 8. Sales from the island for the Brazils. It now came into my thoughts that I had hinted to my friend the clergyman that the work of converting the savages might perhaps be set on foot in his absence to his satisfaction, and I told him that now I thought that it was put in a fair way, for the savages, being thus divided among the Christians, if they would but every one of them do their part with those which came under their hands, I hoped it might have a very good effect. He agreed presently in that, if they did their part, but how, says he, shall we obtain that of them? I told him I would call them all together and leave it in charge with them, or go to them one by one, which he thought best. So we divided it, he to speak to the Spaniards, who were all Papists, and I to speak to the English, who were all Protestants, and we recommended it earnestly to them, and made them promise that they would never make any distinction of Papist or Protestant in their exhorting the savages to turn Christians, but teach them the general knowledge of the true God, and of their Saviour Jesus Christ, and they likewise promised us that they would never have any differences or disputes one with another about religion. When I came to Will Atkins's house, I found that the young woman I have mentioned above, and Will Atkins's wife, were become intimates, and this prudent, religious young woman had perfected the work Will Atkins had begun, and though it was not above four days after what I have related, yet the new baptized savage woman was made such a Christian as I have seldom heard of in all my observation or conversation in the world. It came next into my mind, in the morning before I went to them, that amongst all the needful things I had to leave with them I had not left them a Bible, in which I showed myself less considering for them than my good friend the widow was for me, when she sent me the cargo of a hundred pounds from Lisbon, where she packed up three Bibles and a prayer book. However, the good woman's charity had a greater extent than ever she imagined, for they were reserved for the comfort and instruction of those that made much better use of them than I had done. I took one of the Bibles in my pocket, and when I came to Will Atkins's tent or house, and found the young woman and Atkins's baptized wife had been discoursing of religion together, for Will Atkins told me with a great deal of joy, I asked if they were together now, and he said yes. So I went into the house, and he with me, and we found them together very earnest in discourse. Oh, sir, says Will Atkins, when God has sinners to reconcile to himself and aliens to bring home, he never wants a messenger. My wife has got a new instructor. I knew I was unworthy as I was incapable of that work. That young woman has been sent hither from heaven. She is enough to convert a whole island of savages. The young woman blushed and rose up to go away, but I desired her to sit still. I told her she had a good work upon her hands, and I hoped God would bless her in it. We talked a little, and I did not perceive that they had any book among them, though I did not ask, but I put my hand into my pocket and pulled out my Bible. Here, said I to Atkins, I have brought you an assistant that perhaps you had not before. The man was so confounded that he was not able to speak for some time, but recovering himself, he takes it with both his hands, and turning to his wife, hear, my dear, says he, did not I tell you our God, though he lives above, could hear what we have said? Here's the book I prayed for when you and I kneeled down under the bush. Now God has heard us and sent it. When he had said so, the man fell into such passionate transports, that between the joy of having it and giving God thanks for it, the tears ran down his face like a child that was crying. The woman was surprised, and was like to have run into a mistake that none of us were aware of, for she firmly believed God had sent the book upon her husband's petition. It is true that providentially it was so, and might be taken so in a consequent sense, but I believe it would have been no difficult matter at that time to have persuaded the poor woman to have believed that an express messenger came from heaven on purpose to bring that individual book, but it was too serious a matter to suffer any delusion to take place, so I turned to the young woman, and told her we did not desire to impose upon the new convert, in her first and more ignorant understanding of things, and begged her to explain to her that God may be very properly said to answer our petitions when, in the course of his providence, such things are in a particular manner brought to pass as we petitioned for, but we did not expect returns from heaven in a miraculous and particular manner, and it is a mercy that it is not so. This the young woman did afterwards effectually, so that there was no priestcraft used here, and I should have thought it one of the most unjustifiable frauds in the world to have had it so, but the effect upon Will Atkins is really not to be expressed, and there we may be sure was no delusion. Sure no man was ever more thankful in the world for anything of its kind than he was for the Bible, nor I believe never any man was glad of a Bible from a better principle, and though he had been a most profligate creature, had strong, furious, and desperately wicked, yet this man is a standing rule to us all for the well-instructing children, viz that parents should never give over to teach and instruct, nor ever despair of the success of their endeavors, let the children be ever so refractory, or to appearance insensible to instruction, for if ever God in his providence touches the conscience of such, the force of their education turns upon them, and the early instruction of parents is not lost, though it may have been many years late asleep, but some time or other they may find the benefit of it. Thus it was with this poor man, however ignorant he was of religion and Christian knowledge, he found he had some to do with now more ignorant than himself, and that the least part of the instruction of his good father that now came to his mind was of use to him. Among the rest it occurred to him, he said, how his father used to insist so much on the inexpressible value of the Bible, and the privilege and blessing of it to nations, families, and persons, but he never entertained the least notion of the worth of it till now, being to talk to heathens, savages, and barbarians he wanted the help of the written oracle for his assistance. The young woman was glad of it also for the present occasion, though she had one and so had the youth on board our ship among their goods, which were not yet brought on shore, and now, having said so many things of this young woman, I cannot omit telling one story more of her and myself, which has something in it very instructive and remarkable. I have related to what extremity the poor young woman was reduced, how her mistress was starved to death and died on board that unhappy ship we met at sea, and how the whole ship's company was reduced to the last extremity. The gentle woman and her son, and this maid, were first hardly used as to provisions, and at last totally neglected and starved, that is to say, brought to the last extremity of hunger. One day, being discoursing with her on the extremities they suffered, I asked her if she could describe by what she had felt what it was to starve and how it appeared. She said she believed she could and told her tale very distinctly thus. First we had for some days fared exceedingly hard, and suffered very great hunger, but at last we were wholly without food of any kind except sugar and a little wine and water. The first day after I had received no food at all, I found myself towards evening, empty and sick at the stomach, and nearer night much inclined to yawning and sleep. I lay down on the couch in the great cabin to sleep, and slept about three hours, and awaked a little refreshed, having taken a glass of wine when I lay down, and being about three hours awake, it being about five o'clock in the morning, I found myself empty and my stomach sickish, and lay down again, but could not sleep at all, being very faint and ill, and thus I continued all the second day with a strange variety, first hungry, then sick again, with wretches to vomit, the second night, being obliged to go to bed again without any food more than a draft of fresh water, and being asleep, I dreamed I was at Barbados, and that the market was mightily stocked with provisions, that I bought some for my mistress, and went and dined very heartily. I thought my stomach was full after this, as it would have been after a good dinner, but when I awaked, I was exceedingly sunk in spirits to find myself in the extremity of famine. The last glass of wine we had, I drank, and put sugar in it because of its having some spirit to supply nourishment, but there being no substance in the stomach for the digesting office to work upon, I found the only effect of the wine was to raise disagreeable fumes from the stomach into the head, and I lay as they told me, stupid and senseless as one drunk for some time, the third day in the morning, after a night of strange, confused and inconsistent dreams, and rather dozing than sleeping, I awaked ravenous and furious with hunger, and I questioned, had not my understanding returned and conquered it, whether if I had been a mother, and had had a little child with me, its life would have been safe or not. This lasted about three hours, during which time I was twice raging mad as any creature in bedlam, as my young master told me, and as he can now inform you. In one of these fits of lunacy or distraction, I fell down and struck my face against the corner of a pallet bed in which my mistress lay, and with the blow the blood gushed out of my nose, and the cabin boy bringing me a little basin, I sat down and bled into it a great deal, and as the blood came from me I came to myself, and the violence of the flame or fever I was innerbated, and so did the ravenous part of the hunger. Then I grew sick and wretched to vomit, but could not, for I had nothing in my stomach to bring up, after I had bled some time I swooned, and they all believed I was dead, but I came to myself soon after, and then had a most dreadful pain in my stomach not to be described, not like the colic, but a gnawing, eager pain for food, and towards night it went off with a kind of earnest wishing or longing for food. I took another draft of water with sugar in it, but my stomach loathed the sugar and brought it all up again, then I took a draft of water without sugar, and that stayed with me, and I laid me down upon the bed praying most heartily that it would please God to take me away, and