THE JOURNAL. (continued 11)

When they went out their chief design was plunder, and they were in mighty hopes of finding gold there; but a circumstance, which none of them were aware of, set them on fire with revenge, and made devils of them all. When they came to the few Indian houses, which they thought had been the town, which were not above half a mile off, they were under a great disappointment; for there were not above twelve or thirteen houses; and where the town was, or how big, they knew not. They consulted therefore what to do, and were some time before they could resolve; for if they fell upon these they must cut all their throats, and it was ten to one but some of them might escape, it being in the night, though the moon was up; and if one escaped he would run away, and raise all the town, so they should have a whole army upon them. Again, on the other hand, if they went away, and left those untouched (for the people were all asleep), they could not tell which way to look for the town.

However, the last was the best advice; so they resolved to leave those houses, and look for the town as well as they could. They went on a little way, and found a cow tied to a tree: this they presently concluded would be a good guide to them; for they said the cow certainly belonged to the town before them or the town behind them, and if they untied her they should see which way she went: if she went back they had nothing to say to her, but if she went forward they had nothing to do but to follow her; so they cut the cord, which was made of twisted flags, and the cow went on before them. In a word, the cow led them directly to the town, which, as they reported, consisted of above two hundred houses or huts; and in some of these they found several families living together.

Here they found all silent; as profoundly secure as sleep and a country that had never seen an enemy of that kind could make them. Upon this they called another council to consider what they had to do, and in a word they resolved to divide themselves into three bodies, and to set three houses on fire in three parts of the town; and as the men came out, to seize them and bind them; if any resisted, they need not be asked what to do then, and so to search the rest of the houses for plunder; but resolved to march silently first through the town, and see what dimensions it was of, and consider if they might venture upon it or no.

They did so, and desperately resolved that they would venture upon them; but while they were animating one another to the work, three of them that were a little before the rest called out aloud, and told them they had found Thomas Jeffrys; they all ran up to the place; and so it was indeed, for there they found the poor fellow, hanged up naked by one arm, and his throat cut. There was an Indian house just by the tree, where they found sixteen or seventeen of the principal Indians who had been concerned in the fray with us before, and two or three of them wounded with our shot; and our men found they were awake, and talking one to another in that house, but knew not their number.

The sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged them, as before, that they swore to one another they would be revenged, and that not an Indian who came into their hands should have quarter; and to work they went immediately, and yet not so madly as by the rage and fury they were in might be expected. Their first care was to get something that would soon take fire; but after a little search they found that would be to no purpose, for most of the houses were low, and thatched with flags or rushes, of which the country is full: so they presently made some wildfire, as we call it, by wetting a little powder in the palms of their hands; and in a quarter of an hour they set the town on fire in four or five places, and particularly that house where the Indians were not gone to bed. As soon as the fire began to blaze, the poor frighted creatures began to rush out to save their lives, but met with their fate in the attempt, and especially at the door, where they drove them back, the boatswain himself killing one or two with his pole-axe; the house being large, and many in it, he did not care to go in, but called for an hand-grenado, and threw it among them, which at first frighted them; but when it burst made such havoc among them, that they cried out in a hideous manner.

In short, most of the Indians who were in the open part of the house, were killed or hurt with the grenado, except two or three more, who pressed to the door, which the boatswain and two more kept with the bayonets in the muzzles of their pieces, and dispatched all who came that way. But there was another apartment in the house, where the prince, or king, or whatsoever he was, and several others, were; and they kept in till the house, which was by this time all of a light flame, fell in upon them, and they were smothered or burnt together.

All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not waken the people faster than they could master them; but the fire began to waken them fast enough, and our fellows were glad to keep a little together in bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all the houses being made of light combustible stuff, that they could hardly bear the street between them, and their business was to follow the fire for the surer execution. As fast as the fire either forced the people out of those houses which were burning, or frighted them out of others, our people were ready at their doors to knock them on the head, still calling and hallooing to one another to remember Thomas Jeffrys.

While this was doing I must confess I was very uneasy, and especially when I saw the flames of the town, which, it being night, seemed to be just by me.

