I observe, that our people in England often admire how the officers, which the Company send into India, and the merchants which generally stay there, get such very good estates as they do, and sometimes come home worth sixty, seventy, and a hundred thousand pounds at a time. But it is no wonder, or, at least, we shall see so much farther into it, when we consider the innumerable ports and places where they have a free commerce, that it will then be no wonder; and much less will it be so, when we consider, that at all those places and ports where the English ships come, there is so much, and such constant demand for the growth of all other countries, that there is a certain vent for the return, as well as a market abroad for the goods carried out.

In short, we made a very good voyage, and I got so much money by the first adventure, and such an insight into the method of getting more, that, had I been twenty years younger, I should have been tempted to have stayed here, and sought no farther for making my fortune: but what was all this to a man on the wrong side of threescore, that was rich enough, and came abroad more in obedience to a restless desire of seeing the world, than a covetous desire of getting in it? And indeed I think it is with great justice that I now call it a restless desire, for it was so: when I was at home, I was restless to go abroad; and now I was abroad, I was restless to be at home. I say, what was this gain to me? I was rich enough already; nor had I any uneasy desires about getting more money; and therefore, the profits of the voyage to me were things of no great force to me, for the prompting me forward to farther undertakings: hence I thought, that by this voyage I had made no progress at all; because I was come back, as I might call it, to the place from whence I came, as to a home; whereas my eye, which, like that which Solomon speaks of, was never satisfied with seeing, was still more desirous of wandering and seeing. I was come into a part of the world which I never was in before; and that part in particular which I had heard much of; and was resolved to see as much of it as I could; and then I thought I might say I had seen all the world that was worth seeing.

But my fellow-traveller and I had different notions: I do not name this to insist upon my own, for I acknowledge his was most just, and the most suited to the end of a merchant's life; who, when he is abroad upon adventures, it is his wisdom to stick to that, as the best thing for him, which he is like to get the most money by. My new friend kept himself to the nature of the thing, and would have been content to have gone, like a carrier's horse, always to the same inn, backward and forward, provided he could, as he called it, find his account in it: on the other hand, mine, as old as I was, was the notion of a mad rambling boy, that never cares to see a thing twice over.

But this was not all: I had a kind of impatience upon me to be nearer home, and yet the most unsettled resolution imaginable, which way to go. In the interval of these consultations, my friend, who was always upon the search for business, proposed another voyage to me, viz. among the Spice Islands; and to bring home a load of cloves from the Manillas, or thereabouts; places where, indeed, the Dutch do trade, but the islands belong partly to the Spaniards; though we went not so far, but to some other, where they have not the whole power as they have at Batavia, Ceylon, &c. We were not long in preparing for this voyage; the chief difficulty was in bringing me to come into it; however, at last, nothing else offering, and finding that really stirring about and trading, the profit being so great, and, as I may say, certain, had more pleasure in it, and more satisfaction to the mind, than sitting still; which, to me especially, was the unhappiest part of life, I resolved on this voyage too: which we made very successfully, touching at Borneo, and several islands, whose names I do not remember, and came home in about five months. We sold our spice, which was chiefly cloves, and some nutmegs, to the Persian merchants, who carried them away for the Gulf; and, making near five of one, we really got a great deal of money.

My friend, when we made up this account, smiled at me: "Well now," said he, with a sort of an agreeable insult upon my indolent temper, "is not this better than walking about here, like a man of nothing to do, and spending our time in staring at the nonsense and ignorace of the Pagans?"—"Why truly," said I, "my friend, I think it is; and I begin to be a convert to the principles of merchandising. But I must tell you," said I, "by the way, you do not know what I am doing; for if once I conquer my backwardness, and embark heartily, as old as I am, I shall harass you up and down the world till I tire you; for I shall pursue it so eagerly, I shall never let you lie still."

But to be short with my speculations: a little while after this there came in a Dutch ship from Batavia; she was a coaster, not an European trader, and of about two hundred tons burden: the men, as they pretended, having been so sickly, that the captain had not men enough to go to sea with, he lay by at Bengal; and, as if having got money enough, or being willing, for other reasons, to go for Europe, he gave public notice, that he would sell his ship; this came to my ears before my new partner heard of it; and I had a great mind to buy it. So I went home to him, and told him of it: he considered awhile, for he was no rash man neither; but musing some time, he replied, "She is a little too big; but, however, we will have her." Accordingly we bought the ship; and, agreeing with the master, we paid for her, and took possession; when we had done so, we resolved to entertain the men, if we could, to join them with those we had, for the pursuing our business; but on a sudden, they not having received their wages, but their share of the money, as we afterwards learnt, not one of them was to be found. We inquired much about them, and at length were told, that they were all gone together, by land, to Agra, the great city of the Mogul's residence; and from thence were to travel to Surat, and so by sea to the Gulf of Persia.

Nothing had so heartily troubled me a good while, as that I missed the opportunity of going with them; for such a ramble, I thought, and in such company as would both have guarded me and diverted me, would have suited mightily with my great design; and I should both have seen the world, and gone homewards too; but I was much better satisfied a few days after, when I came to know what sort of fellows they were; for, in short, their history was, that this man they called captain was the gunner only, not the commander; that they had been a trading voyage, in which they were attacked on shore by some of the Malaccans, who had killed the captain and three of his men; and that after the captain was killed, these men, eleven in number, had resolved to run away with the ship, which they did; and had brought her in at the Bay of Bengal, leaving the mate and five men more on shore; of whom we shall hear farther.

Well; let them come by the ship how they would, we came honestly by her, as we thought; though we did not, I confess, examine into things so exactly as we ought; for we never inquired any thing of the seamen, who, if we had examined, would certainly have faltered in their accounts, contradicted one another, and perhaps have contradicted themselves; or, one how or other, we should have seen reason to have suspected them: but the man shewed us a bill of sale for the ship, to one Emanuel Clostershoven, or some such name, (for I suppose it was all a forgery) and called himself by that name; and we could not contradict him; and being withal a little too unwary, or at least having no suspicion of the thing, we went through with our bargain.

However, we picked up some English seamen here after this, and some Dutch; and we now resolved for a second voyage to the south-east, for cloves, &c. that is to say, among the Philippine and Malacca isles; and, in short, not to fill this part of my story with trifles, when what is yet to come is so remarkable, I spent, from first to last, six years in this country, trading from port to port, backward and forward, and with very good success; and was now the last year with my partner, going in the ship above-mentioned, on a voyage to China; but designing first to go to Siam, to buy rice.

In this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up and down a great while in the Straits of Malacca, and among the islands, we were no sooner got clear of those difficult seas, but we found our ship had sprung a leak, and we were not able, by all our industry, to find out where it was. This forced us to make for some port; and my partner, who knew the country better than I did, directed the captain to put into the river of Cambodia; for I had made the English mate, one Mr. Thompson, captain, not being willing to take the charge of the ship upon myself. This river lies on the north side of the great bay or gulf which goes up to Siam.

While we were here, and going often on shore for refreshment, there comes to me one day an Englishman, and he was, it seems, a gunner's mate on board an English East India ship, which rode in the same river, up at or near the city of Cambodia: what brought him hither we knew not; but he comes up to me, and, speaking English, "Sir," says he, "you are a stranger to me, and I to you; but I have something to tell you, that very nearly concerns you."

I looked stedfastly at him a good while, and he thought at first I had known him, but I did not. "If it very nearly concerns me," said I, "and not yourself, what moves you to tell it me?"—"I am moved," says he, "by the imminent danger you are in; and, for aught I see, you have no knowledge of it."—"I know no danger I am in," said I, "but that my ship is leaky, and I cannot find it out; but I propose to lay her aground to-morrow, to see if I can find it."—"But, Sir," says he, "leaky or not leaky, find it or not find it, you will be wiser than to lay your ship on shore to-morrow, when you hear what I have to say to you. Do you know, Sir," said he, "the town of Cambodia lies about fifteen leagues up this river? And there are two large English ships about five leagues on this side, and three Dutch."—"Well," said I, "and what is that to me?"—"Why, Sir," says he, "is it for a man that is upon such adventures as you are, to come into a port, and not examine first what ships there are there, and whether he is able to deal with them? I suppose you do not think you are a match for them?" I was amused very much at his discourse, but not amazed at it; for I could not conceive what he meant; and I turned short upon him, and said, "Sir, I wish you would explain yourself; I cannot imagine what reason I have to be afraid of any of the Company's ships, or Dutch ships; I am no interloper; what can they have to say to me?"

