England, but none falling to my mind, the English merchant, who lodged
with me, and with whom I had contracted an intimate acquaintance, came
to me one morning: “Countryman,” says he, “I have a project to
communicate to you, which, as it suits with my thoughts, may, for aught
I know, suit with yours also, when you shall have thoroughly
considered it.
“Here we are posted,” says he, “you by accident, and I by my own choice,
in a part of the world very remote from our own country; but it is in a
country where, by us who understand trade and business, a great deal of
money is to be got: if you will put a thousand pounds to my thousand
pounds, we will hire a ship here, the first we can get to our minds; you
shall be captain, I’ll be merchant, and we will go a trading voyage to
China; for what should we stand still for? The whole world is in motion,
rolling round and round; all the creatures of God, heavenly bodies and
earthly, are busy and vibrant: why should we be idle? There are no
drones,” says he, “living in the world but men: why should we be of
that number?”
I liked this proposal very well; and the more because it seemed to be
expressed with so much good will, and in so friendly a manner. I will
not say, but that I might, by my loose and unhinged circumstances, be
the fitter to embrace a proposal for trade, and indeed for any thing
else; or otherwise trade was none of my element; however, I might,
perhaps, say with some truth, that if trade was not my element, rambling
was; and no proposal for seeing any part of the world, which I had never
seen before, could possibly come amiss to me.
It was, however, some time before we could get a ship to our mind; and
when we got a vessel, it was not easy to get English sailors; that is to
say, so many as were necessary to govern the voyage, and manage the
sailors which we should pick up there. After some time we got a mate, a
boatswain, and a gunner, English; a Dutch carpenter, and three
Portuguese foremast-men: with these we found we could do well enough,
having Indian seamen, such as they are, to make up.
There are so many travellers who have written the history of their
voyages and travels this way, that it would be but very little diversion
to any body, to give a long account of the places we went to, and the
people who inhabit there: those things I leave to others, and refer the
reader to those journals and travels of Englishmen, many of which, I
find, are published, and more promised every day. It is enough for me to
tell you that we made the voyage to Achin, in the island of Sumatra,
first; and from thence to Siam, where we exchanged some of our wares for
opium, and for some arrack; the first a commodity which bears a great
price among the Chinese, and which, at that time, was very much wanted
there: in a word, we went up to Susham; made a very great voyage; were
eight months out; and returned to Bengal: and I was very well satisfied
with my adventure.
I observe, that our people in England often admire how the officers,
which the Company send into India, and the merchants which generally
stay there, get such very good estates as they do, and sometimes come
home worth sixty, seventy, and a hundred thousand pounds at a time. But
it is no wonder, or, at least, we shall see so much farther into it,
when we consider the innumerable ports and places where they have a free
commerce, that it will then be no wonder; and much less will it be so,
when we consider, that at all those places and ports where the English
ships come, there is so much, and such constant demand for the growth of
all other countries, that there is a certain vent for the return, as
well as a market abroad for the goods carried out.
In short, we made a very good voyage, and I got so much money by the
first adventure, and such an insight into the method of getting more,
that, had I been twenty years younger, I should have been tempted to
have stayed here, and sought no farther for making my fortune: but what
was all this to a man on the wrong side of threescore, that was rich
enough, and came abroad more in obedience to a restless desire of seeing
the world, than a covetous desire of getting in it? And indeed I think
it is with great justice that I now call it a restless desire, for it
was so: when I was at home, I was restless to go abroad; and now I was
abroad, I was restless to be at home. I say, what was this gain to me? I
was rich enough already; nor had I any uneasy desires about getting more
money; and therefore, the profits of the voyage to me were things of no
great force to me, for the prompting me forward to farther undertakings:
hence I thought, that by this voyage I had made no progress at all;
because I was come back, as I might call it, to the place from whence I
came, as to a home; whereas my eye, which, like that which Solomon
speaks of, was never satisfied with seeing, was still more desirous of
wandering and seeing. I was come into a part of the world which I never
was in before; and that part in particular which I had heard much of;
and was resolved to see as much of it as I could; and then I thought I
might say I had seen all the world that was worth seeing.