composing my mind in hopes of it, I slumbered a while, and then waking thought myself dying, being light with vapours from an empty stomach. I recommended my soul then to God, and then earnestly wished that somebody would throw me into the sea. All this while my mistress lay by me, just as I thought, expiring, but she bore it with much more patience than I, and gave the last bit of bread she had left to her child, my young master, who would not have taken it, but she obliged him to eat it, and I believe it saved his life. Towards the morning I slept again, and when I awoke I fell into a violent passion of crying, and after that had a second fit of violent hunger. I got up ravenous, and in a most dreadful condition, and once or twice I was going to bite my own arm. Last I saw the basin in which was the blood I had bled at my nose the day before. I ran to it and swallowed it with such haste and such a greedy appetite as if I wondered nobody had taken it before, and afraid it should be taken from me now. After it was down, though the thoughts of it filled me with horror, yet it checked the fit of hunger, and I took another draft of water, and was composed and refreshed for some hours after. This was the fourth day, and this I kept up till towards night, when, with the compass of three hours, I had all the several circumstances over again, one after another, vis-sic-sleepy, eagerly hungry, pain in the stomach, then ravenous again, then sick, then lunatic, then crying, then ravenous again, and so every quarter of an hour, and my strength was wasted exceedingly. At night I lay me down, having no comfort but in the hope that I should die before morning. All this night I had no sleep, but the hunger was now turned into a disease, and I had a terrible colic and griping by wind instead of food having found its way into the bowels, and in this condition I lay till morning, when I was surprised by the cries and lamentations of my young master, who called out to me that his mother was dead. I lifted myself up a little, for I had not strength to rise, but found she was not dead, though she was able to give very little signs of life. I had then such convulsions in my stomach for want of some sustenance as I cannot describe, with such frequent throes and pangs of appetite as nothing but the tortures of death can imitate, and in this condition I was, when I heard the semen above cry out, a sail, a sail, and hallow, and jump about as if they were distracted. I was not able to get off from the bed, and my mistress much less, and my young master was so sick that I thought he had been expiring, so we could not open the cabin door or get any account what it was that occasioned such confusion, nor had we any conversation with the ship's company for twelve days, they having told us they had not a mouthful of anything to eat in the ship, and this they told us afterwards, they thought we had been dead. It was this dreadful condition we were in when you were sent to save our lives, and how you found us, sir, you know as well as I, and better, too. This was her own relation, and is such a distinct account of starving to death as I confess I never met with, and was exceeding instructive to me. I am the rather apt to believe it to be a true account, because the youth gave me an account of a good part of it, though I must own not so distinct and so feeling as the maid, and the rather because it seems his mother fed him at the price of her own life, but the poor maid whose constitution was stronger than that of her mistress, who was in years and a weekly woman, too, might struggle harder with it, nevertheless she might be supposed to feel the extremity something sooner than her mistress, who might be allowed to keep the last bit something longer than she parted with any to relieve her maid. No question, as the case is here related, if our ship or some other had not so providentially met them, but a few days more would have ended all their lives. I now return to my disposition of things among the people, and first it is to be observed here, that for many reasons I did not think fit to let them know anything of the sloop I had framed, and which I thought of setting up among them, for I found, at least at my first coming, such seeds of division among them, that I saw plainly had I set up the sloop and left it among them they would, upon every like disgust, have separated, and gone away from one another, or perhaps have turned pirates, and so made the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of sober and religious people, as I intended it. Nor did I leave the two pieces of brass cannon that I had on board, or the extra two-quarter-deck guns that my nephew had provided, for the same reason. I thought it was enough to qualify them for a defensive war against any that should invade them, but not to set them up for an offensive war, or to go abroad to attack others, which in the end would only bring ruin and destruction upon them. I reserved the sloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service another way, as I shall observe in its place. Having now done with the island, I left them all in good circumstances and in a flourishing condition, and went on board my ship again on the 6th of May, having been about twenty-five days among them, and as they were all resolved to stay upon the island till I came to remove them, I promised to send them further relief from the Brazils if I could possibly find an opportunity. I particularly promised to send them some cattle, such as sheep, hogs, and cows, as to the two cows and calves which I brought from England we had been obliged by the length of our voyage to kill them at sea, for want of hay to feed them. The next day, giving them a salute of five guns at parting, we set sail, and arrived at the bay of all saints in the Brazils in about twenty-two days, meeting nothing remarkable in our passage but this, that about three days after we had sailed, being becalmed, and the current setting strong to the east-northeast, running as it were into a bay or gulf on the land side, we were driven something out of our course, and once or twice our men cried out, Land to the eastward! But whether it was the continent or islands we could not tell by any means. But the third day, towards evening, the sea smooth and the weather calm, we saw the sea as it were covered towards the land with something very black, not being able to discover what it was till after some time our chief mate, going up the main shrouds a little way, and looking at them with a perspective, cried out it was an army. I could not imagine what he meant by an army, and thwarted him a little hastily. Nesa says he don't be angry, for it is an army and a fleet too, for I believe there are a thousand canoes, and you may see them paddle along, for they are coming towards us apace. I was a little surprised then indeed, and so was my nephew the captain, for he had heard such terrible stories of them in the island, and having never been in those seas before, that he could not tell what to think of it, but said two or three times we should all be devoured. I must confess, considering we were be calmed, and the current set strong towards the shore, I liked it the worse. However, I bade them not be afraid, but bring the ship to an anchor as soon as we came so near as to know that we must engage them. The weather continued calm, and they came on apace towards us. So I gave orders to come to an anchor, and furl all our sails, as for the savages I told them they had nothing to fear but fire, and therefore they should get their boats out, and fasten them, one close by the head and the other by the stern, and man them both well, and wait the issue in that posture. This I did, that the men in the boats might be ready with the sheets and buckets to put out any fire these savages might endeavor to fix to the outside of the ship. In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they came up with us, but never was such a horrid sight seen by Christians, though my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their number, yet when they came up we reckoned about 126 canoes. Some of them had sixteen or seventeen men in them, and some more, and the least six or seven. When they came nearer to us, they seemed to be struck with wonder and astonishment, as at a sight which doubtless they had never seen before, nor could they at first, as we afterwards understood, know what to make of us. They came boldly up, however, very near to us, and seemed to go about to row round us, but we called to our men in the boats not to let them come to near them. This very order brought us to an engagement with them without our designing it. For five or six of the large canoes came so near our longboat that our men beckoned with their hands to keep them back, which they understood very well and went back, but at their retreat about fifty arrows came on board from those boats, and one of our men in the longboat was very much wounded. However, I called to them not to fire by any means, but we handed down some deal boards into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up a kind of fence, like waste boards, to cover them from the arrows of the savages if they should shoot again. About half an hour afterwards they all came up in a body a stern of us, and so near that we could easily discern what they were, though we could not tell their design, and I easily found they were some of my old friends the same sort of savages that I had been used to engage with. In a short time more they rowed a little farther out to sea, till they came directly broadside with us, and then rowed down straight upon us till they came so near that they could hear us speak. Upon this I ordered all my men to keep close, lest they should shoot any more arrows, and made all our guns ready. But being so near as to be within hearing, I made Friday go out upon the deck, and call aloud to them in his language to know what they meant. Whether they understood him or not, that I knew not. But as soon as he had called to them, six of them, who were in the foremost orniest boat to us, turned their canoes from us, and stooping down showed us their naked backs. Whether this was a defiance or challenge we knew not, or whether it was done in mere contempt or as a signal to the rest, but immediately Friday cried out they were going to shoot, and unhappily for him, poor fellow, they let fly about three hundred of their arrows, and to my inexpressible grief killed poor Friday, no other man being in their sight. The poor fellow was shot with no less than three arrows, and about three more fell very near him, such unlucky marksmen they were. I was so annoyed at the loss of my old trusty servant and companion, that I immediately ordered five guns to be loaded with small