He looked like a man half angry, half pleased; and pausing awhile, but smiling, "Well, Sir," says he, "if you think yourself secure, you must take your chance; I am sorry your fate should blind you against good advice; but assure yourself if you do not put to sea immediately, you will the very next tide be attacked by five long-boats full of men; and, perhaps, if you are taken, you will be hanged for a pirate, and the particulars be examined into afterwards. I thought, Sir," added he, "I should have met with a better reception than this, for doing you a piece of service of such importance."—"I can never be ungrateful," said I, "for any service, or to any man that offers me any kindness; but it is past my comprehension," said I, "what they should have such a design upon me for; however, since you say there is no time to be lost, and that there is some villanous design in hand against me, I will go on board this minute, and put to sea immediately, if my men can stop the leak, or if we can swim without stopping it: but, Sir," said I, "shall I go away ignorant of the reason of all this? Can you give me no farther light into it?"

"I can tell you but part of the story, Sir," says he; "but I have a Dutch seaman here with me, and, I believe, I could persuade him to tell you the rest; but there is scarce time for it: but the short of the story is this, the first part of which, I suppose, you know well enough, viz. that you were with this ship at Sumatra; that there your captain was murdered by the Malaccans, with three of his men; and that you, or some of those that were on board with you, ran away with the ship, and are since turned pirates. This is the sum of the story, and you will all be seized as pirates, I can assure you, and executed with very little ceremony; for you know merchant-ships shew but little law to pirates, if they get them in their power."

"Now you speak plain English," said I, "and I thank you; and though I know nothing that we have done, like what you talk of, but I am sure we came honestly and fairly by the ship; yet seeing such work is a-doing, as you say, and that you seem to mean honestly, I will be upon my guard."—"Nay, Sir," says he, "do not talk of being upon your guard; the best defence is to be out of the danger: if you have any regard to your life, and the lives of all your men, put out to sea without fail at high-water; and as you have a whole tide before you, you will be gone too far out before they can come down; for they will come away at high water; and as they have twenty miles to come, you'll get near two hours of them by the difference of the tide, not reckoning the length of the way: besides, as they are only boats, and not ships, they will not venture to follow you far out to sea, especially if it blows."

"Well," said I, "you have been very kind in this: what shall I do for you to make you amends?"—"Sir," says he, "you may not be so willing to make me amends, because you may not be convinced of the truth of it: I will make an offer to you; I have nineteen months pay due to me on board the ship ——, which I came out of England in; and the Dutchman, that is with me, has seven months pay due to him; if you will make good our pay to us, we will go along with you: if you find nothing more in it, we will desire no more; but if we do convince you, that we have saved your life, and the ship, and the lives of all the men in her, we will leave the rest to you."

I consented to this readily; and went immediately on board, and the two men with me. As soon as I came to the ship's side, my partner, who was on board, came on the quarter-deck, and called to me with a great deal of joy, "O ho! O ho! we have stopped the leak!"—"Say you so?" said I; "thank God; but weigh the anchor then immediately."—"Weigh!" says he; "what do you mean by that? What is the matter?" says he. "Ask no questions," said I, "but all hands to work, and weigh without losing a minute." He was surprised: but, however, he called the captain, and he immediately ordered the anchor to be got up; and though the tide was not quite done, yet a little land breeze blowing, we stood out to sea; then I called him into the cabin, and told him the story at large; and we called in the men, and they told us the rest of it: but as it took us up a great deal of time, so before we had done, a seaman comes to the cabin door, and calls out to us, that the captain made him tell us, we were chased. "Chased!" said I; "by whom, and by what?"—"By five sloops, or boats," said the fellow, "full of men."—"Very well," said I; "then it is apparent there is something in it." In the next place, I ordered all our men to be called up; and told them, that there was a design to seize the ship, and to take us for pirates; and asked them, if they would stand by us, and by one another? The men answered, cheerfully, one and all, that they would live and die with us. Then I asked the captain, what way he thought best for us to manage a fight with them; for resist them I resolved we would, and that to the last drop. He said, readily, that the way was to keep them off with our great shot, as long as we could, and then to fire at them with our small arms, to keep them from boarding us; but when neither of these would do any longer, we should retire to our close quarters; perhaps they had not materials to break open our bulk-heads, or get in upon us.

The gunner had, in the mean time, orders to bring two guns to bear fore and aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, and load them with musket-bullets and small pieces of old iron, and what next came to hand; and thus we made ready for fight; but all this while kept out to sea, with wind enough, and could see the boats at a distance, being five large long-boats following us, with all the sail they could make.

Two of these boats, which, by our glasses, we could see were English, had outsailed the rest, were near two leagues a head of them, and gained upon us considerably; so that we found they would come up with us: upon which we fired a gun without a shot, to intimate that they should bring to; and we put out a flag of truce, as a signal for parley; but they kept crowding after us, till they came within shot: upon this we took in our white flag, they having made no answer to it; hung out the red flag, and fired at them with shot; notwithstanding this, they came on till they were near enough to call to them with a speaking, trumpet, which we had on board; so we called to them, and bade them keep off at their peril.

It was all one, they crowded after us, and endeavoured to come under our stern, so to board us on our quarter: upon which, seeing they were resolute for mischief, and depended upon the strength that followed them, I ordered to bring the ship to, so that they lay upon our broadside, when immediately we fired five guns at them; one of them had been levelled so true, as to carry away the stern of the hindermost boat, and bring them to the necessity of taking down their sail, and running all to the head of the boat to keep her from sinking; so she lay by, and had enough of it; but seeing the foremost boat still crowd on after us, we made ready to fire at her in particular.

While this was doing, one of the three boats that was behind, being forwarder than the other two, made up to the boat which we had disabled, to relieve her, and we could afterwards see her take out the men: we called again to the foremost boat, and offered a truce to parley again, and to know what was her business with us; but had no answer: only she crowded close under our stern. Upon this our gunner, who was a very dexterous fellow, run out his two chase-guns, and fired at her; but the shot missing, the men in the boat shouted, waved their caps, and came on; but the gunner, getting quickly ready again, fired among them a second time; one shot of which, though it missed the boat itself, yet fell in among the men, and we could easily see had done a great deal of mischief among them; but we, taking no notice of that, weared the ship again, and brought our quarter to bear upon them; and, firing three guns more, we found the boat was split almost to pieces; in particular, her rudder, and a piece of her stern, were shot quite away; so they handed their sail immediately, and were in great disorder; but, to complete their misfortune, our gunner let fly two guns at them again; where he hit them we could not tell, but we found the boat was sinking, and some of the men already in the water. Upon this I immediately manned out our pinnace, which we had kept close by our side, with orders to pick up some of the men, if they could, and save them from drowning, and immediately to come on board with them; because we saw the rest of the boats began to come up. Our men in the pinnace followed their orders, and took up three men; one of which was just drowning, and it was a good while before we could recover him. As soon as they were on board, we crowded all the sail we could make, and stood farther out to sea; and we found, that when the other three boats came up to the first two, they gave over their chase.

Being thus delivered from a danger, which though I knew not the reason of it, yet seemed to be much greater than I apprehended, I took care that we should change our course, and not let any one imagine whither we were going; so we stood out to sea eastward, quite out of the course of all European ships, whether they were bound to China, or any where else within the commerce of the European nations.

When we were now at sea, we began to consult with the two seamen, and inquire first, what the meaning of all this should be? The Dutchman let us into the secret of it at once; telling us, that the fellow that sold us the ship, as we said, was no more than a thief that had run away with her. Then he told us how the captain, whose name too he mentioned, though I do not remember it now, was treacherously murdered by the natives on the coast of Malacca, with three of his men; and that he, this Dutchman, and four more, got into the woods, where they wandered about a great while; till at length he, in particular, in a miraculous manner, made his escape, and swam off to a Dutch ship, which sailing near the shore, in its way from China, had sent their boat on shore for fresh water; that he durst not come to that part of the shore where the boat was, but made shift in the night to take in the water farther off, and swimming a great while, at last the ship's boat took him up.

He then told us, that he went to Batavia, where two of the seamen belonging to the ship had arrived, having deserted the rest in their travels; and gave an account, that the fellow who had run away with the ship, sold her at Bengal to a set of pirates, which were gone a-cruising in her; and that they had already taken an English ship, and two Dutch ships, very richly laden.

This latter part we found to concern us directly; and though we knew it to be false, yet, as my partner said very well, if we had fallen into their hands, and they had such a prepossession against us beforehand, it had been in vain for us to have defended ourselves, or to hope for any good quarters at their hands; especially considering that our accusers had been our judges, and that we could have expected nothing from them but what rage would have dictated, and ungoverned passion have executed; and therefore it was his opinion, we should go directly back to Bengal, from whence we came, without putting in at any port whatever; because there we could give an account of ourselves, and could prove where we were when the ship put in, whom we bought her of, and the like; and, which was more than all the rest, if we were put to the necessity of bringing it before the proper judges, we should be sure to have some justice; and not be hanged first, and judged afterwards.

I was some time of my partner's opinion; but after a little more serious thinking, I told him, I thought it was a very great hazard for us to attempt returning to Bengal, for that we were on the wrong side of the Straits of Malacca; and that if the alarm was given, we should be sure to be waylaid on every side, as well by the Dutch of Batavia, as the English elsewhere; that if we should be taken, as it were, running away, we should even condemn ourselves, and there would want no more evidence to destroy us. I also asked the English sailor's opinion, who said, he was of my mind, and that we should certainly be taken.

