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"No," said he, "I don't understand that they murdered him; but as they afterwards ran away with the ship, it is generally believed that they betrayed him into the hands of the Malayans, who did murder him; and perhaps they procured them to do it."—" Why then," said I," they deserve death as much as if they had done it themselves." "Nay," says

the old man," they do deserve it, and they will certainly have it, if they light upon any English or Dutch ship; for they have all agreed together, that if they meet that rogue they'll give him no quarter."—" But," said I to him, " you say the pirate is gone out of these seas; how can they meet with him then?". 66 Why that's true," says he, " they do say so; but he was, as I tell you, in the bay of Siam, in the river Cambodia, and was discovered there by some Dutchmen who belonged to the ship, and who were left on shore when they ran away with her; and some English and Dutch traders being in the river, they were within a little of taking him: nay," said he," if the foremost boats had been well seconded by the rest, they had certainly taken him; but he finding only two boats within reach of him, tacked about, and fired at those two and disabled them before the others came up, and then standing off to sea, the others were not able to follow, and so he got away; but they have all so exact a description of the ship, that they will be sure to know her, and wherever they find her they have vowed to give no quarter either to the captain or seamen, but to hang them all up at the yard-arm.' "What!" says I," will they execute them right or wrong; hang them first, and judge them afterwards?""O Sir," says the old pilot, "there is no need to make a formal business of it with such rogues as those; let them tie them back to back, and set them a diving, 'tis no more than they deserve."

I knew I had my old man fast on board, and that he could do me no harm, so that I turned short upon him: "Well now, Seignior," said I," this is the very reason why I would have you carry us up to Nanquin, and not put back to Macao, or to any other part of the country where the English or Dutch ships come; for be it known to you, Seignior, those captains of the English and Dutch ships are a parcel of rash proud, insolent fellows, that neither know what belongs to jus tice, or how to behave themselves as the laws of God and nature direct; but being proud of their offices, and not un derstanding their power, they would act the murderers to punish robbers; would take upon them to insult men false accused, and determine them guilty without due inquiry and

perhaps I may live to bring some of them to account for it, when they may be taught how justice is to be executed; and that no man ought to be treated as a criminal till some evidence may be had of the crime, and that he is the man."

With this I told him that this was the very ship they attacked, and gave him a full account of the skirmish we had with their boats, and how foolishly and cowardly they behaved. I told him all the story of our buying the ship, and how the Dutchman served us. I told him the reasons I had to believe the story of killing the master by the Malayans was true, as also the running away with the ship; but it was all a fiction of their own to suggest that the men had turned pirates, and they ought to have been sure it was so before they had ventured to attack us by surprise, and oblige us to resist them; adding, that they would have the blood of those men, whom we killed there in just defence, to answer for.

The old man was amazed at this relation, and told us we were very much in the right to go away to the north; and that if he might advise us, it should be to sell the ship in China, which we might very well do, and buy or build another in the country; and, said he, though you will not get so good a ship, yet you may get one able enough to carry you and all your goods back again to Bengal, or any where else. I told him I would take his advice when I came to any port where I could find a ship for my turn, or get any customer to buy this. He replied, I should meet with customers enough for the ship at Nanquin, and that a Chinese junk would serve me very well to go back again; and that he would procure me people both to buy one and sell the other. "Well, but Seignior," says I," as you say they know the ship so well, I may, perhaps, if I follow your measures, be instrumental to bring some honest innocent men into a terrible broil, and perhaps to be murdered in cold blood; for wherever they find the ship, they will prove the guilt upon the men, by proving this was the ship, and so innocent men may probably be overpowered and murdered."—" Why," says the old man, "I'll find out a way to prevent that also; for as I know all those commanders you speak of very well, and shall see them all as they pass by, I will be sure to set them to rights in the thing, and let them know that they had been so much in the wrong; that though the people who were on board at first might run away with the ship, yet it was not true that they had turned pirates; and that, in particular, these were not the men that first went off with the ship, but innocently bought

her for their trade; and I am persuaded they will so far believe me, as at least to act more cautiously for the time to come."