My nephew the captain, who was roused by his men too, seeing such a fire, was very uneasy, not knowing what the matter was, or what danger I was in; especially hearing the guns too, for by this time they began to use their fire-arms. A thousand thoughts oppressed his mind concerning me and the supercargo, what should become of us; and at last, though he could ill spare any more men, yet, not knowing what exigence we might be in, he takes another boat, and with thirteen men and himself comes on shore to me.

He was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat with no more than two men, for one had been left to keep the boat; and though he was glad that we were well, yet he was in the same impatience with us to know what was doing, for the noise continued and the flame increased. I confess it was next to an impossibility for any men in the world to restrain their curiosity of knowing what had happened, or their concern for the safety of the men. In a word, the captain told me he would go and help his men, let what would come. I argued with him, as I did before with the men, the safety of the ship, and the danger of the voyage, the interest of the owners and merchants, &c. and told him I would go, and the two men, and only see if we could, at a distance, learn what was like to be the event, and come back and tell him.

It was all one to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk to the rest before; he would go, he said, and he only wished he had left but ten men in the ship, for he could not think of having his men lost for want of help; he had rather, he said, lose the ship, the voyage, and his life, and all: and so away went he.

Nor was I any more able to stay behind now than I was to persuade them not to go before; so, in short, the captain ordered two men to row back the pinnace, and fetch twelve men more from the ship, leaving the long-boat at an anchor; and that when they came back six men should keep the two boats, and six more come after us, so that he left only sixteen men in the ship; for the whole ship’s company consisted of sixty-five men, whereof two were lost in the first quarrel which brought this mischief on.

Being now on the march, you may be sure we felt little of the ground we trod on, and being guided by the fire we kept no path, but went directly to the place of the flame. If the noise of the guns were surprising to us before, the cries of the poor people were now quite of another nature, and filled us with horror. I must confess I never was at the sacking of a city, or at the taking of a town by storm; I have heard of Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda in Ireland, and killing man, woman, and child; and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city of Magdebourg, and cutting the throats of 22,000 of both sexes; but I never had an idea of the thing itself before, nor is it possible to describe it, or the horror which was upon our minds at hearing it.

However, we went on, and at length came to the town, though there was no entering the streets of it for the fire. The first object we met with was the ruins of a hut or house, or rather the ashes of it, for the house was consumed; and just before it, plain now to be seen by the light of the fire, lay four men and three women killed; and, as we thought, one or two more lay in the heap among the fire. In short, these were such instances of a rage altogether barbarous, and of a fury something beyond what was human, that we thought it impossible our men could be guilty of it; or if they were the authors of it, we thought that every one of them ought to be put to the worst of deaths: but this was not all; we saw the fire increased forward, and the cry went on just as the fire went on, so that we were in the utmost confusion. We advanced a little way farther, and beheld to our astonishment three women naked, crying in a most dreadful manner, and flying as if they had indeed had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen men, natives, in the same terror and consternation, with three of our English butchers (for I can call them no better) in the rear, who, when they could not overtake them, fired in among them, and one that was killed by their shot fell down in our sight: when the rest saw us, believing us to be their enemies; and that we would murder them as well as those that pursued them, they set up a most dreadful shriek, especially the women, and two of them fell down as if already dead with the fright.

My very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in my veins, when I saw this; and I believe had the three English sailors that pursued them come on, I had made our men kill them all. However, we took some ways to let the poor flying creatures know that we would not hurt them, and immediately they came up to us, and kneeling down, with their hands lifted up, made piteous lamentations to us to save them, which we let them know we would do; where upon they kept all together in a huddle close behind us for protection. I left my men drawn up together, and charged them to hurt nobody, but if possible to get at some of our people, and see what devil it was possessed them, and what they intended to do; and in a word to command them off, assuring them that if they staid till daylight they would have a hundred thousand men about their ears: I say, I left them and went among those flying people, taking only two of our men with me; and there was indeed a piteous spectacle among them: some of them had their feet terribly burnt with trampling and running through the fire, others their hands burnt; one of the women had fallen down in the fire, and was almost burnt to death before she could get out again; two or three of the men had cuts in their backs and thighs, from our men pursuing, and another was shot through the body, and died while I was there.