This danger a little startled my partner, and all the ship's company; and we immediately resolved to go away to the coast of Tonquin, and so on to China; and from thence pursuing the first design, as to trade, find some way or other to dispose of the ship, and come back in some of the vessels of the country, such as we could get. This was approved of as the best method for our security; and accordingly we steered away N.N.E. keeping above fifty leagues off from the usual course to the eastward.

This, however, put us to some inconvenience; for first the winds when we came to that distance from the shore, seemed to be more steadily against us, blowing almost trade as we call it, from the E. and E.N.E.; so that we were a long while upon our voyage, and we were but ill provided with victuals for so long a run; and, which was still worse, there was some danger that those English and Dutch ships, whose boats pursued us, whereof some were bound that way, might be got in before us; and if not, some other ship bound to China might have information of us from them, and pursue us with the same vigour.

I must confess I was now very uneasy, and thought myself, including the last escape from the long boats, to have been in the most dangerous condition that ever I was in through all my past life; for whatever ill circumstances I had been in, I was never pursued for a thief before; nor had I ever done any thing that merited the name of dishonest or fraudulent, much less thievish. I had chiefly been mine own enemy; or, as I may rightly say, I had been nobody's enemy but my own. But now I was embarrassed in the worst condition imaginable; for though I was perfectly innocent, I was in no condition to make that innocence appear: and if I had been taken, it had been under a supposed guilt of the worst kind; at least a crime esteemed so among the people I had to do with.

This made me very anxious to make an escape, though which way to do it I knew not; or what port or place we should go to. My partner, seeing me thus dejected, though he was the most concerned at first, began to encourage me; and describing to me the several ports of the coast, told me, he would put in on the coast of Cochinchina, or the bay of Tonquin; intending to go afterwards to Macao, a town once in the possession or the Portuguese, and where still a great many European families resided, and particularly the missionary priests usually went thither, in order to their going forward to China.

Hither we then resolved to go; and accordingly, though alter a tedious and irregular course, and very much straitened for provisions, we came within sight of the coast very early in the morning; and upon reflection upon the past circumstances we were in, and the danger, if we had not escaped, we resolved to put into a small river, which, however, had depth enough of water for us, and to see if we could, either overland or by the ship's pinnace, come to know what ships were in any port thereabouts. This happy step was, indeed, our deliverance; for though we did not immediately see any European ships in the bay of Tonquin, yet the next morning there came into the bay two Dutch ships; and a third without any colours; spread out, but which we believed to be a Dutchman, passed by at about two leagues distance, steering for the coast of China; and in the afternoon went by two English ships, steering the same course; and thus we thought we saw ourselves beset with enemies, both one way and the other. The place we were in was wild and barbarous, the people thieves, even by occupation or profession; and though, it is true, we had not much to seek of them, and except getting a few provisions, cared not how little we had to do with them; yet it was with much difficulty that we kept ourselves from being insulted by them several ways.

We were in a small river of this country, within a few leagues of its utmost limits northward, and by our boat we coasted north-east to the point of land which opens to the great bay of Tonquin: and it was in this beating up along the shore that we discovered as above, that, in a word, we were surrounded with enemies. The people we were among were the most barbarous of all the inhabitants of the coast; having no correspondence with any other nation, and dealing only in fish and oil, and such gross commodities; and it may be particularly seen that they are, as I said, the most barbarous of any of the inhabitants, viz. that among other customs they have this one, that if any vessel had the misfortune to be shipwrecked upon their coast, they presently make the men all prisoners; that is to say, slaves; and it was not long before we found a spice of their kindness this way, on the occasion following:

I have observed above that our ship sprung a leak at sea, and that we could not find it out: and however it happened, that, as I have said, it was stopped unexpectedly, in the happy minute of our being to be seized by the Dutch and English ships, near the bay of Siam; yet, as we did not find the ship so perfectly tight and sound as we desired, we resolved, while we were in this place, to lay her on shore, take out what heavy things we had on hoard, which were not many, and to wash and clean her bottom, and if possible to find out where the leaks were.

Accordingly, having lightened the ship, and brought all our guns, and other moveable things, to one side, we tried to bring her down, that we might come at her bottom; for, on second thoughts, we did not care to lay her dry aground, neither could we find out a proper place for it.

The inhabitants, who had never been acquainted with such a sight, came wondering down to the shore to look at us; and seeing the ship lie down on one side in such a manner, and heeling towards the shore, and not seeing our men, who were at work on her bottom with stages, and with their boats, on the off side, they presently concluded that the ship was cast away, and lay so very fast on the ground.

On this supposition they came all about us in two or three hours time, with ten or twelve large boats, having some of them eight, some ten men in a boat, intending, no doubt, to have come on board and plunder the ship; and if they had found us there, to have carried us away for slaves to their king, or whatever they call him, for we knew not who was their governor.

When they came up to the ship, and began to row round her, they discovered us all hard at work, on the outside of the ship's bottom and side, washing, and graving, and stopping, as every seafaring man knows how.

They stood for awhile gazing at us, and we, who were a little surprised, could not imagine what their design was; but being willing to be sure, we took this opportunity to get some of us into the ship, and others to hand down arms and ammunition to those that were at work to defend themselves with, if there should be occasion; and it was no more than need; for in less than a quarter of an hour's consultation, they agreed, it seems, that the ship was really a wreck; that we were all at work endeavouring to save her, or to save our lives by the help of our boats; and when we handed our arms into the boats, they concluded by that motion that we were endeavouring to save some of our goods. Upon this they took it for granted they all belonged to them, and away they came directly upon our men, as if it had been in a line of battle.

Our men seeing so many of them began to be frighted, for we lay but in an ill posture to fight, and cried out to us to know what they should do? I immediately called to the men who worked upon the stages, to slip them down and get up the side into the ship, and bade those in the boat to row round and come on board; and those few of us who were on board worked with all the strength and hands we had to bring the ship to rights; but, however, neither the men upon the stage, nor those in the boats, could do as they were ordered, before the Cochinchinese were upon them, and with two of their boats boarded our long-boat, and began to lay hold of the men as their prisoners.

The first man they laid hold of was an English seaman, a stout, strong fellow, who having a musket in his hand, never offered to fire it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool as I thought. But he understood his business better than I could teach him; for he grappled the Pagan, and dragged him by main force out of their own boat into ours; where taking him by the two ears, he beat his head so against the boat's gunnel, that the fellow died instantly in his hands; and in the mean time a Dutchman, who stood next, took up the musket, and with the but-end of it so laid about him, that he knocked down five of them who attempted to enter the boat. But this was little towards resisting thirty or forty men, who fearless, because ignorant of their danger, began to throw themselves into the long-boat, where we had but five men to defend it. But one accident gave our men a complete victory, which deserved our laughter rather than any thing else, and that was this:—

Our carpenter being prepared to grave the outside of the ship, as well as to pay the seams where he had caulked her to stop the leaks, had got two kettles just let down into the boat; one filled with boiling pitch, and the other with rosin, tallow, and oil, and such stuff as the shipwrights used for that work; and the man that tended the carpenter had a great iron ladle in his hand, with which he supplied the men that were at work with that hot stuff: two of the enemy's men entered the boat just where this fellow stood, being in the fore-sheets; he immediately sainted them with a ladleful of the stuff, boiling hot, which so burnt and scalded them, being half naked, that they roared out like two bulls, and, enraged with the fire, leaped both into the sea. The carpenter saw it, and cried out, "Well done, Jack, give them some more of it;" when stepping forward himself, he takes one of their mops, and dipping it in the pitch-pot, he and his man threw it among them so plentifully, that, in short, of all the men in three boats, there was not one that was not scalded and burnt with it in a most frightful, pitiful manner, and made such a howling and crying, that I never heard a worse noise, and, indeed, nothing like it; for it was worth observing, that though pain naturally makes all people cry out, yet every nation have a particular way of exclamation, and make noises as different from one another as their speech. I cannot give the noise these creatures made a better name than howling, nor a name more proper to the tone of it; for I never heard any thing more like the noise of the wolves, which, as I have said, I heard howl in the forest on the frontiers of Languedoc.

I was never pleased with a victory better in my life; not only as it was a perfect surprise to me, and that our danger was imminent before; but as we got this victory without any bloodshed, except of that man the fellow killed with his naked hands, and which I was very much concerned at; for I was sick of killing such poor savage wretches, even though it was in my own defence, knowing they came on errands which they thought just, and knew no better; and that though it may be a just thing, because necessary, for there is no necessary wickedness in nature; yet I thought it was a sad life, when we must be always obliged to be killing our fellow-creatures to preserve ourselves; and, indeed, I think so still; and I would, even now, suffer a great deal, rather than I would take away the life even of the worst person injuring me. I believe also, all considering people, who know the value of life, would be of my opinion, if they entered seriously into the consideration of it.