But my fellow-traveller and I had different notions: I do not name this
to insist upon my own, for I acknowledge his was most just, and the most
suited to the end of a merchant’s life; who, when he is abroad upon
adventures, it is his wisdom to stick to that, as the best thing for
him, which he is like to get the most money by. My new friend kept
himself to the nature of the thing, and would have been content to have
gone, like a carrier’s horse, always to the same inn, backward and
forward, provided he could, as he called it, find his account in it: on
the other hand, mine, as old as I was, was the notion of a mad rambling
boy, that never cares to see a thing twice over.
But this was not all: I had a kind of impatience upon me to be nearer
home, and yet the most unsettled resolution imaginable, which way to go.
In the interval of these consultations, my friend, who was always upon
the search for business, proposed another voyage to me, viz. among the
Spice Islands; and to bring home a load of cloves from the Manillas, or
thereabouts; places where, indeed, the Dutch do trade, but the islands
belong partly to the Spaniards; though we went not so far, but to some
other, where they have not the whole power as they have at Batavia,
Ceylon, &c. We were not long in preparing for this voyage; the chief
difficulty was in bringing me to come into it; however, at last, nothing
else offering, and finding that really stirring about and trading, the
profit being so great, and, as I may say, certain, had more pleasure in
it, and more satisfaction to the mind, than sitting still; which, to me
especially, was the unhappiest part of life, I resolved on this voyage
too: which we made very successfully, touching at Borneo, and several
islands, whose names I do not remember, and came home in about five
months. We sold our spice, which was chiefly cloves, and some nutmegs,
to the Persian merchants, who carried them away for the Gulf; and,
making near five of one, we really got a great deal of money.
My friend, when we made up this account, smiled at me: “Well now,” said
he, with a sort of an agreeable insult upon my indolent temper, “is not
this better than walking about here, like a man of nothing to do, and
spending our time in staring at the nonsense and ignorace of the
Pagans?”—“Why truly,” said I, “my friend, I think it is; and I begin to
be a convert to the principles of merchandising. But I must tell you,”
said I, “by the way, you do not know what I am doing; for if once I
conquer my backwardness, and embark heartily, as old as I am, I shall
harass you up and down the world till I tire you; for I shall pursue it
so eagerly, I shall never let you lie still.”
But to be short with my speculations: a little while after this there
came in a Dutch ship from Batavia; she was a coaster, not an European
trader, and of about two hundred tons burden: the men, as they
pretended, having been so sickly, that the captain had not men enough to
go to sea with, he lay by at Bengal; and, as if having got money enough,
or being willing, for other reasons, to go for Europe, he gave public
notice, that he would sell his ship; this came to my ears before my new
partner heard of it; and I had a great mind to buy it. So I went home to
him, and told him of it: he considered awhile, for he was no rash man
neither; but musing some time, he replied, “She is a little too big;
but, however, we will have her.” Accordingly we bought the ship; and,
agreeing with the master, we paid for her, and took possession; when we
had done so, we resolved to entertain the men, if we could, to join them
with those we had, for the pursuing our business; but on a sudden, they
not having received their wages, but their share of the money, as we
afterwards learnt, not one of them was to be found. We inquired much
about them, and at length were told, that they were all gone together,
by land, to Agra, the great city of the Mogul’s residence; and from
thence were to travel to Surat, and so by sea to the Gulf of Persia.
Nothing had so heartily troubled me a good while, as that I missed the
opportunity of going with them; for such a ramble, I thought, and in
such company as would both have guarded me and diverted me, would have
suited mightily with my great design; and I should both have seen the
world, and gone homewards too; but I was much better satisfied a few
days after, when I came to know what sort of fellows they were; for, in
short, their history was, that this man they called captain was the
gunner only, not the commander; that they had been a trading voyage, in
which they were attacked on shore by some of the Malaccans, who had
killed the captain and three of his men; and that after the captain was
killed, these men, eleven in number, had resolved to run away with the
ship, which they did; and had brought her in at the Bay of Bengal,
leaving the mate and five men more on shore; of whom we shall
hear farther.