shot, and four with great, and gave them such a broadside as they had never heard in their lives before. They were not above half a cable's length off when we fired, and our gunners took their aim so well, that three or four of their canoes were over set, as we had reason to believe by one shot only. The ill manners of turning up their bare backs to us gave us no great offense. Neither did I know for certain whether that which would pass for the greatest contempt among us might be understood so by them or not. Therefore in return I had only resolved to had fired four or five guns at them with powder only, which I knew would frighten them sufficiently, but when they shot at us directly with all the fury they were capable of, and especially as they had killed my poor Friday, whom I so entirely loved and valued, and who indeed so well deserved it, I thought myself not only justifiable before God and man, but would have been very glad if I could have over set every canoe there and drowned every one of them. I can neither tell how many we killed nor how many we wounded at this broadside, but sure such a fright and hurry never were seen among such a multitude. There were thirteen or fourteen of their canoes, split and over set in all, and the men all set a swimming. The rest, frightened out of their wits, scoured away as fast as they could, taking but little care to save those whose boats were split or spoiled with our shot, so I suppose that many of them were lost, and our men took up one poor fellow swimming for his life above an hour after they were all gone. The small shot from our cannon must needs kill and wound a great many, but in short we never knew how it went with them, for they fled so fast that in three hours or thereabouts we could not see above three or four straggling canoes, nor did we ever see the rest any more, for a breeze of wind springing up the same evening we weighed and set sail for the Brazils. We had a prisoner indeed, but the creature was so sullen that he would neither eat nor speak, but we all fancied he would starve himself to death, but I took away to cure him, for I had made them take him and turn him into the longboat, and make him believe they would toss him into the sea again, and so leave him where they found him, if he would not speak, nor would that do, but they readily did throw him into the sea, and came away from him. Then he followed them, for he swam like a cork, and called to them in his tongue, though they knew not one word of what he said. However, at last they took him in again, and then he began to be more tractable, nor did I ever design they should drown him. We were now under sail again, but I was the most disconsolate creature alive, for want of my man Friday, and would have been very glad to have gone back to the island, to have taken one of the rest from thence for my occasion, but it could not be, so we went on. We had one prisoner, as I have said, and it was a long time before we could make him understand anything, but in time our men taught him some English, and he began to be a little tractable. Afterwards we inquired what country he came from, but could make nothing of what he said, for his speech was so odd, all gutter-rolls, and he spoke in the throat in such a hollow odd manner, that we could never form a word after him, and we were all of opinion that they might speak that language as well if they were gagged or otherwise, nor could we perceive that they had any occasion either for teeth, tongue, lips, or palate, but formed their words just as a hunting-horn forms a tune with an open throat. He told us, however, some time after, when we had taught him to speak a little English, that they were going with their kings to fight a great battle. When he said kings, we asked him how many kings? He said they were five nation, we could not make him understand the plural s, and that they all joined to go against two nation. We asked him what made them come up to us? He said, Tomeki, to great wonder, look! Here it is to be observed that all those natives, as also those of Africa when they learn English, always add two e's at the end of the words where we use one, and they place the accent upon them as Meki, Teiki, and the like. Nay, I could hardly make Friday leave it off, though at last he did. And now I name the poor fellow once more. I must take my last leave of him. Poor honest Friday, we buried him with all the decency and solemnity possible by putting him into a coffin, and throwing him into the sea, and I caused them to fire eleven guns for him. So ended the life of the most grateful, faithful, honest, and most affectionate servant that ever man had. We went now away with a fair wind for Brazil, and in about twelve days' time we made land, in the latitude of five degrees south of the line, being the northeastern most land of all that part of America. We kept on south by east, in sight of the shore four days, when we made Cape St. Augustine, and in three days came to an anchor off the bay of all saints, the old place of my deliverance, from whence came both my good and evil fate. Never ship came to this port that had less business than I had, and yet it was with great difficulty that we were admitted to hold the least correspondence on shore. Not my partner himself, who was alive, and made a great figure among them, not my two merchant trustees, not the fame of my wonderful preservation in the island, could obtain me that favour. My partner, however, remembering that I had given five hundred moidors to the prior of the monastery of the Augustines, and two hundred and seventy-two to the poor, went to the monastery, and obliged the prior that then was to go to the governor, and get leave for me personally, with the captain and one more, besides eight seamen, to come on shore, and no more, and this upon condition absolutely capitulated for, that we should not offer to land any goods out of the ship, or to carry any person away without license. They were so strict with us as to landing any goods, that it was with extreme difficulty that I got on shore three bales of English goods, such as fine broad clods, stuffs, and some linen, which I had brought for a present to my partner. He was a very generous open-hearted man, although he began, like me, with little at first. Though he knew not that I had the least design of giving him anything, he sent me on board a present of fresh provisions, wine, and sweet-meats worth about thirty moidors, including some tobacco, and three or four fine medals of gold. But I was even with him in my present, which, as I have said, consisted of fine broad cloth, English stuffs, lace, and fine holland. Also I delivered him about the value of one hundred pounds sterling in the same goods for other uses, and I obliged him to set up the sloop which I had brought with me from England, as I have said, for the use of my colony, in order to send the refreshments I intended to my plantation. Accordingly he got hands, and finished the sloop in a very few days, for she was already framed, and I gave the master of her such instructions that he could not miss the place, nor did he, as I had an account from my partner afterwards. I got him soon loaded with the small cargo I sent them, and one of our seamen, that had been on shore with me there, offered to go with the sloop and settle there, upon my letter to the Governor Spaniard to allot him a sufficient quantity of land for a plantation, and on my giving him some clothes and tools for his planting work, which he said he understood, having been an old planter at Maryland, and a buccaneer into the bargain. I encouraged the fellow by granting all he desired, and, as an addition, I gave him the savage whom we had taken prisoner of war to be his slave, and ordered the Governor Spaniard to give him his share of everything he wanted with the rest. When we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me there was a certain very honest fellow, a Brazil planter of his acquaintance, who had fallen into the displeasure of the church. I know not what the matter is with him, says he, but on my conscience I think he is a heretic in his heart, and he has been obliged to conceal himself for fear of the inquisition. He then told me that he would be very glad of such an opportunity to make his escape with his wife and two daughters, and if I would let them go to my island, and allot them a plantation, he would give them a small stock to begin with, for the officers of the inquisition had seized all his effects and estate, and he had nothing left but a little household stuff and two slaves, and, adds he, though I hate his principles, yet I would not have him fall into their hands, for he will be assuredly burned alive if he does. I granted this presently, and joined my Englishman with them, and we concealed the man and his wife and daughters on board our ship till the sloop put out to go to sea, and then, having put all their goods on board some time before, we put them on board the sloop after she was got out of the bay. Our seamen was mightily pleased with this new partner, and their stocks, indeed, were much alike, rich in tools and preparations and a farm, but nothing to begin with, except as above. However, they carried over with them what was worth all the rest, some materials for planting sugar canes, with some plants of canes, which he, I mean the Brazil planter, understood very well. Among the rest of the supplies sent to my tenants in the island, I sent them by the sloop three milch cows and five calves, about twenty-two hogs, among them three sows, two mares, and a stone horse. For my Spaniards, according to my promise, I engaged three Brazil women to go, and recommended it to them to marry them, and use them kindly. I could have procured more women, but I remembered that the poor persecuted man had two daughters, and that there were but five of the Spaniards that wanted partners. The rest had wives of their own, though in another country. All this cargo arrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose, was very welcome to my old inhabitants, who were now, with this addition, between sixty and seventy people, besides little children, of which there were a great many, I found letters at London from them all, by way of Lisbon, when I came back to England. I have now done with the island, and all manner of discourse about it, and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums would do well to turn his thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read of the follies of an old man, not warned by his own harms, much less by those of other men, to beware, not cooled by almost forty years miseries and disappointments, not satisfied with prosperity beyond expectation, nor made cautious by afflictions and distress beyond example. I had no more