But to return to my story. All the while this was doing, my partner and I, who managed the rest of the men on board, had, with great dexterity, brought the ship almost to rights; and, having gotten the guns into their places again, the gunner called to me to bid our boat get out of the way, for he would let fly among them. I called back again to him, and bid him not offer to fire, for the carpenter would do the work without him; but bade him heat another pitch-kettle, which our cook, who was on board, took care of. But the enemy was so terrified with what they met with in their first attack, that they would not come on again; and some of them that were farthest off, seeing the ship swim, as it were, upright, began, as we supposed, to see their mistake, and gave over the enterprise, finding it was not as they expected. Thus we got clear of this merry fight; and having gotten some rice, and some roots and bread, with about sixteen good big hogs on board two days before, we resolved to stay here no longer, out go forward, whatever came of it; for we made no doubt but we should be surrounded the next day with rogues enough, perhaps more than our pitch-kettle would dispose of for us.

We therefore got all our things on board the same evening, and the next morning were ready to sail. In the meantime, lying at an anchor some distance from the shore, we were not so much concerned, being now in a lighting posture, as well as in a sailing posture, if any enemy had presented. The next day, having finished our work within board, and finding our ship was perfectly healed of all her leaks, we set sail. We would have gone into the bay of Tonquin, for we wanted to inform ourselves of what was to be known concerning the Dutch ships that had been there; but we durst not stand in there, because we had seen several ships go in, as we supposed, but a little before; so we kept on N.E. towards the isle of Formosa, as much afraid of being seen by a Dutch or English merchant-ship, as a Dutch or English merchant-ship in the Mediterranean is of an Algerine man of war.

When we were thus got to sea, we kept on N.E. as if we would go to the Manillas or the Philippine islands, and this we did, that we might not fall into the way of any of the European ships; and then we steered north again, till we came to the latitude of 22 degrees 20 minutes, by which means we made the island of Formosa directly, where we came to an anchor, in order to get water and fresh provisions, which the people there, who are very courteous and civil in their manners, supplied us with willingly, and dealt very fairly and punctually with us in all their agreements and bargains, which is what we did not find among other people, and may be owing to the remains of Christianity, which was once planted here by a Dutch mission of Protestants, and is a testimony of what I have often observed, viz. that the Christian religion always civilizes the people and reforms their manners, where it is received, whether it works saving effects upon them or not.

From hence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of China at an equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of China where our European ships usually come: but being resolved, if possible, not to fall into any of their hands, especially in this country, where, as our circumstances were, we could not fail of being entirely ruined; nay, so great was my fear in particular, as to my being taken by them, that I believe firmly I would much rather have chosen to fall into the hands of the Spanish Inquisition.

Being now come to the latitude of 30 degrees, we resolved to put into the first trading port we should come at, and standing in for the shore, a boat came off two leagues to us, with an old Portuguese pilot on board, who, knowing us to be an European ship, came to offer his service, which indeed we were very glad of, and took him on board; upon which, without asking us whither we would go, he dismissed the boat he came in, and sent it back.

I thought it was now so much in our choice to make the old man carry us whither we would, that I began to talk with him about carrying us to the gulf of Nanquin, which is the most northern part of the coast of China. The old man said he knew the gulf of Nanquin very well; but smiling, asked us what we would do there?

I told him we would sell our cargo, and purchase China wares, calicoes, raw silks, tea, wrought silks, &c. and so would return by the same course we came. He told us our best port had been to have put in at Macao, where we could not fail of a market for our opium to our satisfaction, and might, for our money, have purchased all sorts of China goods as cheap as we could at Nanquin.

Not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of which he was very opinionated, or conceited, I told him we were gentlemen as well as merchants, and that we had a mind to go and see the great city of Pekin, and the famous court of the monarch of China. "Why then," says the old man, "you should go to Ningpo, where, by the river that runs into the sea there, you may go up within five leagues of the great canal. This canal is a navigable made stream, which goes through the heart of all that vast empire of China, crosses all the rivers, passes some considerable hills by the help of sluices and gates, and goes up to the city of Pekin, being in length near two hundred and seventy leagues."

"Well," said I, "Seignior Portuguese, but that is not our business now; the great question is, if you can carry us up to the city of Nanquin, from whence we can travel to Pekin afterwards?" Yes, he said, he could do so very well, and there was a great Dutch ship gone up that way just before. This gave me a little shock; a Dutch ship was now our terror, and we had much rather have met the devil, at least if he had not come in too frightful a figure; we depended upon it that a Dutch ship would be our destruction, for we were in no condition to fight them; all the ships they trade with in those parts being of great burden, and of much greater force than we were.

The old man found me a little confused, and under some concern, when he named a Dutch ship: and said to me, "Sir, you need be under no apprehension of the Dutch; I suppose they are not now at war with your nation."—"No," said I, "that's true; but I know not what liberties men may take when they are out of the reach of the laws of their country."—"Why," said he, "you are no pirates, what need you fear? They will not meddle with peaceable merchants, sure."

If I had any blood in my body that did not fly up into my face at that word, it was hindered by some stop in the vessels appointed by nature to circulate it; for it put me into the greatest disorder and confusion imaginable; nor was it possible for me to conceal it so, but that the old man easily perceived it.

"Sir," said he, "I find you are in some disorder in your thoughts at my talk; pray be pleased to go which way you think fit, and depend upon it I'll do you all the service I can."—"Why, Seignior," said I, "it is true, I am a little unsettled in my resolution at this time, whither to go in particular; and I am something more so for what you said about pirates. I hope there are no pirates in these seas; we are but in an ill condition to meet with them; for you see we have but a small force, and but very weakly manned."

"O Sir," said he, "do not be concerned; I do not know that there have been any pirates in these seas these fifteen years, except one, which was seen, as I hear, in the bay of Siam, about a month since; but you may be assured she is gone to the southward; nor was she a ship of any great force, or fit for the work; she was not built for a privateer, but was run away with by a reprobate crew that were on board, after the captain and some of his men had been murdered by the Malaccans, at or near the island of Sumatra."

"What!" said I, seeming to know nothing of the matter, "did they murder the captain?"—"No," said he, "I do not understand that they murdered him; but as they afterwards ran away with the ship, it is generally believed they betrayed him into the hands of the Malaccans, who did murder him; and, perhaps, they procured them to do it."—"Why then," said I, "they deserved death, as much as if they had done it themselves."—"Nay," said the old man, "they do deserve it, and they will certainly have it if they light upon any English or Dutch ship; for they have all agreed together that if they meet that rogue they will give him no quarter."

"But," said I to him, "you say the pirate is gone out of these seas; how can they meet with him then?"—"Why, that is true," said he, "they do say so; but he was, as I tell you, in the bay of Siam, in the river Cambodia, and was discovered there by some Dutchmen who belonged to the ship, and who were left on shore when they ran away with her; and some English and Dutch traders being in the river, they were within a little of taking him. Nay," said he, "if the foremost boats had been well seconded by the rest, they had certainly taken him; but he finding only two boats within reach of him, tacked about, and fired at these two, and disabled them before the others came up; and then standing off to sea, the others were not able to follow him, and so he got away. But they have all so exact a description of the ship, that they will be sure to know him; and where-ever they find him, they have vowed to give no quarter to either the captain or the seamen, but to hang them all up at the yard-arm."

"What!" said I, "will they execute them, right or wrong; hang them first, and judge them afterwards?"—"O Sir!" said the old pilot, "there is no need to make a formal business of it with such rogues as those; let them tie them back to back, and set them a-diving; it is no more than they rightly deserve."

I knew I had my old man fast aboard, and that he could do me no harm; so I turned short upon him. "Well, Seignior," said I, "and this is the very reason why I would have you carry us to Nanquin, and not to put back to Macao, or to any other part of the country where the English or Dutch ships came; for be it known to you, Seignior, those captains of the English and Dutch ships are a parcel of rash, proud, insolent fellows, that neither know what belongs to justice, or how to behave themselves as the laws of God and nature direct; but being proud of their offices, and not understanding their power, they would get the murderers to punish robbers; would take upon them to insult men falsely accused, and determine them guilty without due inquiry; and perhaps I may live to call some of them to an account of it, where they may be taught how justice is to be executed; and that no man ought to be treated as a criminal till some evidence may be had of the crime, and that he is the man."

With this I told him, that this was the very ship they had attacked; and gave him a full account of the skirmish we had with their boats, and how foolishly and coward-like they had behaved. I told him all the story of our buying the ship, and how the Dutchmen served us. I told him the reasons I had to believe that this story of killing the master by the Malaccans was not true; as also the running away with the ship; but that it was all a fiction of their own, to suggest that the men were turned pirates; and they ought to have been sure it was so, before they had ventured to attack us by surprise, and oblige us so resist them; adding, that they would have the blood of those men who were killed there, in our just defence, to answer for.