I would fain have learnt what the occasion of all this was, but I could not understand one word they said, though by signs I perceived that some of them knew not what was the occasion themselves. I was so terrified in my thoughts at this outrageous attempt, that I could not stay there, but went back to my own men: I told them my resolution, and commanded them to follow me, when in the very moment came four of our men, with the boatswain at their head, running over the heaps of bodies they had killed, all covered with blood and dust, as if they wanted more people to massacre, when our men hallooed to them as loud as they could halloo, and with much ado one of them made them hear, so that they knew who we were, and came up to us.

As soon as the boatswain saw us he set up a halloo, like a shout of triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come; and without bearing to hear me, “Captain,” says he, “noble captain, I am glad you are come; we have not half done yet: villains! hell-hound dogs! I will kill as many of them as poor Tom has hairs upon his head. We have sworn to spare none of them; we will root out the very name of them from the earth.” And thus he ran on, out of breath too with action, and would not give us leave to speak a word.

At last, raising my voice, that I might silence him a little, “Barbarous dog!” said I, “what are you doing? I won’t have one creature touched more upon pain of death. I charge you upon your life to stop your hands, and stand still here, or you are a dead man this minute.”

“Why, Sir,” says he, “do you know what you do, or what they have done? If you want a reason for what we have done, come hither;” and with that he shewed me the poor fellow hanging upon a tree, with his throat cut.

I confess I was urged then myself, and at another time should have been forward enough; but I thought they had carried their rage too far, and thought of Jacob’s words to his sons Simeon and Levi, “Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel.” But I had now a new task upon my hands; for when the men I carried with me saw the sight as I had done, I had as much to do to restrain them, as I should have had with the others; nay, my nephew himself fell in with them, and told me in their hearing, that he was only concerned for fear of the men being overpowered; for, as to the people, he thought not one of them ought to live; for they had all glutted themselves with the murder of the poor man, and that they ought to be used like murderers. Upon these words away ran eight of my men with the boatswain and his crew to complete their bloody work; and I, seeing it quite out of my power to restrain them, came away pensive and sad, for I could not bear the sight, much less the horrible noise and cries of the poor wretches that fell into their hands.

I got nobody to come back with me but the supercargo and two men, and with these I walked back to the boats. It was a very great piece of folly in me, I confess, to venture back as it were alone; for as it began now to be almost day, and the alarm had run over the country, there stood about forty men armed with lances and bows at the little place where the twelve or thirteen houses stood mentioned before, but by accident I missed the place, and came directly to the sea-side; and by that time I got to the sea-side it was broad day: immediately I took the pinnace and went aboard, and sent her back to assist the men in what might happen.

I observed that about the time I came to the boat-side the fire was pretty well out, and the noise abated; but in about half an hour after I got on board I heard a volley of our men’s fire-arms, and saw a great smoke; this, as I understood afterwards, was our men falling upon the forty men, who, as I said, stood at the few houses on the way; of whom they killed sixteen or seventeen, and set all those houses on fire, but did not meddle with the women or children.

By the time the men got to the shore again with the pinnace our men began to appear; they came dropping in some and some, not in two bodies, and in form, as they went out, but all in heaps, straggling here and there in such a manner that a small force of resolute men might have cut them all off.

But the dread of them was upon the whole country. The people were amazed and surprised, and so frighted that I believe a hundred of them would have fled at the sight of but five of our men. Nor in all this terrible action was there a man who made any considerable defence; they were so surprised between the terror of the fire, and the sudden attack of our men in the dark, that they knew not which way to turn themselves; for if they fled one way they were met by one party, if back again by another; so that they were every where knocked down. Nor did any of our men receive the least hurt, except one who strained his foot, and another had one of his hands very much burnt.