business to go to the East Indies than a man at full liberty has to go to the turnkey at Newgate and desire him to lock him up among the prisoners there and starve him. Had I taken a small vessel from England and gone directly to the island, had I loaded her, as I did the other vessel, with all the necessaries for the plantation and for my people, taken a patent from the government here to have secured my property, in subjection only to that of England? Had I carried over cannon and ammunition, servants and people to plant, and taken possession of the place, fortified and strengthened it in the name of England, and increased it with people, as I might easily have done? Had I then settled myself there, and sent the ship back laden with good rice, as I might also have done in six months time, and ordered my friends to have fitted her out again for our supply? Had I done this, and stayed there myself? I had at least acted like a man of common sense, but I was possessed of a wandering spirit, and scorned all advantages. I pleased myself with being the patron of the people I placed there, and doing for them in a kind of haughty, majestic way, like an old patriarchal monarch, providing for them as if I had been father of the whole family, as well as of the plantation. But I never so much as pretended to plant in the name of any government or nation, or to acknowledge any prince, or to call my people subjects to any one nation more than another. Nay, I never so much as gave the place a name, but left it as I found it, belonging to nobody. And the people under no discipline or government, but my own, who, though I had influence over them as a father and benefactor, had no authority or power to act or command one way or other, further than voluntary consent moved them to comply. Yet even this, had I stayed there, would have done well enough. But as I rambled from them, and came there no more, the last letters I had from any of them were by my partner's means, who afterwards sent another sloop to the place, and who sent me word, though I had not the letter till I got to London, several years after it was written, that they went on but poorly, were discontented with their long stay there, that Will Atkins was dead, that five of the Spaniards were come away, and though they had not been much molested by the Savages, yet they had had some skirmishes with them, and that they begged of him to write to me to think of the promise I had made to fetch them away, that they might see their country again before they died. But I was gone a wild goose chase indeed, and they that will have any more of me must be content to follow me into a new variety of follies, hardships, and wild adventures, wherein the justice of Providence may be duly observed, and we may see how easily heaven can gorge us with our own desires, make the strongest of our wishes be our affliction, and punish us most severely with those things which we think it would be our utmost happiness to be allowed to possess. Whether I had business or no business away I went, it is no time now to enlarge upon the reason or absurdity of my own conduct, but to come to the history I was embarked for the voyage and the voyage I went. I shall only add a word or two concerning my honest Popish clergyman, for let their opinion of us and all other heretics in general, as they call us, be as uncharitable as it may, I verily believe this man was very sincere, and wished the good of all men, yet I believe he used reserve in many of his expressions to prevent giving me offence, for I scarce heard him once call on the Blessed Virgin, or mention Santiago, or his guardian angel, although so common with the rest of them. However, I say I had not the least doubt of his sincerity and pious intentions, and I am firmly of opinion, if the rest of the Popish missionaries were like him, they would strive to visit even the poor Tartars and Laplanders, where they have nothing to give them, as well as Covet to flock to India, Persia, China, etc., the most wealthy of the even countries, for if they expected to bring no gains to their church by it, it may well be admired how they came to admit the Chinese Confucius into the calendar of the Christian saints. A ship being ready to sail for Lisbon, my pious priest, asked me leave to go thither, being still, as he observed, bound never to finish any voyage he began. How happy it had been for me if I had gone with him, but it was too late now, all things heaven appoints for the best. Had I gone with him I had never had so many things to be thankful for, and the reader had never heard of the second part of the travels and adventures of Robinson Crusoe. So I must hear leave exclaiming at myself, and go on with my voyage. From the Brazils we made directly over the Atlantic Sea to the Cape of Good Hope, and had a tolerably good voyage, our course generally southeast, now and then a storm, and some contrary winds, but my disasters at sea were at an end, my future rubs and cross events were to befall me on shore, that it might appear the land was as well prepared to be our scourge as the sea. Our ship was on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on board who was to direct all her motions after she arrived at the Cape, only being limited to a certain number of days for stay by charter party, at the several ports she was to go. This was none of my business, neither did I meddle with it. My nephew, the captain, and the supercargo adjusting all those things between them as they thought fit. We stayed at the Cape no longer than was needful to take in fresh water, but made the best of our way for the coast of Coromandel. We were indeed informed that a French man of war, of fifty guns, and two large merchant ships, were gone for the indies, and as I knew we were at war with France, I had some apprehensions of them, but they went their own way, and we heard no more of them. I shall not pester the reader with a tedious description of places, journals of our voyage, variations of the compass, latitudes, trade winds, etc. It is enough to name the ports and places which we touched at, and what occurred to us upon our passages from one to another. We touched first at the island of Madagascar, where, though the people are fierce and treacherous, and very well armed with lances and bows which they used with inconceivable dexterity, yet we fared very well with them a while. They treated us very civilly, and for some trifles which we gave them, such as knives, scissors, etc., they brought us eleven good fat bullocks of a middling size which we took in, partly for fresh provisions for our present spending, and the rest to salt for the ship's use. We were obliged to stay here some time after we had furnished ourselves with provisions, and I, who was always too curious to look into every nook of the world wherever I came, went on shore as often as I could. It was on the east side of the island that we went on shore one evening, and the people, who, by the way, are very numerous, came thronging about us, and stood gazing at us at a distance. As we had traded freely with them, and had been kindly used, we thought ourselves in no danger. But when we saw the people, we cut three bows out of a tree, and stuck them up at a distance from us, which, it seems, is a mark in that country not only of a truce and friendship, but when it is accepted the other side set up three poles or bows, which is a signal that they accept the truce too. But then this is a known condition of the truce, that you are not to pass beyond their three poles towards them, nor they to come past your three poles or bows towards you, so that you are perfectly secure within the three poles, and all the space between your poles and theirs is allowed like a market for free converse, traffic, and commerce. When you go there you must not carry your weapons with you, and if they come into that space they stick up their javelins and lances all at the first poles and come on unarmed. But if any violence is offered them and the truce thereby broken, away they run to the poles and lay hold of their weapons and the truce is at an end. It happened one evening when we went on shore that a greater number of their people came down than usual, but all very friendly and civil, and they brought several kinds of provisions for which we satisfied them with such toys as we had. The women also brought us milk and roots, and several things very acceptable to us, and all was quiet, and we made us a little tent or hut of some boughs or trees, and lay on shore all night. I know not what was the occasion, but I was not so well satisfied as to lie on shore as the rest, and the boat riding at an anchor at about a stone's cast from the land, with two men in her to take care of her, I made one of them come on shore, and getting some boughs of trees to cover us also in the boat, I spread the sail on the bottom of the boat, and lay under the cover of the branches of the trees all night in the boat. About two o'clock in the morning we heard one of our men making a terrible noise on the shore, calling out for God's sake to bring the boat in and come and help them, for they were all like to be murdered, and at the same time I heard the fire of five muskets which was the number of guns they had, and that three times over, for it seems the natives here were not so easily frightened with guns as the savages were in America, where I had to do with them. All this while I knew not what was the matter, but rousing immediately from sleep with the noise, I caused the boat to be thrust in, and resolved with three fuses we had on board to land and assist our men. We got the boat soon to the shore, but our men were in too much haste, for being come to the shore they plunged into the water to get to the boat with all the expedition they could, being pursued by between three and four hundred men. Our men were but nine in all, and only five of them had fuses with them, the rest had pistols and swords, indeed, but they were of small use to them. We took up seven of our men, and with difficulty enough, two, three of them being very ill wounded, and that which was still worse was that while we stood in the boat to take our men in, we were in as much danger as they were in on shore, for they poured their arrows in upon us so thick that we were glad to barricade the side of the boat up with the benches, and two or three loose boards which, to our great satisfaction, we had by mere accident in the boat. And yet, had it been daylight, they are, it seems, such exact marksmen, that if they could have seen but the least part of any of us, they would have been sure of us. We had, by the light of the moon, a little sight of them, as they stood pelting us from the shore with darts and arrows, and having got ready our firearms, we gave them