The old man was amazed at this relation; and told us, we were very much in the right to go away to the north; and that if he might advise us, it should be to sell the ship in China, which we might very well do, and buy or build another in the country; "And," said he, "though you will not get so good a ship, yet you may get one able enough to carry you and all your goods back again to Bengal, or any where else."

I told him I would take his advice when I came to any port where I could find a ship for my turn, or get any customer to buy this. He replied, I should meet with customers enough for the ship at Nanquin, and that a Chinese junk would serve me very well to go back again; and that he would procure me people both to buy one and sell the other.

"Well, but, Seignior," says I, "as you say they know the ship so well, I may, perhaps, if I follow your measures, be instrumental to bring some honest innocent men into a terrible broil, and, perhaps, be murdered in cold blood; for wherever they find the ship they will prove the guilt upon the men by proving this was the ship, and so innocent men may probably be overpowered and murdered."—"Why," said the old man, "I'll find out a way to prevent that also; for as I know all those commanders you speak of very well, and shall see them all as they pass by, I will be sure to set them to rights in the thing, and let them know that they had been so much in the wrong; that though the people who were on board at first might run away with the ship, yet it was not true that they had turned pirates; and that in particular those were not the men that first went off with the ship, but innocently bought her for their trade; and I am persuaded they will so far believe me, as, at least, to act more cautiously for the time to come."—"Well," said I, "and will you deliver one message to them from me?"—"Yes, I will," says he, "if you will give it under your hand in writing, that I may be able to prove it came from you, and not out of my own head." I answered, that I would readily give it him under my hand. So I took a pen and ink, and paper, and wrote at large the story of assaulting me with the long-boats, &c. the pretended reason of it, and the unjust, cruel design of it; and concluded to the commanders that they had done what they not only should have been ashamed or, but also, that if ever they came to England, and I lived to see them there, they should all pay dearly for it, if the laws of my country were not grown out of use before I arrived there.

My old pilot read this over and over again, and asked me several times if I would stand to it. I answered, I would stand to it as long as I had any thing left in the world; being sensible that I should, one time or other, find an opportunity to put it home to them. But we had no occasion ever to let the pilot carry this letter, for he never went back again. While those things were passing between us, by way of discourse, we went forward directly for Nanquin, and, in about thirteen days sail, came to anchor at the south-west point of the great gulf of Nanquin; where, by the way, I came by accident to understand, that the two Dutch ships were gone that length before me, and that I should certainly fall into their hands. I consulted my partner again in this exigency, and he was as much at a loss as I was, and would very gladly have been safe on shore almost any where. However, I was not in such perplexity neither, but I asked the old pilot if there was no creek or harbour, which I might put into, and pursue my business with the Chinese privately, and be in no danger of the enemy. He told me if I would sail to the southward about two-and-forty leagues, there was a little port called Quinchang, where the fathers of the mission usually landed from Macao, on their progress to teach the Christian religion to the Chinese, and where no European ships ever put in: and, if I thought proper to put in there, I might consider what farther course to take when I was on shore. He confessed, he said, it was not a place for merchants, except that at some certain times they had a kind of a fair there, when the merchants from Japan came over thither to buy the Chinese merchandises.

We all agreed to go back to this place: the name of the port, as he called it, I may, perhaps, spell wrong, for I do not particularly remember it, having lost this, together with the names of many other places set down in a little pocket-book, which was spoiled by the water, on an accident which I shall relate in its order; but this I remember, that the Chinese or Japanese merchants we correspond with call it by a different name from that which our Portuguese pilot gave it, and pronounced it as above, Quinchang.

As we were unanimous in our resolutions to go to this place, we weighed the next day, having only gone twice on shore, where we were to get fresh water; on both which occasions the people of the country were very civil to us, and brought us abundance of things to sell to us; I mean of provisions, plants, roots, tea, rice, and some fowls; but nothing without money.

We came to the other port (the wind being contrary) not till five days; but it was very much to our satisfaction, and I was joyful, and I may say thankful, when I set my foot safe on shore, resolving, and my partner too, that if it was possible to dispose of ourselves and effects any other way, though not every way to our satisfaction, we would never set one foot on board that unhappy vessel again: and indeed I must acknowledge, that of all the circumstances of life that ever I had any experience of, nothing makes mankind so completely miserable as that of being in constant fear. Well does the Scripture say, "The fear of man brings a snare;" it is a life of death, and the mind is so entirely suppressed by it, that it is capable of no relief; the animal spirits sink, and all the vigour of nature, which usually supports men under other afflictions, and is present to them in the greatest exigencies, fails them here.

Nor did it fail of its usual operations upon the fancy, by heightening every danger; representing the English and Dutch captains to be men incapable of hearing reason, or distinguishing between honest men and rogues; or between a story calculated for our own turn, made out of nothing, on purpose to deceive, and a true genuine account of our whole voyage, progress, and design; for we might many ways have convinced any reasonable creature that we were not pirates; the goods we had on board, the course we steered, our frankly shewing ourselves, and entering into such and such ports; even our very manner, the force we had, the number of men, the few arms, little ammunition, and short provisions; all these would have served to convince any man that we were no pirates. The opium, and other goods we had on board, would make it appear the ship had been at Bengal; the Dutchmen, who, it was said, had the names of all the men that were in the ship, might easily see that we were a mixture of English, Portuguese, and Indians, and but two Dutchmen on board. These, and many other particular circumstances, might have made it evident to the understanding of any commander, whose hands we might fall into, that we were no pirates.

But fear, that blind useless passion, worked another way, and threw us into the vapours; it bewildered our understandings, and set the imagination at work, to form a thousand terrible things, that, perhaps, might never happen. We first supposed, as indeed every body had related to us, that the seamen on board the English and Dutch ships, but especially the Dutch, were so enraged at the name of a pirate, and especially at our beating off their boats, and escaping, that they would not give themselves leave to inquire whether we were pirates or no; but would execute us off-hand, as we call it, without giving us any room for a defence. We reflected that there was really so much apparent evidence before them, that they would scarce inquire after any more: as, first, that the ship was certainly the same, and that some of the seamen among them knew her, and had been on board her; and, secondly, that when we had intelligence at the river Cambodia, that they were coming down to examine us, we fought their boats, and fled: so that we made no doubt but they were as fully satisfied of our being pirates as we were satisfied of the contrary; and I often said, I knew not but I should have been apt to have taken the like circumstances for evidence, if the tables were turned, and my case was theirs; and have made no scruple of cutting all the crew to pieces, without believing, or perhaps considering, what they might have to offer in their defence.

But let that be how it will, those were our apprehensions; and both my partner and I too scarce slept a night without dreaming of halters and yard-arms; that is to say, gibbets; of fighting, and being taken; of killing, and being killed; and one night I was in such a fury in my dream, fancying the Dutchmen had boarded us, and I was knocking one of their seamen down, that I struck my double fist against the side of the cabin I lay in, with such a force as wounded my hand most gievously, broke my knuckles, and cut and bruised the flesh, so that it not only waked me out of my sleep, but I was once afraid I should have lost two of my fingers.

Another apprehension I had, was, of the cruel usage we should meet with from them, if we fell into their hands: then the story of Amboyna came into my head, and how the Dutch might, perhaps, torture us, as they did our countrymen there; and make some of our men, by extremity of torture, confess those crimes they never were guilty of; own themselves, and all of us, to be pirates; and so they would put us to death, with a formal appearance of justice; and that they might be tempted to do this for the gain of our ship and cargo, which was worth four or five thousand pounds, put all together.

These things tormented me, and my partner too, night and day; nor did we consider that the captains of ships have no authority to act thus; and if we had surrendered prisoners to them, they could not answer the destroying us, or torturing us, but would be accountable for it when they came into their own country. This, I say, gave me no satisfaction; for, if they will act thus with us, what advantage would it be to us that they would be called to an account for it? or, if we were first to be murdered, what satisfaction would it be to us to have them punished when they came home?

I cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections I now had upon the past variety of my particular circumstances; how hard I thought it was, that I, who had spent forty years in a life of continued difficulties, and was at last come, as it were, at the port or haven which all men drive at, viz. to have rest and plenty, should be a volunteer in new sorrows, by my own unhappy choice; and that I, who had escaped so many dangers in my youth, should now come to be hanged, in my old age, and in so remote a place, for a crime I was not in the least inclined to, much less guilty of; and in a place and circumstance, where innocence was not like to be any protection at all to me.

After these thoughts, something of religion would come in; and I would be considering that this seemed to me to be a disposition of immediate Providence; and I ought to look upon it, and submit to it as such: that although I was innocent as to men, I was far from being innocent as to my Maker; and I ought to look in, and examine what other crimes in my life were most obvious to me, and for which Providence might justly inflict this punishment as a retribution; and that I ought to submit to this, just as I would to a shipwreck, if it had pleased God to have brought such a disaster upon me.