I was very angry with my nephew the captain, and indeed with all the men, in my mind, but with him in particular, as well for his acting so out of his duty, as commander of the ship, and having the charge of the voyage upon him, as in his prompting rather than cooling the rage of his men in so bloody and cruel an enterprise: my nephew answered me very respectfully, but told me that when he saw the body of the poor seaman whom they had murdered in such a cruel and barbarous manner, he was not master of himself, neither could he govern his passion; he owned he should not have done so, as he was commander of the ship, but as he was a man, and nature moved him, he could not bear it. As for the rest of the men, they were not subject to me at all, and they knew it well enough, so they took no notice of my dislike.

The next day we set sail, so we never heard any more of it. Our men differed in the account of the number they killed; some said one thing, some another; but according to the best of their accounts, put all together, they killed or destroyed about a hundred and fifty people, men, women, and children, and left not a house standing in the town.

As for the poor fellow, Thomas Jeffrys, as he was quite dead, for his throat was so cut that his head was half off, it would do him no service to bring him away; so they left him where they found him, only took him down from the tree where he was hanged by one hand.

However just our men thought this action to be, I was against them in it, and I always after that time told them God would blast the voyage; for I looked upon the blood they shed that night to be murder in them: for though it is true that they killed Thomas Jeffrys, yet it was as true that Jeffrys was the aggressor, had broken the truce, and had violated or debauched a young woman of theirs, who came to our camp innocently, and on the faith of their capitulation.

The boatswain defended this quarrel when we were afterwards on board. He said, it was true that we seemed to break the truce, but really had not, and that the war was begun the night before by the natives themselves, who had shot at us, and killed one of our men without any just provocation; so that as we were in a capacity to fight them, we might also be in a capacity to do ourselves justice upon them in an extraordinary manner; that though the poor man had taken liberty with a wench, he ought not to have been murdered, and that in such a villanous manner; and that they did nothing but what was just, and that the laws of God allowed to be done to murderers.

One would think this should have been enough to have warned us against going on shore among heathens and barbarians; but it is impossible to make mankind wise but at their own experience; and their experience seems to be always of most use to them when it is dearest bought.

We were now bound to the Gulf of Persia, and from thence to the coast of Coromandel, only to touch at Surat; but the chief of the supercargo’s design lay at the Bay of Bengal, where if he missed of the business outward-bound he was to go up to China, and return to the coast as he came home.

The first disaster that befel us was in the Gulf of Persia, where five of our men venturing on shore on the Arabian side of the Gulf were surrounded by the Arabs, and either all killed or carried away into slavery; the rest of the boat’s crew were not able to rescue them, and had but just time to get off their boat. I began to upbraid them with the just retribution of Heaven in this case; but the boatswain very warmly told me, he thought I went farther in my censures than I could show any warrant for in Scripture, and referred to the thirteenth of St. Luke, ver. 4, where our Saviour intimates that those men on whom the tower of Siloam fell, were not sinners above all the Galileans; but that which indeed put me to silence in this case was, that none of these five men who were now lost were of the number of those who went on shore to the massacre of Madagascar (so I always called it, though our men could not bear the word massacre with any patience:) and indeed this last circumstance, as I have said, put me to silence for the present.

But my frequent preaching to them on this subject had worse consequences than I expected; and the boatswain, who had been the head of the attempt, came up boldly to me one time, and told me he found that I continually brought that affair upon the stage, that I made unjust reflections upon it, and had used the men very ill on that account, and himself in particular; that as I was but a passenger, and had no command in the ship, or concern in the voyage, they were not obliged to bear it; that they did not know but I might have some ill design in my head, and perhaps call them to an account for it when they came to England; and that therefore, unless I would resolve to have done with it, and also not to concern myself farther with him, or any of his affairs, he would leave the ship; for he did not think it was safe to sail with me among them.

I heard him patiently enough till he had done, and then told him that I did confess I had all along opposed the massacre of Madagascar, for such I would always call it; and that I had on all occasions spoken my mind freely about it, though not more upon him than any of the rest; that as to my having no command in the ship, that was true, nor did I exercise any authority, only took the liberty of speaking my mind in things which publicly concerned us all: as to what concern I had in the voyage, that was none of his business; I was a considerable owner of the ship, and in that claim I conceived I had a right to speak, even farther than I had yet done, and would not be accountable to him or any one else; and began to be a little warm with him: he made but little reply to me at that time, and I thought that affair had been over. We were at this time in the road to Bengal; and being willing to see the place, I went on shore with the supercargo, in the ship’s boat, to divert myself; and towards evening was preparing to go on board, when one of the men came to me, and told me he would not have me trouble myself to come down to the boat, for they had orders not to carry me on board. Any one may guess what a surprise I was in at so insolent a message; and I asked the man who bade him deliver that errand to me? He told me, the coxswain. I said no more to the fellow, but bid him let them know he had delivered his message, and that I had given him no answer to it.