a volley that we could hear, by the cries of some of them, had wounded several. However, they stood thus in battle array on the shore till break of day, which we supposed was that they might see the better to take their aim at us. In this condition we lay, and could not tell how to weigh our anchor or set up our sail, because we must needs stand up in the boat, and they were as sure to hit us as we were to hit a bird in a tree with small shot. We made signals of distress to the ship, and though she rode a league off, yet my nephew, the captain, hearing our firing and by glasses perceiving the posture we lay in, and that we fired towards the shore, pretty well understood us, and weighing anchor with all speed, he stood as near the shore as he durced with the ship, and then sent another boat with ten hands in her to assist us. We called to them not to come too near, telling them what condition we were in. However, they stood in near to us, and one of the men taking the end of a toe line in his hand, and keeping our boat between him and the enemy, so that they could not perfectly see him, swam on board us, and made fast the line to the boat, upon which we slipped out a little cable, and leaving our anchor behind, they towed us out of reach of the arrows, we all the while lying close behind the barricade we had made. As soon as we were got from between the ship and the shore, that we could lay her side to the shore, she ran along just by them, and poured in a broad side among them, loaded with pieces of iron and lead, small bullets, and such stuff, besides the great shot which made a terrible havoc among them. When we were got on board and out of danger, we had time to examine into the occasion of this fray, and indeed our supercargo, who had been often in those parts, put me upon it, for he said he was sure the inhabitants would not have touched us after we had made a truce, if we had not done something to provoke them to it. At length it came out that an old woman, who had come to sell us some milk, had brought it within our poles, and a young woman with her, who also brought us some roots or herbs, and while the old woman, whether she was mother to the young woman or no they could not tell, was selling us the milk, one of our men offered some rudeness to the girl that was with her, at which the old woman made a great noise. However, the seamen would not quit his prize, but carried her out of the old woman's sight among the trees, it being almost dark. The old woman went away without her, and, as we may suppose, made an outcry among the people she came from, who, upon notice, raised that great army upon us in three or four hours, and it was great odds, but we had all been destroyed. One of our men was killed with a lance thrown at him just at the beginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the tent they had made, the rest came off free, all but the fellow who was the occasion of all the mischief, who paid dear enough for his brutality, for we could not hear what became of him for a great while. We lay upon the shore two days after, though the wind presented, and made signals for him, and made our boats sail up shore and down shore several leagues, but in vain. So we were obliged to give him over, and if he alone had suffered for it, the loss had been less. I could not satisfy myself, however, without venturing on shore once more, to try if I could learn anything of him or them. It was the third night after the action that I had a great mind to learn, if I could by any means, what mischief we had done, and how the game stood on the Indian's side. I was careful to do it in the dark, lest we should be attacked again, but I ought indeed to have been sure that the men I went with had been under my command, before I engaged in a thing so hazardous and mischievous as I was brought into by it, without design. We took twenty as stout fellows with us as any in the ship, besides the supercargo and myself, and we landed two hours before midnight, at the same place where the Indians stood drawn up in the evening before. I landed here because my design, as I have said, was chiefly to see if they had quitted the field, and if they had left any marks behind them of the mischief we had done them, and I thought if we could surprise one or two of them, perhaps we might get our man again by way of exchange. We landed without any noise, and divided our men into two bodies, whereof the Bosun commanded one and I the other. We neither saw nor heard anybody stir when we landed, and we marched up one body at a distance from another to the place. At first we could see nothing, it being very dark, till by and by our Bosun, who led the first party, stumbled and fell over a dead body. This made them halt a while, for knowing by the circumstances that they were at the place where the Indians had stood, they waited for my coming up there. We concluded to halt till the moon began to rise, which we knew would be in less than an hour, when we could easily discern the havoc we had made among them. We told thirty-two bodies upon the ground, whereof two were not quite dead, some had an arm and some a leg shot off, and won his head. Those that were wounded, we supposed, they had carried away. When we had made, as I thought, a full discovery of all we could come to the knowledge of, I resolved on going on board, but the Bosun and his party sent me word that they were resolved to make a visit to the Indian town where these dogs, as they called them, dwelt, and asked me to go along with them, and if they could find them, as they fancied they should, they did not doubt of getting a good booty, and it might be they might find Tom Jeffery there, that was the man's name we had lost. Had they sent to ask my leave to go, I knew well enough what answer to have given them, for I should have commanded them instantly on board, knowing it was not a hazard fit for us to run, who had a ship and ship loading in our charge, and a voyage to make which depended very much upon the lives of the men, but as they sent me word they were resolved to go and only asked me and my company to go along with them, I positively refused it and rose up, for I was sitting on the ground in order to go to the boat. One or two of the men began to importune me to go, and when I refused, began to grumble, and say they were not under my command, and they would go. Come, Jack, says one of the men, will you go with me? I'll go for one. Jack said he would, and then another, and, in a word, they all left me but one, whom I persuaded to stay, and a boy left in the boat. So the supercargo and I, with the third man, went back to the boat, where we told them we would stay for them, and take care to take in as many of them as should be left, for I told them it was a mad thing they were going about, and supposed most of them would have the fate of Tom Jeffery. They told me, like seamen, they would warrant it, they would come off again, and they would take care, etc., so away they went. I entreated them to consider the ship and the voyage, that their lives were not their own, and that they were entrusted with the voyage in some measure, that if they miscarried, the ship might be lost for want of their help, and that they could not answer for it to God or man. But I might as well have talked to the main mast of the ship. They were mad upon their journey, only they gave me good words and begged I would not be angry, that they did not doubt but they would be back again in about an hour at furthest, for the Indian town, they said, was not above half a mile off, though they found it above two miles before they got to it. Well, they all went away, and though the attempt was desperate, and such as none but madmen would have gone about, yet, to give them their due, they went about it as warily as boldly. They were gallantly armed, for they had every man a fusee or musket, a bayonet, and a pistol. Some of them had broad cutlasses, some of them had hangers, and the Bosun and two more had poleaxes, besides all which they had among them, thirteen hand granados. Bolder fellows and better provided never went about any wicked work in the world. 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 was not above half a mile off, they were under 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 and raise all the town, so they should have a whole army upon them. 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 them 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 would follow her. So they cut the cord which was made of twisted flags, and the cow went on before 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 in silence as profoundly secure as sleep could make them, and first they called another council to consider what they had to do, and presently resolved to divide themselves into three bodies, and so 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 they resolved to march silently first through the town, and see what dimensions it was of, and 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, who were a little before the rest, called out aloud to them, and told them that they had found Tom Jeffery. They all ran up to the place where they found the poor fellow hanging 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 comrades so enraged them as before, that they swore to one another that they would be revenged, and that not an Indian that came into their hands should have any quarter, and to work they went immediately, and yet not so madly as might be expected from the rage and fury they were in. 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 and rushes, of which the country is full, so they presently made some wild fire, as we call it, by wetting a little powder in the palm 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 frightened 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 boson himself killing one or two with his pollacks. The house being large and many in it, he did not care to go in, but called for a hand-granado, and threw it in among them, which at first frightened 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 granado, except two or three more who pressed to the door, which the boson and two more kept with their bayonets on the muzzles of their pieces, and dispatched all that came in their way. But there was another apartment in the house where the prince or king, or whatever he was, and several others were, and these were kept in till the house, which was by this time all in a light flame, fell in upon them, and they were smothered 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. Their business was to follow the fire, for the shore or execution, as fast as the fire either forced the people out of those houses which were burning, or frightened them out of others, our people were ready at their doors to knock them on the head, still calling and hallowing one to another to remember Tom Jeffrey. 