In its turn, natural courage would sometimes take its place; and then I would be talking myself up to vigorous resolution, that I would not be taken to be barbarously used by a parcel of merciless wretches in cold blood; that it was much better to have fallen into the hands of the savages, who were men-eaters, and who, I was sure, would feast upon me, when they had taken me, than by those who would perhaps glut their rage upon me by inhuman tortures and barbarities: that, in the case of the savages, I always resolved to die fighting to the last gasp; and why should I not do so now, seeing it was much more dreadful, to me at least, to think of falling into these men's hands, than ever it was to think of being eaten by men? for the savages, give them their due, would not eat a man till he was dead; and killed him first, as we do a bullock; but that these men had many arts beyond the cruelty of death. Whenever these thoughts prevailed I was sure to put myself into a kind of fever, with the agitations of a supposed fight; my blood would boil, and my eyes sparkle, as if I was engaged; and I always resolved that I would take no quarter at their hands; but even at last, if I could resist no longer, I would blow up the ship, and all that was in her, and leave them but little booty to boast of.

But by how much the greater weight the anxieties and perplexities of those things were to our thoughts while we were at sea, by so much the greater was our satisfaction when we saw ourselves on shore; and my partner told me he dreamed that he had a very heavy load upon his back, which he was to carry up a hill, and found that he was not able to stand long under it; but the Portuguese pilot came, and took it off his back, and the hill disappeared, the ground before him shewing all smooth and plain: and truly it was so; we were all like men who had a load taken off their backs.

For my part, I had a weight taken off from my heart, that I was not able any longer to bear; and, as I said above, we resolved to go no more to sea in that ship. When we came on shore, the old pilot, who was now our friend, got us a lodging, and a warehouse for our goods, which, by the way, was much the same: it was a little house, or hut, with a large house joining to it, all built with canes, and palisadoed round with large canes, to keep out pilfering thieves, of which it seems there were not a few in the country. However, the magistrates allowed us all a little guard, and we had a soldier with a kind of halbert, or half-pike, who stood sentinel at our door, to whom we allowed a pint of rice, and a little piece of money, about the value of three-pence, per day: so that our goods were kept very safe.

The fair or mart usually kept in this place had been over some time; however, we found that there were three or four junks in the river, and two Japanners, I mean ships from Japan, with goods which they had bought in China, and were not gone away, having Japanese merchants on shore.

The first thing our old Portuguese pilot did for us was to bring us acquainted with three missionary Romish priests, who were in the town, and who had been there some time, converting the people to Christianity; but we thought they made but poor work of it, and made them but sorry Christians when they had done. However, that was not our business. One of these was a Frenchman, whom they called Father Simon; he was a jolly well-conditioned man, very free in his conversation, not seeming so serious and grave as the other two did, one of whom was a Portuguese, and the other a Genoese: but Father Simon was courteous, easy in his manner, and very agreeable company; the other two were more reserved, seemed rigid and austere, and applied seriously to the work they came about, viz. to talk with, and insinuate themselves among the inhabitants wherever they had opportunity. We often ate and drank with those men; and though I must confess, the conversion, as they call it, of the Chinese to Christianity, is so far from the true conversion required to bring heathen people to the faith of Christ, that it seems to amount to little more than letting them know the name of Christ, say some prayers to the Virgin Mary and her Son, in a tongue which they understand not, and to cross themselves, and the like; yet it must be confessed that these religious, whom we call missionaries, have a firm belief that these people should be saved, and that they are the instrument of it; and, on this account, they undergo not only the fatigue of the voyage, and hazards of living in such places, but oftentimes death itself, with the most violent tortures, for the sake of this work: and it would be a great want of charity in us, whatever opinion we have of the work itself, and the manner of their doing it, if we should not have a good opinion of their zeal, who undertake it with so many hazards, and who have no prospect of the least temporal advantage to themselves.

But to return to my story: This French priest, Father Simon, was appointed, it seems, by order of the chief of the mission, to go up to Pekin, the royal seat of the Chinese emperor; and waited only for another priest, who was ordered to come to him from Macao, to go along with him; and we scarce ever met together but he was inviting me to go that journey with him, telling me, how he would shew me all the glorious things of that mighty empire; and among the rest the greatest city in the world; "A city," said he, "that your London and our Paris put together cannot he equal to." This was the city of Pekin, which, I confess, is very great, and infinitely full of people; but as I looked on those things with different eyes from other men, so I shall give my opinion of them in few words when I come in the course of my travels to speak more particularly of them.

But first I come to my friar or missionary: dining with him one day, and being very merry together, I showed some little inclination to go with him; and he pressed me and my partner very hard, and with a great many persuasions, to consent. "Why, Father Simon," says my partner, "why should you desire our company so much? You know we are heretics, and you do not love us, nor can keep us company with any pleasure."—"O!" says he, "you may, perhaps, be good Catholics in time; my business here is to convert heathens, and who knows but I may convert you too?"—"Very well, Father," said I, "so you will preach to us all the way."—"I won't be troublesome to you," said he; "our religion does not divest us of good manners; besides," said he, "we are all here like countrymen; and so we are, compared to the place we are in; and if you are Hugonots, and I a Catholic, we may be all Christians at last; at least," said he, "we are all gentlemen, and we may converse so, without being uneasy to one another." I liked that part of his discourse very well, and it began to put me in mind of my priest that I had left in the Brasils; but this Father Simon did not come up to his character by a great deal; for though Father Simon had no appearance of a criminal levity in him neither, yet he had not that fund of Christian zeal, strict piety, and sincere affection to religion, that my other good ecclesiastic had, of whom I have said so much.

But to leave him a little, though he never left us, nor soliciting us to go with him, but we had something else before us at that time; for we had all this while our ship and our merchandise to dispose of; and we began to be very doubtful what we should do, for we were now in a place of very little business; and once I was about to venture to sail for the river of Kilam, and the city of Nanquin: but Providence seemed now more visibly, as I thought, than ever, to concern itself in our affairs; and I was encouraged from this very time to think I should, one way or other, get out of this entangled circumstance, and be brought home to my own country again, though I had not the least view of the manner; and when I began sometimes to think of it, could not imagine by what method it was to be done. Providence, I say, began here to clear up our way a little; and the first thing that offered was, that our old Portuguese pilot brought a Japan merchant to us, who began to inquire what goods we had; and, in the first place, he bought all our opium, and gave us a very good price for it, paying us in gold by weight, some in small pieces of their own coin, and some in small wedges, of about ten or eleven ounces each. While we were dealing with him for our opium, it came into my head that he might, perhaps, deal with us for the ship too; and I ordered the interpreter to propose it to him. He shrunk up his shoulders at it, when it was first proposed to him; but in a few days after he came to me, with one of the missionary priests for his interpreter, and told me he had a proposal to make to me, and that was this: he had bought a great quantity of goods of us when he had no thoughts (or proposals made to him) of buying the ship, and that, therefore, he had not money enough to pay for the ship; but if I would let the same men who were in the ship navigate her, he would hire the ship to go to Japan, and would send them from thence to the Philippine islands with another loading, which he would pay the freight of before they went from Japan; and that, at their return, he would buy the ship. I began to listen to this proposal; and so eager did my head still run upon rambling, that I could not but begin to entertain a notion myself of going with him, and so to sail from the Philippine islands away to the South Seas; and accordingly I asked the Japanese merchant if he would not hire us to the Philippine islands, and discharge us there. He said, no, he could not do that, for then he could not have the return of his cargo; but he would discharge us in Japan, he said, at the ship's return. Well, still I was for taking him at that proposal, and going myself; but my partner, wiser than myself, persuaded me from it, representing the dangers, as well of the seas, as of the Japanese, who are a false, cruel, treacherous people; and then of the Spaniards at the Philippines, more false, more cruel, more treacherous than they.

But, to bring this long turn of our affairs to a conclusion, the first thing we had to do was to consult with the captain of the ship, and with the men, and know if they were willing to go to Japan; and, while I was doing this, the young man whom, as I said, my nephew had left with me as my companion for my travels, came to me and told me that he thought that voyage promised very fair, and that there was a great prospect of advantage, and he would be very glad if I undertook it; but that if I would not, and would give him leave, he would go as a merchant, or how I pleased to order him; and if ever he came to England, and I was there, and alive, he would render me a faithful account of his success, and it should be as much mine as I pleased.

I was really loath to part with him; but considering the prospect of advantage, which was really considerable, and that he was a young fellow as likely to do well in it as any I knew, I inclined to let him go; but first I told him, I would consult my partner, and give him an answer the next day. My partner and I discoursed about it, and my partner made a most generous offer: he told me, "You know it has been an unlucky ship, and we both resolve not to go to sea in it again; if your steward (so he called my man) will venture the voyage, I'll leave my share of the vessel to him, and let him make the best of it; and if we live to meet in England, and he meets with success abroad, he shall account for one half of the profits of the ship's freight to us, the other shall be his own."