While these things were passing between us, by way of discourse, we went forward directly for Nanquin, and in about thirteen days sail came to an anchor at the south-west point of the great gulph of Nanquin; where, by the way, I came by accident to understand that two Dutch ships were gone the length before me, and that I should certainly fall into their hands. I consulted my partner again in this exigency, and he was as much at a loss as I was, and would very gladly have been safe on shore almost any where : however, I was not in such perplexity neither, but I asked the old pilot if there was no creek or harbour which I might put into and pursue my business with the Chinese privately, and be in no danger of the enemy? He told me if I would sail to the southward about forty-two leagues, there was a little port called Quinchang, where the fathers of the mission usually landed from Macao, on their progress to teach the Christian religion to the Chinese, and where no European ships ever put in; and if I thought to put in there, I might consider what farther course to take when I was on shore. He confessed, he said, it was not a place for merchants, except that at some certain times they had a kind of a fair there, when the merchants from Japan came over thither to buy the Chinese merchandizes.

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

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

We came to the other port (the wind being contrary) not till five days, but it was very much to our satisfaction; and I was joyful, and I may say thankful, when I set my foot on

shore, resolving, and my partner too, that if it was possible to dispose of ourselves and effects any other way, though not every way to our satisfaction, we would never set one foot on board that unhappy vessel more; and, indeed, I must acknowledge, that of all the circumstances of life that ever I had any experience of, nothing makes mankind so completely miserable as that of being in constant fear. Well does the scripture say, the fear of man brings a snare; it is a life of death, and the mind is so entirely suppressed by it, that it is capable of no relief.

Nor did it fail of its usual operations upon the fancy, by heightening every danger, representing the English and Dutch captains to be men incapable of hearing reason, or of distinguishing between honest men and rogues, or between a story calculated for our own turn, made out of nothing, on purpose to deceive, and a true genuine account of our whole voyage, progress and design; for we might many ways have convinced any reasonable creature that we were not pirates; the goods we had on board, the course we steered, our frankly showing ourselves, and entering into such and such ports; and even our very manner, the force we had, the number of men, the few arms, little ammunition, short provisions; all these would have served to convince any men that we were no pirates. The opium and other goods we had on board would make it appear the ship had been at Bengal. The Dutchmen, who, it was said, had the names of all the men that were in the ship, might easily see that we were a mixture of English, Portuguese, and Indians, and but two Dutchmen on board. These, and many other particular circumstances, might have made it evident to the understanding of any commander, whose hands we might fall into, that we were no pirates. But fear, that blind, useless passion, worked another way, and threw us into the vapours; it bewildered our understandings, and set the imagination at work to form a thousand terrible things that perhaps might never happen. We first supposed, as indeed every body had related to us, that the seamen on board the English and Dutch ships, but especially the Dutch, were so enraged at the name of a pirate, and especially at our beating off their boats and escaping, that they would not give themselves leave to inquire whether we were pirates or no, but would execute us off hand, as we call it, without giving us any room for a defence. We reflected that there really was so much apparent evidence before them, that they would scarce inquire after any more; as, first, that the ship was certainly the same,

and that some of the seamen among them knew her, and had been on board her; and, secondly, that when we had intelligence at the river of Cambodia that they were coming down to examine us, we fought their boats and fled; so that we made no doubt but they were as fully satisfied of our being pirates, as we were satisfied of the contrary; and, as I often said, I know not but I should have been apt to have taken those circumstances for evidence, if the tables were turned, and my case was theirs, and have made no scruple of cutting all the crew to pieces, without believing, or perhaps considering, what they might have to offer in their defence.

But let that be how it will, these were our apprehensions; and both my partner and I scarce slept a night without dreaming of halters and yard-arms, that is to say, gibbets; of fighting, and being taken; of killing, and being killed and one night I was in such a fury in my dream, fancying the Dutchmen had boarded us, and I was knocking one of their seamen down, that I struck my double fist against the side of the cabin I lay in with such a force, as wounded my hand grievously, broke my knuckles, and cut and bruised the flesh, so that it awaked me out of my sleep.

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

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

I cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections I now had upon the vast variety of my particular circumstances; how hard I thought it was, that I, who had spent forty years

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