it, from the E. and ENE., 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 vigour.
I must confess I was now very uneasy, and thought myself, including
the late escape from the longboats, 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 Tonquin, intending afterwards
to go to Macao, where a great many European families resided, and
particularly the missionary priests, who usually went thither in
order to their going forward to China.
Hither then we resolved to go; and, accordingly, though after a
tedious course, and very much straitened 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 pinnace, come to know what ships were in any port
thereabouts. This happy step was, indeed, our deliverance: for
though we did not immediately see any European ships in the bay of
Tonquin, yet the next morning there came into the bay two Dutch
ships; and a third without any colours spread out, but which we
believed to be a Dutchman, passed by at about two leagues'
distance, steering for the coast of China; and in the afternoon
went by two English ships steering the same course; and thus we
thought we saw ourselves beset with enemies both one way and the
other. The place we were in was wild and barbarous, the people
thieves 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 north-east to
the point of land which opens the great bay of Tonquin; 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 the men 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.
CHAPTER XII--THE CARPENTER'S WHIMSICAL CONTRIVANCE
The inhabitants came wondering down the shore to look at us; and
seeing the ship lie down on one side in such a manner, and heeling
in towards the shore, and not seeing our men, who were at work on
presently concluded that the ship was cast away, and lay fast on
the ground. On this supposition they came about us in two or three
hours' time with ten or twelve large boats, having some of them
eight, some ten men in a boat, intending, no doubt, to have come on
board and plundered the ship, and if they found us there, to have
carried us away for slaves.
When they came up to the ship, and began to row round her, they
discovered us all hard at work on the outside of the ship's bottom
and side, washing, and graving, and stopping, as every seafaring
man knows how. They stood for a while gazing at us, and we, who
were a little surprised, could not imagine what their design was;
but being willing to be sure, we took this opportunity to get some
of us into the ship, and others to hand down arms and ammunition to
those that were at work, to defend themselves with if there should
be occasion. And it was no more than need: for in less than a
quarter of an hour's consultation, they agreed, it seems, that the
ship was really a wreck, and that we were all at work endeavouring
to save her, or to save our lives by the help of our boats; and
when we handed our arms into the boat, they concluded, by that act,
that we were endeavouring to save some of our goods. Upon this,
they took it for granted we all belonged to them, and away they
came directly upon our men, as if it had been in a line-of-battle.
Our men, seeing so many of them, began to be frightened, for we lay
but in an ill posture to fight, and cried out to us to know what
they should do. I immediately called to the men that worked upon
the stages to slip them down, and get up the side into the ship,
and bade those in the boat to row round and come on board. The few
who were on board worked with all the strength and hands we had to
bring the ship to rights; however, neither the men upon the stages
nor those in the boats could do as they were ordered before the
Cochin Chinese were upon them, when two of their boats boarded our
longboat, and began to lay hold of the men as their prisoners.
The first man they laid hold of was an English seaman, a stout,
strong fellow, who having a musket in his hand, never offered to
fire it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool, as I thought;
but he understood his business better than I could teach him, for
he grappled the Pagan, and dragged him by main force out of their
boat into ours, where, taking him by the ears, he beat his head so
against the boat's gunnel that the fellow died in his hands. In
the meantime, a Dutchman, who stood next, took up the musket, and
with the butt-end of it so laid about him, that he knocked down
five of them who attempted to enter the boat. But this was doing
little towards resisting thirty or forty men, who, fearless because
ignorant of their danger, began to throw themselves into the
longboat, where we had but five men in all to defend it; but the
following accident, which deserved our laughter, gave our men a
complete victory.
Our carpenter being prepared to grave the outside of the ship, as
well as to pay the seams where he had caulked her to stop the
leaks, had got two kettles just let down into the boat, one filled
with boiling pitch, and the other with rosin, tallow, and oil, and
such stuff as the shipwrights use for that work; and the man that
attended the carpenter had a great iron ladle in his hand, with
which he supplied the men that were at work with the hot stuff.
Two of the enemy's men entered the boat just where this fellow
stood in the foresheets; he immediately saluted them with a ladle
full of the stuff, boiling hot which so burned and scalded them,
being half-naked that they roared out like bulls, and, enraged with
the fire, leaped both into the sea. The carpenter saw it, and
cried out, "Well done, Jack! give them some more of it!" and
stepping forward himself, takes one of the mops, and dipping it in
the pitch-pot, he and his man threw it among them so plentifully
that, in short, of all the men in the three boats, there was not
one that escaped being scalded in a most frightful manner, and made
such a howling and crying that I never heard a worse noise.
I was never better pleased with a victory in my life; not only as
it was a perfect surprise to me, and that our danger was imminent
before, but as we got this victory without any bloodshed, except of
that man the seaman killed with his naked hands, and which I was
necessary (for there is no necessary wickedness in nature), yet I
thought it was a sad sort of life, when we must be always obliged
to be killing our fellow-creatures to preserve ourselves; and,
indeed, I think so still; and I would even now suffer a great deal
rather than I would take away the life even of the worst person
injuring me; and I believe all considering people, who know the
value of life, would be of my opinion, if they entered seriously
into the consideration of it.