If my partner, who was no way concerned with my young man, made him such an offer, I could do no less than offer him the same; and all the ship's company being willing to go with him, we made over half the ship to him in property, and took a writing from him, obliging him to account for the other; and away he went to Japan. The Japan merchant proved a very punctual honest man to him, protected him at Japan, and got him a licence to come on shore, which the Europeans in general have not lately obtained, paid him his freight very punctually, sent him to the Philippines, loaded him with Japan and China wares, and a supercargo of their own, who trafficking with the Spaniards, brought back European goods again, and a great quantity of cloves and other spice; and there he was not only paid his freight very well, and at a very good price, but being not willing to sell the ship then, the merchant furnished him with goods on his own account; that for some money and some spices of his own, which he brought with him, he went back to the Manillas, to the Spaniards, where he sold his cargo very well. Here, having gotten a good acquaintance at Manilla, he got his ship made a free ship; and the governor of Manilla hired him to go to Acapulco in America, on the coast of Mexico; and gave him a licence to land there, and travel to Mexico; and to pass in any Spanish ship to Europe, with all his men.

He made the voyage to Acapulco very happily, and there he sold his ship; and having there also obtained allowance to travel by land to Porto Bello, he found means, some how or other, to go to Jamaica with all his treasure; and about eight years after came to England, exceeding rich; of which I shall take notice in its place; in the mean time, I return to our particular affairs.

Being now to part with the ship and ship's company, it came before us, of course, to consider what recompense we should give to the two men that gave us such timely notice of the design against us in the river of Cambodia. The truth was, they had done us a considerable service, and deserved well at our hands; though, by the way, they were a couple of rogues too: for, as they believed the story of our being pirates, and that we had really run away with the ship, they came down to us, not only to betray the design that was formed against us, but to go to sea with us as pirates; and one of them confessed afterwards, that nothing else but the hopes of going a-roguing brought him to do it. However, the service they did us was not the less; and therefore, as I had promised to be grateful to them, I first ordered the money to be paid to them, which they said was due to them on board their respective ships; that is to say, the Englishman nineteen months pay, and to the Dutchman seven; and, over and above that, I gave each of them a small sum of money in gold, which contented them very well: then I made the Englishman gunner of the ship, the gunner being now made second mate and purser; the Dutchman I made boatswain: so they were both very well pleased, and proved very serviceable, being both able seamen, and very stout fellows.

We were now on shore in China. If I thought myself banished, and remote from my own country at Bengal, where I had many ways to get home for my money, what could I think of myself now, when I was gotten about a thousand leagues farther off from home, and perfectly destitute of all manner of prospect of return!

All we had for it was this, that in about four months time there was to be another fair at that place where we were, and then we might be able to purchase all sorts of the manufactures of the country, and withal might possibly find some Chinese junks or vessels from Nanquin, that would be to be sold, and would carry us and our goods whither we pleased. This I liked very well, and resolved to wait; besides, as our particular persons were not obnoxious, so if any English or Dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have an opportunity to load our goods, and get passage to some other place in India nearer home.

Upon these hopes we resolved to continue here; but, to divert ourselves, we took two or three journies into the country; first, we went ten days journey to see the city of Nanquin, a city well worth seeing indeed: they say it has a million of people in it; which, however, I do not believe: it is regularly built, the streets all exactly straight, and cross one another in direct lines, which gives the figure of it great advantage.

But when I came to compare the miserable people of these countries with ours; their fabrics, their manner of living, their government, their religion, their wealth, and their glory, (as some call it) I must confess, I do not so much as think it worth naming, or worth my while to write of, or any that shall come after me to read.

It is very observable, that we wonder at the grandeur, the riches, the pomp, the ceremonies, the government, the manufactures, the commerce, and the conduct of these people; not that they are to be wondered at, or, indeed, in the least to be regarded; but because, having first a notion of the barbarity of those countries, the rudeness and the ignorance that prevail there, we do not expect to find any such things so far off.

Otherwise, what are their buildings to the palaces and royal buildings of Europe? What their trade to the universal commerce of England, Holland, France, and Spain? What their cities to ours, for wealth, strength, gaiety of apparel, rich furniture, and an infinite variety? What are their ports, supplied with a few junks and barks, to our navigation, our merchants' fleets, our large and powerful navies? Our city of London has more trade than all their mighty empire. One English, or Dutch, or French man of war of eighty guns, would fight with and destroy all the shipping of China. But the greatness of their wealth, their trade, the power of their government, and strength of their armies are surprising to us, because, as I have said, considering them as a barbarous nation of pagans, little better than savages, we did not expect such things among them; and this, indeed, is the advantage with which all their greatness and power is represented to us: otherwise, it is in itself nothing at all; for, as I have said of their ships, so it may be said of their armies and troops; all the forces of their empire, though they were to bring two millions of men into the field together, would be able to do nothing but ruin the country and starve themselves. If they were to besiege a strong town in Flanders, or to fight a disciplined army, one line of German cuirassiers, or of French cavalry, would overthrow all the horse of China; a million of their foot could not stand before one embattled body of our infantry, posted so as not to be surrounded, though they were not to be one to twenty in number: nay, I do not boast if I say, that 30,000 German or English foot, and 10,000 French horse, would fairly beat all the forces of China. And so of our fortified towns, and of the art of our engineers, in assaulting and defending towns; there is not a fortified town in China could hold out one month against the batteries and attacks of an European army; and at the same time, all the armies of China could never take such a town as Dunkirk, provided it was not starved; no, not in ten years siege. They have fire-arms, it is true, but they are awkward, clumsy, and uncertain in going off; they have powder, but it is of no strength; they have neither discipline in the field, exercise in their arms, skill to attack, nor temper to retreat. And therefore I must confess it seemed strange to me when I came home, and heard our people say such fine things of the power, riches, glory, magnificence, and trade of the Chinese, because I saw and knew that they were a contemptible herd or crowd of ignorant, sordid slaves, subjected to a government qualified only to rule such a people; and, in a word, for I am now launched quite beside my design, I say, in a word, were not its distance inconceivably great from Muscovy, and were not the Muscovite empire almost as rude, impotent, and ill-governed a crowd of slaves as they, the czar of Muscovy might, with much ease, drive them all out of their country, and conquer them in one campaign; and had the czar, who I since hear is a growing prince, and begins to appear formidable in the world, fallen this way, instead of attacking the warlike Swedes, in which attempt none of the powers of Europe would have envied or interrupted him; he might, by this time, have been emperor of China, instead of being beaten by the king of Sweden at Narva, when the latter was not one to six in number. As their strength and their grandeur, so their navigation, commerce, and husbandry, are imperfect and impotent, compared to the same things in Europe. Also, in their knowledge, their learning, their skill in the sciences; they have globes and spheres, and a smatch of the knowledge of the mathematics; but when you come to inquire into their knowledge, how short-sighted are the wisest of their students! They know nothing of the motion of the heavenly bodies; and so grossly, absurdly ignorant, that when the sun is eclipsed, they think it is a great dragon has assaulted and run away with it; and they fall a-cluttering with all the drums and kettles in the country, to fright the monster away, just as we do to hive a swarm of bees.

As this is the only excursion of this kind which I have made in all the account I have given of my travels, so I shall make no more descriptions of countries and people: it is none of my business, or any part of my design; but giving an account of my own adventures, through a life of infinite wanderings, and a long variety of changes, which, perhaps, few have heard the like of, I shall say nothing of the mighty places, desert countries, and numerous people, I have yet to pass through, more than relates to my own story, and which my concern among them will make necessary. I was now, as near as I can compute, in the heart of China, about the latitude of thirty degrees north of the line, for we were returned from Nanquin; I had indeed a mind to see the city of Pekin, which I had heard so much of, and Father Simon importuned me daily to do it. At length his time of going away being set, and the other missionary, who was to go with him, being arrived from Macao, it was necessary that we should resolve either to go, or not to go; so I referred him to my partner, and left it wholly to his choice; who at length resolved it in the affirmative; and we prepared for our journey. We set out with very good advantage, as to finding the way; for we got leave to travel in the retinue of one of their mandarins, a kind of viceroy, or principal magistrate, in the province where they reside, and who take great state upon them, travelling with great attendance, and with great homage from the people, who are sometimes greatly impoverished by them, because all the countries they pass through are obliged to furnish provisions for them, and all their attendants. That which I particularly observed, as to our travelling with his baggage, was this; that though we received sufficient provisions, both for ourselves and our horses, from the country, as belonging to the mandarin, yet we were obliged to pay for every thing we had after the market-price of the country, and the mandarin's steward, or commissary of the provisions, collected it duly from us; so that our travelling in the retinue of the mandarin, though it was a very great kindness to us, was not such a mighty favour in him, but was, indeed, a great advantage to him, considering there were about thirty other people travelling in the same manner besides us, under the protection of his retinue, or, as we may call it, under his convoy. This, I say, was a great advantage to him; for the country furnished all the provisions for nothing, and he took all our money for them.