Well; let them come by the ship how they would, we came honestly by her,
as we thought; though we did not, I confess, examine into things so
exactly as we ought; for we never inquired any thing of the seamen, who,
if we had examined, would certainly have faltered in their accounts,
contradicted one another, and perhaps have contradicted themselves; or,
one how or other, we should have seen reason to have suspected them: but
the man shewed us a bill of sale for the ship, to one Emanuel
Clostershoven, or some such name, (for I suppose it was all a forgery)
and called himself by that name; and we could not contradict him; and
being withal a little too unwary, or at least having no suspicion of the
thing, we went through with our bargain.
However, we picked up some English seamen here after this, and some
Dutch; and we now resolved for a second voyage to the south-east, for
cloves, &c. that is to say, among the Philippine and Malacca isles; and,
in short, not to fill this part of my story with trifles, when what is
yet to come is so remarkable, I spent, from first to last, six years in
this country, trading from port to port, backward and forward, and with
very good success; and was now the last year with my partner, going in
the ship above-mentioned, on a voyage to China; but designing first to
go to Siam, to buy rice.
In this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up and down a
great while in the Straits of Malacca, and among the islands, we were no
sooner got clear of those difficult seas, but we found our ship had
sprung a leak, and we were not able, by all our industry, to find out
where it was. This forced us to make for some port; and my partner, who
knew the country better than I did, directed the captain to put into the
river of Cambodia; for I had made the English mate, one Mr. Thompson,
captain, not being willing to take the charge of the ship upon myself.
This river lies on the north side of the great bay or gulf which goes
up to Siam.
While we were here, and going often on shore for refreshment, there
comes to me one day an Englishman, and he was, it seems, a gunner’s mate
on board an English East India ship, which rode in the same river, up at
or near the city of Cambodia: what brought him hither we knew not; but
he comes up to me, and, speaking English, “Sir,” says he, “you are a
stranger to me, and I to you; but I have something to tell you, that
very nearly concerns you.”
I looked stedfastly at him a good while, and he thought at first I had
known him, but I did not. “If it very nearly concerns me,” said I, “and
not yourself, what moves you to tell it me?”—“I am moved,” says he, “by
the imminent danger you are in; and, for aught I see, you have no
knowledge of it.”—“I know no danger I am in,” said I, “but that my ship
is leaky, and I cannot find it out; but I propose to lay her aground
to-morrow, to see if I can find it.”—“But, Sir,” says he, “leaky or not
leaky, find it or not find it, you will be wiser than to lay your ship
on shore to-morrow, when you hear what I have to say to you. Do you
know, Sir,” said he, “the town of Cambodia lies about fifteen leagues up
this river? And there are two large English ships about five leagues on
this side, and three Dutch.”—“Well,” said I, “and what is that to
me?”—“Why, Sir,” says he, “is it for a man that is upon such adventures
as you are, to come into a port, and not examine first what ships there
are there, and whether he is able to deal with them? I suppose you do
not think you are a match for them?” I was amused very much at his
discourse, but not amazed at it; for I could not conceive what he meant;
and I turned short upon him, and said, “Sir, I wish you would explain
yourself; I cannot imagine what reason I have to be afraid of any of the
Company’s ships, or Dutch ships; I am no interloper; what can they have
to say to me?”
He looked like a man half angry, half pleased; and pausing awhile, but
smiling, “Well, Sir,” says he, “if you think yourself secure, you must
take your chance; I am sorry your fate should blind you against good
advice; but assure yourself if you do not put to sea immediately, you
will the very next tide be attacked by five long-boats full of men; and,
perhaps, if you are taken, you will be hanged for a pirate, and the
particulars be examined into afterwards. I thought, Sir,” added he, “I
should have met with a better reception than this, for doing you a piece
of service of such importance.”—“I can never be ungrateful,” said I,
“for any service, or to any man that offers me any kindness; but it is
past my comprehension,” said I, “what they should have such a design
upon me for; however, since you say there is no time to be lost, and
that there is some villanous design in hand against me, I will go on
board this minute, and put to sea immediately, if my men can stop the
leak, or if we can swim without stopping it: but, Sir,” said I, “shall I
go away ignorant of the reason of all this? Can you give me no farther
light into it?”
