed over to Aden, where the governor, having invited Sharpeigh on shore, as though to a conference, kept him and his attendants close prisoners for six weeks, and released them only on payment of goods to the value of two thousand five hundred dollars.
They remained in a neighbouring village till the end of the month, and then set out for Agra, which Sharpeigh, deserted by most of his men, reached almost alone after a tedious journey, and was well received by William Hawkins, then residing in that place.