We were five-and-twenty days travelling to Pekin, through a country infinitely populous, but miserably cultivated; the husbandry, economy, and the way of living, all very miserable, though they boast so much of the industry of the people: I say miserable; and so it is; if we, who understand how to live, were to endure it, or to compare it with our own; but not so to these poor wretches, who know no other. The pride of these people is infinitely great, and exceeded by nothing but their poverty, which adds to that which I call their misery. I must needs think the naked savages of America live much more happy, because, as they have nothing, so they desire nothing; whereas these are proud and insolent, and, in the main, are mere beggars and drudges; their ostentation is inexpressible, and is chiefly shewed in their clothes and buildings, and in the keeping multitudes of servants or slaves, and, which is to the last degree ridiculous, their contempt of all the world but themselves.

I must confess, I travelled more pleasantly afterwards, in the deserts and vast wildernesses of Grand Tartary, than here; and yet the roads here are well paved and well kept, and very convenient for travellers: but nothing was more awkward to me, than to see such a haughty, imperious, insolent people, in the midst of the grossest simplicity and ignorance; for all their famed ingenuity is no more. My friend Father Simon, and I, used to be very merry upon these occasions, to see the beggarly pride of those people. For example, coming by the house of a country-gentleman, as Father Simon called him, about ten leagues off from the city of Nanquin, we had, first of all, the honour to ride with the master of the house about two miles; the state he rode in was a perfect Don Quixotism, being a mixture of pomp and poverty.

The habit of this greasy Don was very proper for a scaramouch, or merry-andrew; being a dirty calico, with all the tawdry trappings of a fool's coat, such as hanging sleeves, taffety, and cuts and slashes almost on every side: it covered a rich taffety vest, as greasy as a butcher, and which testified, that his honour must needs be a most exquisite sloven.

His horse was a poor, lean, starved, hobbling creature, such as in England might sell for about thirty or forty shillings; and he had two slaves followed him on foot, to drive the poor creature along: he had a whip in his hand, and he belaboured the beast as fast about the head as his slaves did about the tail; and thus he rode by us with about ten or twelve servants; and we were told he was going from the city to his country-seat, about half a league before us. We travelled on gently, but this figure of a gentleman rode away before us; and as we stopped at a village about an hour to refresh us, when we came by the country-seat of this great man, we saw him in a little place before his door, eating his repast; it was a kind of a garden, but he was easy to be seen; and we were given to understand, that the more we looked on him, the better he would be pleased.

He sat under a tree, something like the palmetto-tree, which effectually shaded him over the head, and on the south side; but under the tree also was placed a large umbrella, which made that part look well enough: he sat lolling back in a great elbow-chair, being a heavy corpulent man, and his meat being brought him by two women-slaves: he had two more, whose office, I think, few gentlemen in Europe would accept of their service in, viz. one fed the squire with a spoon, and the other held the dish with one hand, and scraped off what he let fall upon his worship's beard and taffety vest, with the other; while the great fat brute thought it below him to employ his own hands in any of those familiar offices, which kings and monarchs would rather do than be troubled with the clumsy fingers of their servants.

I took this time to think what pain men's pride puts them to, and how troublesome a haughty temper, thus ill-managed, must be to a man of common sense; and, leaving the poor wretch to please himself with our looking at him, as if we admired his pomp, whereas we really pitied and contemned him, we pursued our journey: only Father Simon had the curiosity to stay to inform himself what dainties the country justice had to feed on, in all his state; which he said he had the honour to taste of, and which was, I think, a dose that an English hound would scarce have eaten, if it had been offered him, viz. a mess of boiled rice, with a great piece of garlick in it, and a little bag filled with green pepper, and another plant which they have there, something like our ginger, but smelling like musk and tasting like mustard: all this was put together, and a small lump or piece of lean mutton boiled in it; and this was his worship's repast, four or five servants more attending at a distance. If he fed them meaner than he was fed himself, the spice excepted, they must fare very coarsely indeed.

As for our mandarin with whom we travelled, he was respected like a king; surrounded always with his gentlemen, and attended in all his appearances with such pomp, that I saw little of him but at a distance; but this I observed, that there was not a horse in his retinue, but that our carriers' pack-horses in England seem to me to look much better; but they were so covered with equipage, mantles, trappings, and such-like trumpery, that you cannot see whether they are fat or lean. In a word, we could scarce see any thing but their feet and their heads.

I was now light-hearted, and all my trouble and perplexity that I had given an account of being over, I had no anxious thoughts about me; which made this journey much the pleasanter to me; nor had I any ill accident attended me, only in the passing or fording a small river, my horse fell, and made me free of the country, as they call it; that is to say, threw me in: the place was not deep, but it wetted me all over: I mention it, because it spoiled my pocket-book, wherein I had set down the names of several people and places which I had occasion to remember, and which not taking due care of, the leaves rotted, and the words were never after to be read, to my great loss, as to the names of some places which I touched at in this voyage.

At length we arrived at Pekin; I had nobody with me but the youth, whom my nephew the captain had given me to attend me as a servant, and who proved very trusty and diligent; and my partner had nobody with him but one servant, who was a kinsman. As for the Portuguese pilot, he being desirous to see the court, we gave him his passage, that is to say, bore his charges for his company; and to use him as an interpreter, for he understood the language of the country, and spoke good French and a little English; and, indeed, this old man was a most useful implement to us every where; for we had not been above a week at Pekin, when he came laughing: "Ah, Seignior Inglese," said he, "I have something to tell you, will make your heart glad."—"My heart glad," said I; "what can that be? I don't know any thing in this country can either give me joy or grief, to any great degree."—"Yes, yes," said the old man, in broken English, "make you glad, me sorrow;" sorry, he would have said. This made me more inquisitive. "Why," said I, "will it make you sorry?"—"Because," said he, "you have brought me here twenty-five days journey, and will leave me to go back alone; and which way shall I get to my port afterwards, without a ship, without a horse, without pecune?" so he called money; being his broken Latin, of which he had abundance to make us merry with.

In short, he told us there was a great caravan of Muscovy and Polish merchants in the city, and that they were preparing to set out on their journey, by land, to Muscovy, within four or five weeks, and he was sure we would take the opportunity to go with them, and leave him behind to go back alone. I confess I was surprised with this news: a secret joy spread itself over my whole soul, which I cannot describe, and never felt before or since; and I had no power, for a good while, to speak a word to the old man; but at last I turned to him: "How do you know this?" said I: "are you sure it is true?"—"Yes," he said, "I met this morning in the street an old acquaintance of mine, an Armenian, or one you call a Grecian, who is among them; he came last from Astracan, and was designing to go to Tonquin; where I formerly knew him, but has altered his mind, and is now resolved to go back with the caravan to Moscow, and so down the river of Wolga to Astracan."—"Well, Seignior," said I, "do not be uneasy about being left to go back alone; if this be a method for my return to England, it shall be your fault if you go back to Macao at all." We then went to consult together what was to be done, and I asked my partner what he thought of the pilot's news, and whether it would suit with his affairs: he told me he would do just as I would; for he had settled all his affairs so well at Bengal, and left his effects in such good hands, that as we made a good voyage here, if he could vest it in China silks, wrought and raw, such as might be worth the carriage, he would be content to go to England, and then make his voyage back to Bengal by the Company's ships.

Having resolved upon this, we agreed, that, if our Portuguese pilot would go with us, we would bear his charges to Moscow, or to England, if he pleased; nor, indeed, were we to be esteemed over-generous in that part neither, if we had not rewarded him farther; for the service he had done us was really worth all that, and more; for he had not only been a pilot to us at sea, but he had been also like a broker for us on shore; and his procuring for us the Japan merchant was some hundreds of pounds in our pockets. So we consulted together about it; and, being willing to gratify him, which was, indeed, but doing him justice, and very willing also to have him with us besides, for he was a most necessary man on all occasions, we agreed to give him a quantity of coined gold, which, as I compute it, came to about one hundred and seventy-five pounds sterling between us, and to bear his charges, both for himself and horse, except only a horse to carry his goods.

Having settled this among ourselves, we called him to let him know what we had resolved: I told him, he had complained of our being like to let him go back alone, and I was now to tell him we were resolved he should not go back at all: that as we had resolved to go to Europe with the caravan, we resolved also he should go with us, and that we called him to know his mind. He shook his head, and said it was a long journey, and he had no pecune to carry him thither, nor to subsist himself when he came thither. We told him, we believed it was so, and therefore we had resolved to do something for him, that would let him see how sensible we were of the service he had done us; and also how agreeable he was to us; and then I told him what we had resolved to give him here, which he might lay out as we would do our own; and that as for his charges, if he would go with us, we would set him safe ashore (life and casualties excepted), either in Muscovy or in England, which he would, at our own charge, except only the carriage of his goods.