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 close by me. My nephew, the captain, who was roused by his men 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 firearms, a thousand thoughts oppressed his mind concerning me and the supercargo, what would become of us, and at last, though he could ill spare any more men, yet not knowing what exigence we might be in, he took another boat, and with thirteen men and himself came ashore to me. He was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat with no more than two men, 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. In short, it was next to an impossibility for any men in the world to restrain their curiosity to know 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, the danger of the voyage, the interests of the owners and merchants, etc., and told him I and the two men would go and only see if we could at a distance learn what was likely to be the event and come back and tell him. It was in vain 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 lose the ship, the voyage and his life and all, and away he went. I was no more able to stay behind now than I was to persuade them not to go, so the captain ordered two men to row back the penis and fetch twelve men more, 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 late quarrel which brought this mischief on. Being now on the march, 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 was 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 was never at the Sackingus city, or at the taking a town by storm. I had heard of Oliver Cromwell taking Droida in Ireland, and killing man, woman, and child, and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city of Magdeburg, and cutting the throats of twenty-two thousand of all sexes, but I never had an idea of the thing itself before, nor is it possible to describe it, or the horror that 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, plainly 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, there were such instances of 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 they ought to be every one of them put to the worst of deaths. But this was not all, we saw the fire increase 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 behold to our astonishment, three naked women, and crying in a most dreadful manner, came flying as if they had wings, and after them sixteen or seventeen men, natives, in the same terror and consternation, with three of our English butchers 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 means 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 lamentation to us to save them, which we let them know we would, whereupon they crept all together in a huddle close behind us as for protection. I left my men drawn up together, and charging 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 to command them off, assuring them that if they stayed 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 burned with trampling and running through the fire, others their hands burned, one of the women had fallen down in the fire, and was very much burned before she could get out again, and 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 feign have learned what the occasion of all this was, but I could not understand one word they said, though by signs I perceived 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, and resolved to go into the middle of the town, through the fire, or whatever might be in the way, and put an end to it, cost what it would. Accordingly, as I came back to my men, I told them my resolution, and commanded them to follow me, when, at the very moment, came four of our men, with the boson at their head, roving over heaps of bodies they had killed, all covered with blood and dust, as if they wanted more people to massacre, when our men hallowed to them as loud as they could hallow, and with much adieu one of them made to hear, so that they knew who we were, and came up to us. As soon as the bosons saw us, he set up a hallou like a shout of triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come, and without waiting to hear me, Captain, says he, noble captain, I am glad you are come, we have not half done yet, villainous, hellhound dogs, I'll kill as many of them as poor Tom has hairs upon his head, we have sworn to spare none of them, we'll root out the very nation 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 showed me the poor fellow hanging with his throat cut. I confess I was urged then myself, and at another time would have been forward enough, but I thought they had carried their rage too far, and remembered Jacob's words to his sons, Simeon and Levi, curse it 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 had 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, and 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 bosan 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 walked back to the boat. 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 seaside, and by the time I got to the seaside it was broad day. Immediately I took the penis and went on board, and set her back to assist the men in what might happen. I observed about the time that I got to the boatside, that 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 firearms, and saw a great smoke. This, as I understood afterwards, was our men falling upon the men who, as I said, stood at the few houses on the way, of whom they killed sixteen or seventeen, and set all the houses on fire, but did not meddle with the women or children. By the time the men got to the shore again with the penis our men began to appear. They came dropping in, not in two bodies as they went, but 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, and the men were surprised, and so frightened 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 that made any considerable defense. 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 everywhere knocked down, nor did any of our men receive the least hurt except one that sprained his foot, and another that had one of his hands burned. CHAPTER X I was very angry with my nephew, the captain, and indeed with all the men, but with him in particular, as well for his acting so out of his duty as a commander of the ship, and having the charge of the voyage upon him, as in his prompting, rather than cooling, the rage of his blind 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 semen whom they had murdered in so cruel and barbarous a 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 had killed, but according to the best of their accounts, put all together, they killed or destroyed about one hundred and fifty people, men, women, and children, and left not a house standing in the town. As for the poor fellow Tom Jeffery, 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 only took him down from the tree, where he was hanging by one hand. However just our men thought this action, I was against them in it, and I always, after that time, told them God would blast the voyage, for I looked upon all the blood they shed that night to be murder in them, for though it is true that they had killed Tom Jeffery, yet Jeffery was the aggressor, had broken the truce, and had ill-used a young woman of theirs who came down to them innocently, and on the faith of the public capitulation. The Boson 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 now, we might also be in a capacity to do ourselves justice upon them in an extraordinary manner, that though the poor man had taken a little liberty with the girl, he ought not to have been murdered, and that in such a villainous manner, and that they did nothing but what was just and what 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 amongst the heathens and barbarians, but it is impossible to make mankind wise but at their own expense, 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 his business outward bound, he was to go out to China and return to the coast as he came home. The first disaster that befell 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 Arabians, 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 upbrade them with the just retribution of heaven in this case, but the Bosun very warmly told me he thought I went further in my censures than I could show any warrant for in scripture, and referred to Luke 13.4, where our Saviour intimates that those men on whom the Tower of Siloam fell were not sinners above all the Galileans, but that which put me to silence in the case was that not one of these five men who were now lost were of those who went on shore to the massacre of Madagascar, so I always called it, though our men could not bear to hear the word massacre with any patience. But my frequent preaching to them on this subject had worse consequences than I expected, and the Bosun, who had been the head of the attempt, came up boldly to me one time, and told me he found that I brought that affair continually 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 to 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 any further with him or any of his affairs, he would leave the ship, for he did not think it safe to sail with me among them. I heard him patiently enough till he had done, and then told him that I confessed I had all along opposed the massacre of Madagascar, 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 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, and what concern I had in the voyage was none of his business, that I was a considerable owner in the ship. In that claim I conceived I had a right to speak even further than I had done, and would not be accountable to him or anyone else, and began to be a little warm with him. He made but little reply to me at that time, and I thought the affair had been over. We were at this time in the road at Bangal, 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 more. Anyone may guess what a surprise I was in at so insolent a message, and I asked the man who bade him deliver that message to me. He told me the coxswain. I immediately found out the supercargo, and told him the story, adding that I foresaw there would be a mutiny in the ship, and entreated him to go immediately on board 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 boson, the gunner, the carpenter, and all the inferior officers, as soon as I was gone off in the boat came up and desired to speak with the captain, and then the boson making a long harangue, and repeating all he had said to me, told the captain 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 well and faithfully, but if I would not quit the ship, or the captain obliged me to quit it, they would all leave the ship, and sail no further with him, and at that word all he turned his face towards the main mast, which was, it seems, a signal agreed on, when the seamen, being got together there, 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, yet he told them calmly that 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 show 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 all go on shore unless he would engage to them not to suffer me to come any more 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 smartly to them, told them that I was a very considerable owner of the ship, and that if ever they came to England again it would cost them very dear, that the ship was mine, and that he could not put me out of it, and that he would rather lose the ship and the voyage too, than disoblage me so much. So they might do as they pleased. However, he would go on shore and talk with me, and invited the Bosun 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, and if I came on board they would all 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, having nothing to help myself. In short I had been in a worse case than when I was alone in the island. But they had not come to that length, it seems, to my 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 on shore. 