“I can tell you but part of the story, Sir,” says he; “but I have a
Dutch seaman here with me, and, I believe, I could persuade him to tell
you the rest; but there is scarce time for it: but the short of the
story is this, the first part of which, I suppose, you know well enough,
viz. that you were with this ship at Sumatra; that there your captain
was murdered by the Malaccans, with three of his men; and that you, or
some of those that were on board with you, ran away with the ship, and
are since turned pirates. This is the sum of the story, and you will all
be seized as pirates, I can assure you, and executed with very little
ceremony; for you know merchant-ships shew but little law to pirates, if
they get them in their power.”
“Now you speak plain English,” said I, “and I thank you; and though I
know nothing that we have done, like what you talk of, but I am sure we
came honestly and fairly by the ship; yet seeing such work is a-doing,
as you say, and that you seem to mean honestly, I will be upon my
guard.”—“Nay, Sir,” says he, “do not talk of being upon your guard; the
best defence is to be out of the danger: if you have any regard to your
life, and the lives of all your men, put out to sea without fail at
high-water; and as you have a whole tide before you, you will be gone
too far out before they can come down; for they will come away at high
water; and as they have twenty miles to come, you’ll get near two hours
of them by the difference of the tide, not reckoning the length of the
way: besides, as they are only boats, and not ships, they will not
venture to follow you far out to sea, especially if it blows.”
“Well,” said I, “you have been very kind in this: what shall I do for
you to make you amends?”—“Sir,” says he, “you may not be so willing to
make me amends, because you may not be convinced of the truth of it: I
will make an offer to you; I have nineteen months pay due to me on board
the ship ——, which I came out of England in; and the Dutchman, that is
with me, has seven months pay due to him; if you will make good our pay
to us, we will go along with you: if you find nothing more in it, we
will desire no more; but if we do convince you, that we have saved your
life, and the ship, and the lives of all the men in her, we will leave
the rest to you.”
I consented to this readily; and went immediately on board, and the two
men with me. As soon as I came to the ship’s side, my partner, who was
on board, came on the quarter-deck, and called to me with a great deal
of joy, “O ho! O ho! we have stopped the leak!”—“Say you so?” said I;
“thank God; but weigh the anchor then immediately.”—“Weigh!” says he;
“what do you mean by that? What is the matter?” says he. “Ask no
questions,” said I, “but all hands to work, and weigh without losing a
minute.” He was surprised: but, however, he called the captain, and he
immediately ordered the anchor to be got up; and though the tide was not
quite done, yet a little land breeze blowing, we stood out to sea; then
I called him into the cabin, and told him the story at large; and we
called in the men, and they told us the rest of it: but as it took us up
a great deal of time, so before we had done, a seaman comes to the cabin
door, and calls out to us, that the captain made him tell us, we were
chased. “Chased!” said I; “by whom, and by what?”—“By five sloops, or
boats,” said the fellow, “full of men.”—“Very well,” said I; “then it
is apparent there is something in it.” In the next place, I ordered all
our men to be called up; and told them, that there was a design to seize
the ship, and to take us for pirates; and asked them, if they would
stand by us, and by one another? The men answered, cheerfully, one and
all, that they would live and die with us. Then I asked the captain,
what way he thought best for us to manage a fight with them; for resist
them I resolved we would, and that to the last drop. He said, readily,
that the way was to keep them off with our great shot, as long as we
could, and then to fire at them with our small arms, to keep them from
boarding us; but when neither of these would do any longer, we should
retire to our close quarters; perhaps they had not materials to break
open our bulk-heads, or get in upon us.
The gunner had, in the mean time, orders to bring two guns to bear fore
and aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, and load them with
musket-bullets and small pieces of old iron, and what next came to hand;
and thus we made ready for fight; but all this while kept out to sea,
with wind enough, and could see the boats at a distance, being five
large long-boats following us, with all the sail they could make.