I immediately went and round out the supercargo, and told him the story, adding, what I presently foresaw, viz. that there would certainly be a mutiny in the ship; and entreated him to go immediately on board the ship in an Indian boat, and acquaint the captain of it: but I might have spared this intelligence, for before I had spoken to him on shore the matter was effected on board: the boatswain, the gunner, the carpenter, and, in a word, all the inferior officers, as soon as I was gone off in the boat, came up to the quarter-deck, and desired to speak with the captain; and there the boatswain making a long harangue, (for the fellow talked very well) and repeating all he had said to me, told the captain in a few words, that as I was now gone peaceably on shore, they were loath to use any violence with me; which if I had not gone on shore, they would otherwise have done, to oblige me to have gone. They therefore thought fit to tell him, that as they shipped themselves to serve in the ship under his command, they would perform it faithfully; but if I would not quit the ship, or the captain oblige me to quit it, they would all leave the ship, and sail no farther with him; and at that word All, he turned his face about towards the main-mast, which was, it seems, the signal agreed on between them, at which all the seamen being got together, they cried out, “One and All, One and All!”

My nephew, the captain, was a man of spirit, and of great presence of mind; and though he was surprised, you may be sure, at the thing, yet he told them calmly he would consider of the matter, but that he could do nothing in it till he had spoken to me about it: he used some arguments with them, to shew them the unreasonableness and injustice of the thing, but it was all in vain; they swore, and shook hands round, before his face, that they would go all on shore unless he would engage to them not to suffer me to come on board the ship.

This was a hard article upon him, who knew his obligation to me, and did not know how I might take it; so he began to talk cavalierly to them; told them that I was a very considerable owner of the ship, and that in justice he could not put me out of my own house; that this was next door to serving me as the famous pirate Kid had done, who made the mutiny in the ship, set the captain on shore in an uninhabited island, and ran away with the ship; that let them go into what ship they would, if ever they came to England again it would cost them dear; that the ship was mine, and that he would not put me out of it; and that he would rather lose the ship, and the voyage too, than disoblige me so much; so they might do as they pleased. However, he would go on shore, and talk with me there, and invited the boatswain to go with him, and perhaps they might accommodate the matter with me.

But they all rejected the proposal; and said, they would have nothing to do with me any more, neither on board nor on shore; and if I came on board, they would go on shore. “Well,” said the captain, “if you are all of this mind, let me go on shore, and talk with him:” so away he came to me with this account, a little after the message had been brought to me from the coxswain.

I was very glad to see my nephew I must confess, for I was not without apprehensions that they would confine him by violence, set sail, and run away with the ship; and then I had been stripped naked, in a remote country, and nothing to help myself: in short, I had been in a worse case than when I was all alone in the island.

But they had not come to that length, it seems, to my great satisfaction; and when my nephew told me what they had said to him, and how they had sworn, and shook hands, that they would one and all leave the ship, if I was suffered to come on board, I told him he should not be concerned at it at all, for I would stay onshore; I only desired he would take care and send me all my necessary things on shore, and leave me a sufficient sum of money, and I would find my way to England as well as I could.

This was a heavy piece of news to my nephew; but there was no way to help it, but to comply with it. So, in short, he went on board the ship again, and satisfied the men that his uncle had yielded to their importunity, and had sent for his goods from on board the ship. So the matter was over in a very few hours; the men returned to their duty, and I begun to consider what course I should steer.