All the while this was doing, my partner and I, who managed the
rest of the men on board, had with great dexterity brought the ship
almost to rights, and having got the guns into their places again,
the gunner called to me to bid our boat get out of the way, for he
would let fly among them. I called back again to him, and bid him
not offer to fire, for the carpenter would do the work without him;
but bid him heat another pitch-kettle, which our cook, who was on
broad, took care of. However, the enemy was so terrified with what
they had met with in their first attack, that they would not come
on again; and some of them who were farthest off, seeing the ship
swim, as it were, upright, began, as we suppose, to see their
mistake, and gave over the enterprise, finding it was not as they
expected. Thus we got clear of this merry fight; and having got
some rice and some roots and bread, with about sixteen hogs, on
board two days before, we resolved to stay here no longer, but go
forward, whatever came of it; for we made no doubt but we should be
surrounded the next day with rogues enough, perhaps more than our
pitch-kettle would dispose of for us. We therefore got all our
things on board the same evening, and the next morning were ready
to sail: in the meantime, lying at anchor at some distance from
the shore, we were not so much concerned, being now in a fighting
posture, as well as in a sailing posture, if any enemy had
presented. The next day, having finished our work within board,
and finding our ship was perfectly healed of all her leaks, we set
sail. We would have gone into the bay of Tonquin, for we wanted to
inform ourselves of what was to be known concerning the Dutch ships
that had been there; but we durst not stand in there, because we
had seen several ships go in, as we supposed, but a little before;
so we kept on NE. towards the island of Formosa, as much afraid of
being seen by a Dutch or English merchant ship as a Dutch or
English merchant ship in the Mediterranean is of an Algerine man-
of-war.
When we were thus got to sea, we kept on NE., as if we would go to
the Manillas or the Philippine Islands; and this we did that we
might not fall into the way of any of the European ships; and then
we steered north, till we came to the latitude of 22 degrees 30
seconds, by which means we made the island of Formosa directly,
where we came to an anchor, in order to get water and fresh
provisions, which the people there, who are very courteous in their
manners, supplied us with willingly, and dealt very fairly and
punctually with us in all their agreements and bargains. This is
what we did not find among other people, and may be owing to the
remains of Christianity which was once planted here by a Dutch
missionary of Protestants, and it is a testimony of what I have
often observed, viz. that the Christian religion always civilises
the people, and reforms their manners, where it is received,
whether it works saving effects upon them or no.
From thence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of China at an
equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of China
where our European ships usually come; being resolved, if possible,
not to fall into any of their hands, especially in this country,
where, as our circumstances were, we could not fail of being
entirely ruined. Being now come to the latitude of 30 degrees, we
resolved to put into the first trading port we should come at; and
standing in for the shore, a boat came of two leagues to us with an
old Portuguese pilot on board, who, knowing us to be an European
ship, came to offer his service, which, indeed, we were glad of and
took him on board; upon which, without asking us whither we would
go, he dismissed the boat he came in, and sent it back. I thought
it was now so much in our choice to make the old man carry us
whither we would, that I began to talk to him about carrying us to
the Gulf of Nankin, which is the most northern part of the coast of
China. The old man said he knew the Gulf of Nankin very well; but
smiling, asked us what we would do there? I told him we would sell
our cargo and purchase China wares, calicoes, raw silks, tea,
wrought silks, &c.; and so we would return by the same course we
came. He told us our best port would have been to put in at Macao,
where we could not ha
ve failed of a market for our opium to our
satisfaction, and might for our money have purchased all sorts of
China goods as cheap as we could at Nankin.
Not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of which he was
very opinionated or conceited, I told him we were gentlemen as well
as merchants, and that we had a mind to go and see the great city
of Pekin, and the famous court of the monarch of China. "Why,
then," says the old man, "you should go to Ningpo, where, by the
river which runs into the sea there, you may go up within five
leagues of the great canal. This canal is a navigable stream,
which goes through the heart of that vast empire of China, crosses
all the rivers, passes some considerable hills by the help of
sluices and gates, and goes up to the city of Pekin, being in
length near two hundred and seventy leagues."--"Well," said I,
"Seignior Portuguese, but that is not our business now; the great
question is, if you can carry us up to the city of Nankin, from
whence we can travel to Pekin afterwards?" He said he could do so
very well, and that there was a great Dutch ship gone up that way
just before. This gave me a little shock, for a Dutch ship was now
our terror, and we had much rather have met the devil, at least if
he had not come in too frightful a figure; and we depended upon it
that a Dutch ship would be our destruction, for we were in no
condition to fight them; all the ships they trade with into those
parts being of great burden, and of much greater force than we
were.
The old man found me a little confused, and under some concern when
he named a Dutch ship, and said to me, "Sir, you need be under no
apprehensions of the Dutch; I suppose they are not now at war with
your nation?"--"No," said I, "that's true; but I know not what
liberties men may take when they are out of the reach of the laws
of their own country."--"Why," says he, "you are no pirates; what
need you fear? They will not meddle with peaceable merchants,
sure." These words put me into the greatest disorder and confusion
imaginable; nor was it possible for me to conceal it so, but the
old man easily perceived it.
"Sir," says he, "I find you are in some disorder in your thoughts
at my talk: pray be pleased to go which way you think fit, and
depend upon it, I'll do you all the service I can." Upon this we
fell into further discourse, in which, to my alarm and amazement,
he spoke of the villainous doings of a certain pirate ship that had
long been the talk of mariners in those seas; no other, in a word,
than the very ship he was now on board of, and which we had so
unluckily purchased. I presently saw there was no help for it but
to tell him the plain truth, and explain all the danger and trouble
we had suffered through this misadventure, and, in particular, our
earnest wish to be speedily quit of the ship altogether; for which
reason we had resolved to carry her up to Nankin.
The old man was amazed at this relation, and told us we were 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 well do, and
buy, or build another in the country; adding that I should meet
with customers enough for the ship at Nankin, 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," said 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; for wherever they find
the ship they will prove the guilt upon the men, by proving this
was the ship."--"Why," says the old man, "I'll find out a way to
prevent that; 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