Two of these boats, which, by our glasses, we could see were English,
had outsailed the rest, were near two leagues a head of them, and gained
upon us considerably; so that we found they would come up with us: upon
which we fired a gun without a shot, to intimate that they should bring
to; and we put out a flag of truce, as a signal for parley; but they
kept crowding after us, till they came within shot: upon this we took in
our white flag, they having made no answer to it; hung out the red flag,
and fired at them with shot; notwithstanding this, they came on till
they were near enough to call to them with a speaking trumpet, which we
had on board; so we called to them, and bade them keep off at
their peril.
It was all one, they crowded after us, and endeavoured to come under
our stern, so to board us on our quarter: upon which, seeing they were
resolute for mischief, and depended upon the strength that followed
them, I ordered to bring the ship to, so that they lay upon our
broadside, when immediately we fired five guns at them; one of them had
been levelled so true, as to carry away the stern of the hindermost
boat, and bring them to the necessity of taking down their sail, and
running all to the head of the boat to keep her from sinking; so she lay
by, and had enough of it; but seeing the foremost boat still crowd on
after us, we made ready to fire at her in particular.
While this was doing, one of the three boats that was behind, being
forwarder than the other two, made up to the boat which we had disabled,
to relieve her, and we could afterwards see her take out the men: we
called again to the foremost boat, and offered a truce to parley again,
and to know what was her business with us; but had no answer: only she
crowded close under our stern. Upon this our gunner, who was a very
dexterous fellow, run out his two chase-guns, and fired at her; but the
shot missing, the men in the boat shouted, waved their caps, and came
on; but the gunner, getting quickly ready again, fired among them a
second time; one shot of which, though it missed the boat itself, yet
fell in among the men, and we could easily see had done a great deal of
mischief among them; but we, taking no notice of that, weared the ship
again, and brought our quarter to bear upon them; and, firing three guns
more, we found the boat was split almost to pieces; in particular, her
rudder, and a piece of her stern, were shot quite away; so they handed
their sail immediately, and were in great disorder; but, to complete
their misfortune, our gunner let fly two guns at them again; where he
hit them we could not tell, but we found the boat was sinking, and some
of the men already in the water. Upon this I immediately manned out our
pinnace, which we had kept close by our side, with orders to pick up
some of the men, if they could, and save them from drowning, and
immediately to come on board with them; because we saw the rest of the
boats began to come up. Our men in the pinnace followed their orders,
and took up three men; one of which was just drowning, and it was a good
while before we could recover him. As soon as they were on board, we
crowded all the sail we could make, and stood farther out to sea; and we
found, that when the other three boats came up to the first two, they
gave over their chase.
Being thus delivered from a danger, which though I knew not the reason
of it, yet seemed to be much greater than I apprehended, I took care
that we should change our course, and not let any one imagine whither we
were going; so we stood out to sea eastward, quite out of the course of
all European ships, whether they were bound to China, or any where else
within the commerce of the European nations.
When we were now at sea, we began to consult with the two seamen, and
inquire first, what the meaning of all this should be? The Dutchman let
us into the secret of it at once; telling us, that the fellow that sold
us the ship, as we said, was no more than a thief that had run away with
her. Then he told us how the captain, whose name too he mentioned,
though I do not remember it now, was treacherously murdered by the
natives on the coast of Malacca, with three of his men; and that he,
this Dutchman, and four more, got into the woods, where they wandered
about a great while; till at length he, in particular, in a miraculous
manner, made his escape, and swam off to a Dutch ship, which sailing
near the shore, in its way from China, had sent their boat on shore for
fresh water; that he durst not come to that part of the shore where the
boat was, but made shift in the night to take in the water farther off,
and swimming a great while, at last the ship’s boat took him up.
He then told us, that he went to Batavia, where two of the seamen
belonging to the ship had arrived, having deserted the rest in their
travels; and gave an account, that the fellow who had run away with the
ship, sold her at Bengal to a set of pirates, which were gone a-cruising
in her; and that they had already taken an English ship, and two Dutch
ships, very richly laden.