I was now alone in the remotest part of the world, as I think I may call it, for I was near three thousand leagues, by sea, farther off from England than I was at my island; only, it is true, I might travel here by land, over the Great Mogul’s country to Surat, might go from thence to Bassora by sea, up the Gulf of Persia, and from thence might take the way of the caravans, over the deserts of Arabia, to Aleppo and Scanderoon, and from thence by sea again to Italy, and so overland into France; and this, put together, might be, at least, a full diameter of the globe; but, if it were to be measured, I suppose it would appear to be a great deal more.

I had another way before me, which was to wait for some English ships, which were coming to Bengal, from Achin, on the island of Sumatra, and get passage on board them for England: but as I came hither without any concern with the English East India Company, so it would be difficult to go from hence without their licence, unless with great favour of the captains of the ships, or of the Company’s factors; and to both I was an utter stranger.

Here I had the particular pleasure, speaking by contrarieties, to see the ship set sail without me; a treatment, I think, a man in my circumstances scarce ever met with, except from pirates running away with a ship, and setting those that would not agree with their villany on shore: indeed this was the next door to it both ways. However, my nephew left me two servants, or rather, one companion and one servant: the first was clerk to the purser, whom he engaged to go with me; and the other was his own servant. I took me also a good lodging in the house of an English woman, where several merchants lodged, some French, two Italians, or rather Jews, and one Englishman. Here I was handsomely enough entertained; and that I might not be said to run rashly upon any thing, I stayed here above nine months, considering what course to take, and how to manage myself. I had some English goods with me of value, and a considerable sum of money; my nephew furnishing me with a thousand pieces of eight, and a letter of credit for more, if I had occasion, that I might not be straitened, whatever might happen.

I quickly disposed of my goods, and to advantage too; and, as I originally intended, I bought here some very good diamonds, which, of all other things, was the most proper for me, in my circumstances, because I might always carry my whole estate about me.

After a long stay here, and many proposals made for my return to England, but none falling to my mind, the English merchant, who lodged with me, and with whom I had contracted an intimate acquaintance, came to me one morning: “Countryman,” says he, “I have a project to communicate to you, which, as it suits with my thoughts, may, for aught I know, suit with yours also, when you shall have thoroughly considered it.

“Here we are posted,” says he, “you by accident, and I by my own choice, in a part of the world very remote from our own country; but it is in a country where, by us who understand trade and business, a great deal of money is to be got: if you will put a thousand pounds to my thousand pounds, we will hire a ship here, the first we can get to our minds; you shall be captain, I’ll be merchant, and we will go a trading voyage to China; for what should we stand still for? The whole world is in motion, rolling round and round; all the creatures of God, heavenly bodies and earthly, are busy and vibrant: why should we be idle? There are no drones,” says he, “living in the world but men: why should we be of that number?”

I liked this proposal very well; and the more because it seemed to be expressed with so much good will, and in so friendly a manner. I will not say, but that I might, by my loose and unhinged circumstances, be the fitter to embrace a proposal for trade, and indeed for any thing else; or otherwise trade was none of my element; however, I might, perhaps, say with some truth, that if trade was not my element, rambling was; and no proposal for seeing any part of the world, which I had never seen before, could possibly come amiss to me.

It was, however, some time before we could get a ship to our mind; and when we got a vessel, it was not easy to get English sailors; that is to say, so many as were necessary to govern the voyage, and manage the sailors which we should pick up there. After some time we got a mate, a boatswain, and a gunner, English; a Dutch carpenter, and three Portuguese foremast-men: with these we found we could do well enough, having Indian seamen, such as they are, to make up.

There are so many travellers who have written the history of their voyages and travels this way, that it would be but very little diversion to any body, to give a long account of the places we went to, and the people who inhabit there: those things I leave to others, and refer the reader to those journals and travels of Englishmen, many of which, I find, are published, and more promised every day. It is enough for me to tell you that we made the voyage to Achin, in the island of Sumatra, first; and from thence to Siam, where we exchanged some of our wares for opium, and for some arrack; the first a commodity which bears a great price among the Chinese, and which, at that time, was very much wanted there: in a word, we went up to Susham; made a very great voyage; were eight months out; and returned to Bengal: and I was very well satisfied with my adventure.

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 after 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 board, 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, but 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.