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. 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 that the matter was over in a few hours the men returned to their duty, and I began to consider what course I should steer. I was now alone in a most remote part of the world, 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 moguls country to Surat, might go from thence to Basora by sea up the gulf of Persia, and take the way of the caravans over the desert of Arabia to Aleppo and Scandarune, from thence by sea again to Italy, and so overland into France. I had another way before me which was to wait for some English ships which were coming to Bengal from Akin on the island of Sumatra, and get passage on board them from England. But as I came hither without any concern of the East Indian company, so it would be difficult to go from hence without their license, unless with great favour of the captains of the ships, or the company's factors, and to both I was an utter stranger. Here I had the mortification to see the ship set sail without me. However my nephew left me two servants, or rather one companion and one servant. The first was Clark to the purser, whom he engaged to go with me, and the other was his own servant. I then took a good lodging in the house of an English woman, hither several merchants lodged, some French, two Italians, or rather Jews, and one Englishman. Here I stayed above nine months, considering what course to take. 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 straightened, whatever might happen. I quickly disposed of my goods to advantage, and, as I originally intended, I bought here some very good diamonds, which, of all other things, were the most proper for me in my present circumstances, because I could always carry my whole estate about me. During my stay here many proposals were made for my return to England, but none falling out to my mind, the English merchant who lodged with me, and whom I had contracted an intimate acquaintance with, came to me one morning saying, Contrements, I have a project to communicate, which, as it suits with my thoughts, may, for ought I know, suit with yours also. When you shall have thoroughly considered it, here we are posted, 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 one thousand pounds to my one 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'll go a trading voyage to China, for what should we stand still for? The whole world is in motion, why should we be idle? I liked this proposal very well, and the more so, because it seemed to be expressed with so much good will. In my loose unhinged circumstances, I was the fitter to embrace a proposal for trade, or indeed anything else. 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 minds, and when we had 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 boson, and a gunner, English, a Dutch carpenter, and three four-mast men, with these we found we could do well enough, having Indian seamen such as they were to make up. When all was ready we set sail for Aqeen in the island of Sumatra, and from thence to Siam, where we exchanged some of our wares for opium and some arach, the first a commodity which bears a great price among the Chinese, and which at that time was much wanted there. Then we went up to Sascan, where eight months out, and on our return to Bangal I was very well satisfied with my adventure. Our people in England often admire how officers, which the company send into India, and the merchants which generally stay there, get such very great estates as they do, and sometimes come home worth sixty or seventy thousand pounds at a time. But it is little matter for wonder when we consider the innumerable ports and places where they have a free commerce. Indeed at the ports where the English ships come there is such great and constant demands for the growth of all other countries that there is a certain vent for returns, as well as a market abroad for the goods carried out. I got so much money by my 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 upwards of three score, that was rich enough, and came abroad more in obedience to a restless desire of seeing the world than a covetous desire of gaining by it? A restless desire it really was, for when I was at home I was restless to go abroad, and when 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 of getting more money. Therefore the profit of the voyage to me was of no great force for the prompting me forward to further 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, like that which Solomon speaks of, was never satisfied with seeing. I was come into a part of the world which I was never in before, and that part in particular, which I 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 acknowledge his were the more suited to the end of a merchant's life, who, when he is abroad upon adventures, is wise to stick to that, as the best thing for him which he is likely to get the most money by. On the other hand, mine 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 an unsettled resolution which way to go. In the interval of these consultations my friend, who was always upon the search for business, proposed another voyage among the spice islands, to bring home a loading of cloves from the Manila's or their abouts. 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 as sitting still 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 other islands, and came home in about five months when we sold our spices, with very great profit, to the Persian merchants, who carried them away to the Gulf. My friend, when we made up this account, smiled at me. Well now, said he, with a sort of friendly rebuke on my indolent temper, is not this better than walking about here like a man with nothing to do, and spending our time in staring at the nonsense and ignorance 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, by the way, you do not know what I am doing, for if I once conquer my backwardness, and embark heartily, 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. CHAPTER X A little while after this there came in a Dutch ship from Batavia. She was a coaster, not a European trader, of about two hundred tons burden. The men, as they pretended, having been so sickly that the captain had not hands enough to go to sea with, so he lay by at Bangal, and having, it seems, got money enough, or being willing, for other reasons to go for Europe, he gave public notice 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 to him and told him of it. He considered a while, for he was no rash man, neither, and at last replied, she is a little too big, 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 engage the men, if we could, to join with those we had for the pursuing our business. But, on a sudden, they having received not their wages, but their share of the money as we afterwards learned, not one of them was to be found. We inquired much about them, and at length were told they were all gone together by land to Agra, the great city of the Mogul's residence, to proceed from thence to Surat, and then to go by sea to the Gulf of Persia. Nothing had so much troubled me a good while, as that I should miss the opportunity of going with them, for such a ramble I thought, and in such company as would both have guarded and diverted me, would have suited mightily with my great design, and I should have both seen the world and gone homeward, 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 had been attacked on shore by some of the Malays who had killed the Captain and three of his men, and that after the Captain was killed, these men, eleven in number, having resolved to run away with the ship, brought her to Bengal, leaving the mate and five men more on shore. Well, let them get 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 anything of the seamen, who would certainly have faltered in their account, and contradicted one another. Somehow or other we should have had reason to have suspected them, but the man showed us a bill of sail for the ship, to one Immanuel Kloster's Hoven, 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 with all, having no suspicion of the thing, we went through with our bargain. We picked up some more English sailors here after this, and some Dutch, and now we resolved on the second voyage to the southeast for cloves, et cetera, that is to say among the Philippine and Malacca Isles. In short, not to fill up this part of my story with trifles when what is 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 new 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 than we found our ship had sprung a leak, but could not discover where it was. This forced us to make 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, a gunner's mate on board an English East India ship, then riding in the same river. Sir, says he, addressing me, you are a stranger to me and I to you, but I have something to tell you that very nearly concerns you. I am moved by the imminent danger you are in, and for what 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 intend to lay her aground to-morrow to see if I can find it. But sir, says he, leaky or not leaky, 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 the 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, said 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 could not conceive what he meant, and I turned short upon him and said, 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? Well, sir, says he, with a smile, if you think yourself secure you must take your chance, but take my advice. If you do not put to see immediately you will, the very next tide, be attacked by five longboats full of men, and perhaps if you are taken you will be hanged for a pirate, and the particulars be examined 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 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 villainous design on hand against me, I will go on board this minute and put to see immediately if my men can stop the leak. But, sir, said I, shall I go away ignorant of the cause of all this? Can you give me no further light into it? I can tell you what 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, that you were with this ship at Sumatra, that there your captain was murdered by the Malaise, 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 show but little law to pirates if they get them into 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, for I am sure we came honestly and fairly by the ship, yet seeing such a work is 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 defense is to be out of danger. If you have any regard for your life and the lives of all your men, put 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 will 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 to make you amends? Sir, says he, you may not be willing to make me any 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 lives 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 out on the quarter-deck and called to me with a great deal of joy. We have stopped the leak! We have stopped the leak! Say you so, said I, thank God, but weigh anchor then immediately. Weigh, says he, what do you mean by that? What is the matter? Ask no questions, said I, but set all hands to work and weigh without losing a minute. He was surprised. However, he called the captain, and he immediately ordered the anchor to be got up, and though the tide was not quite down, yet a little land breeze blowing, we stood out to sea. Then I called him into the cabin and told him the story, and we called in the men, and they told us the rest of it. But as it took up a great deal of time before we had done, a seamen comes to the cabin door, and called out to us that the captain bade him tell us we were chased by five sloops or boats full of men. Very well, said I, then it is apparent there is something in it. I then ordered all our men to be called up, and told them there was a design to seize the ship and take us for pirates, and asked them if they would stand by us, and one by 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 was best for us to manage a fight with them, for resist them I was 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 use our small arms to keep them from boarding us, but when neither of these would do any longer we would retire to our close quarters, for perhaps they had not materials to break open our bulkheads, or get in upon us. The gunner had in the meantime 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 came next to hand. Thus we made ready for fight, but all this while we 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 those boats, which by our glasses we could see were English, out sailed the rest, were near two leagues ahead of them, and gained upon us considerably, so that we found they would come up with us, upon which we fired a gun without ball, to intimate that they should bring two, and we put out a flag of truce as a signal for parley, but they came crowding after us till within shot, when we took in our white flag, they having made no answer to it, and hung out a red flag, and fired at them with a shot. Notwithstanding this, they came on till they were near enough to call them with a speaking trumpet, bidding them keep off at their peril. It was all one, they crowded after us, and endeavored to come under our stern, so as 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, too, so that they lay upon our broadside, when immediately we fired five guns at them, one of which had been leveled so true as to carry away the stern of the Hindermost boat, and we then forced them to take down their sail, and to run 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 crowd on after us, we made ready to fire at her in particular. While this was doing one of the three boats that followed made up to the boat which we had disabled to relieve her, and we could see her take out the men. We then called again to the foremost boat, and offered a truce to Parley again, and to know what her business was with us, but had no answer, only she crowded close under our stern. Upon this our gunner, who was a very dexterous fellow, ran out his two case guns, and fired again at her. But the shot missing, the men in the boat shouted, waved their caps, and came on. 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 did a great deal of mischief among them. We now wore the ship again, and brought our quarter to bear upon them, and firing three guns more, we found the boat was almost split to pieces, in particular her rudder and a piece of her stern were shot quite away, so they handed her sail immediately, and were in great disorder. To complete their misfortune, our gunner let fly two guns at them again, where he hit them we could not tell, but we found that the boat was sinking, and some of the men already in the water. Upon this I immediately manned out our penis, with orders to pick up some of the men if they could, and save them from drowning, and immediately come on board ship with them, because we saw the rest of the boats began to come up. Our men in the penis followed their orders, and took up three men, one of whom 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 the sea, and we found that when the other boats came up to the first 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 resolved that we should change our course and not let anyone know whether we were going, so we stood out to see eastward, quite out of the course of all European ships, whether they were bound to China or anywhere else, within the commerce of the European nations. When we were at sea we began to consult with the two seamen, and inquire what the meaning of all this should be, and the Dutchman confirmed the gunner's story about the false sail of the ship, and of the murder of the captain, and also how that he, this Dutchman, and four more got into the woods, where they wandered about a great while till at length he made his escape, and swam off to a Dutch ship which was sailing near the shore in its way from China. He then told us that he went to Batavia, where two of the seamen belonging to the ship 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 who were gone accruising 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, though we knew it to be false. Yet, as my partner said, very justly, if we had fallen into their hands, and they had had such a prepossession against us beforehand, it had been in vain for us to have defended ourselves, or to hope for any good quarter 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 an ungoverned passion have executed. Therefore it was his opinion we should go directly back to Bengal from whence we came, without putting in at any port whatever, because where we could give a good account of ourselves, could prove where we were when the ship put in, of whom we bought her, and the like, and what was more than all the rest, if we were put upon the necessity of bringing it before the proper judges, we should be sure to have some justice, and not to 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, 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 certainly should 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 Tonkwin, and so on to the coast of China, and 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 north northeast, 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 that distance from the shore, seemed to be more steadily against us, blowing almost trade, as we call it, from the east and east northeast, so that we were a long while upon our voyage, and we were but ill provided with victuals for so long a run, and what was still worse, there was some danger that those English and Dutch ships whose boats pursued us, whereof some were bound that way, might have 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 vigor. I must confess I was now very uneasy, and thought myself, including the late escape from the long boats, to have been in the most dangerous condition that ever I was in through my past life, for whatever ill circumstances I had been in, I was never pursued for a thief before, nor had I ever done anything that merited the name of dishonest or fraudulent, much less thievish. I had chiefly been my own enemy, or as I may rightly say, I had been nobody's enemy but my own, but now I was woefully embarrassed, 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, this made me very anxious to make an escape, though which way to do it I knew not, or what port or place we could go to. My partner endeavoured to encourage me by describing the several ports of that coast, and told me he would put in on the coast of Cochin, China, or the Bay of Tonkwin, intending afterwards to go to Macau, where a great many European families resided, and particularly the missionary priests who usually went thither in order to their going forward to China. Rather than we resolved to go, and accordingly, though after a tedious course, and very much straightened for provisions, we came within sight of the coast very early in the morning, and upon reflection on the past circumstances of danger we were in, 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 penis, 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 Tonkwin, 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 by occupation, 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 northeast to the point of land which opens the great bay of Tonkwin, and it was in this beating up along the shore that we discovered we were surrounded with enemies. The people we were among were the most barbarous of all the inhabitants of the coast, and among other customs they have this one, that if any vessel has the misfortune to be shipwrecked upon their coast, they make them in all prisoners or 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 it happened that, as I have said, it was stopped unexpectedly on the eve of our being pursued by the Dutch and English ships in 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 at this place to lay her on shore 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 movables to one side, we tried to bring her down that we might come at her bottom, but on second thoughts we did not care to lay her on dry ground, neither could we find out a proper place for it. End of Chapter 11