yet not knowing what exigence we might be in, he took this was; but I could not understand one word they 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 pinnace, 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 sacking a city, or at the taking a town by storm. I had heard of Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda, in Ireland, and killing man, woman, and child; and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city of 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 increased forward, and the cry went on just as the fire went on; so that we were in the utmost confusion. We advanced a little way further, 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 altogether 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 fain have learned what the occasion of all As soon as the boatswain saw us, he set up a halloo like a shout of triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come; and, without waiting to hear me, Captain," says he, "noble captain! I am glad you are come; we have not half done yet. Villanous, 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: "Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel." But I had now a new task upon my hands; for when the men I carried with me saw the sight, as I had done, I had as much to do to restrain them as I should have had with the others; nay, my nephew himself fell in with them, and told me, in their hearing, that he was only concerned for fear of the men being overpowered; 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 boatswain and his crew, to complete their bloody work; and I, seeing it quite out of my power to restrain them, came away pensive and sad; for I could not bear the sight, much less the horrible noise and cries of the poor wretches that fell into their hands. I got nobody to come back with me but the supercargo and two men, and with these 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 pinnace and went on board, and sent her back to assist the men in what might happen. I observed, about the time that I came to the boat-side, 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 fire-arms, 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 pinnace, 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 defence: they were so surprised between the terror of the fire and the sudden attack of our men in the dark, that they knew not which way to turn themselves; for if they fled one way they were met by one party, if back again, by another: so that they were 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, nephew answered me very respectfully, but told me that when he saw the body of the poor seaman 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 Jeffry, 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 Jeffry, yet Jeffry 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 boatswain defended this quarrel when we were afterwards on board. He said it was true that we seemed to break the truce, but really had not; and that the war was begun the night before by the natives themselves, who had shot at us, and killed one of our men without any just provocation; so that as we were in a capacity to fight them 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 villanous 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 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 upbraid them with the just retribution of Heaven in this case; but the boatswain 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 xiii. 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 boatswain, 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 I was very angry with my nephew, the captain, and, that claim, I conceived I had a right to speak even indeed, with all the men, but with him in particular, as further than I had done, and would not be accountable well for his acting so out of his duty, as commander of to him or any one else, and began to be a little warm the ship, and having the charge of the voyage upon him, with him. He made but little reply to me at that time, as in his prompting, rather than cooling, the rage of his and I thought the affair had been over. We were at blind men, in so bloody and cruel an enterprise. My this time in the road at Bengal; and being willing to see the place, I went on shore with the supercargo, in the ship's boat, to divert myself; and towards evening was preparing to go on board, when one of the men came to me, and told me he would not have me trouble myself to come down to the boat, for they had orders not to carry me on board any more. Any one may guess what a surprise I was in at so insolent a message; and I asked the man, who bade him deliver that 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 boatswain, 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 boatswain, 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 loth 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 oblige 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 mainmast, 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 disoblige me so much; so they might do as they pleased. However, he would go on shore and talk with me, and invited the boatswain to go with him, and perhaps they might accommodate the matter with me. But they all rejected the proposal, and said they would have nothing to do with me any more; 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. 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 Manillas, or thereabouts. without me; however, my nephew left me two servants, A little while after this there came in a Dutch ship from Batavia; she was a coaster, not an European trader, of about two hundred tous 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 Bengal; 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 awhile, 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 that 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 go by sea, to the Gulf of Persia. When all was ready we set sail for Achin, in the island of Sumatra, and from thence to Siam, where we exchanged some of our wares for opium and some Nothing had so much troubled me a good while, as arrack; the first a commodity which bears a great price that I should miss the opportunity of going with among the Chinese, and which, at that time, was much them; for such a ramble, I thought, and in such wanted there. Then we went up to Suskan, were eight company as would both have guarded and diverted me, months out, and on our return to Bengal I was very would have suited mightily with my great design; and I well satisfied with my adventure. Our people in Eng- should have both seen the world, and gone homeward land often admire how officers, which the Company too. But I was much better satisfied a few days after, send into India, and the merchants which generally when I came to know what sort of fellows they were; stay there, get such very great estates as they do, and for, in short, their history was, that this man they sometimes come home worth sixty or seventy thousand called captain was the gunner only, not the compounds at a time; but it is little matter for wonder, mander; that they had been a trading voyage, in which when we consider the innumerable ports and places they had been attacked on shore by some of the Malays, where they have a free commerce; indeed, at the ports who had killed the captain and three of his men; and where the English ships come, there is such great and that, after the captain was killed, these men, eleven in constant demands for the growth of all other countries, number, having resolved to run away with the ship, that there is a certain vent for the returns, as well as a brought her to Bengal, leaving the mate and five men market abroad for the goods carried out. more on shore. I got so much money by my first adventure, and such Well, let them get the ship how they would, we an insight into the method of getting more, that had I came honestly by her, as we thought, though we did been twenty years younger, I should have been tempted not, I confess, examine into things so exactly as we to have stayed here, and sought no farther for making ought; for we never inquired anything of the seamen, any fortune; but what was all this to a man upwards who would certainly have faltered in their account, and of threescore, that was rich enough, and came abroad contradicted one another. Somehow or other we more in obedience to a restless desire of seeing the should have had reason to have suspected them; but world than a covetous desire of gaining by it? A the man showed us a bill of sale for the ship, to restless desire it really was, for when I was at home, I one Emanuel Clostershoven, or some such name, for was restless to go abroad; and when I was abroad, I I suppose it was all a forgery, and called himself by was restless to be at home. I say, what was this gain to me? I was rich enough already, nor had I any unI was now alone in a most remote part of the world, easy desires about getting more money; therefore the for I was near three thousand leagues by sea farther off profit of the voyage to me was of no great force for from England, than I was at my island; only, it is true, the prompting me forward to further undertakings. I might travel here by land over the Great Mogul's Hence, I thought that by this voyage I had made no country to Surat, might go from thence to Bassora by progress at all, because I was come back, as I might sea, up the Gulf of Persia, and take the way of the call it, to the place from whence I came, as to a home: caravans, over the Desert of Arabia, to Aleppo and whereas, my eye, like that which Solomon speaks of, Scanderoon; from thence by sea again to Italy, and so was never satisfied with seeing. I was come into a overland into France. I had another way before me, part of the world which I was never in before, and that which was to wait for some English ships, which were part, in particular, which I had heard much of, and coming to Bengal from Achin, on the Island of Sumatra, was resolved to see as much of it as I could: and then and get passage on board them for England. But as II thought I might say I had seen all the world that was came hither without any concern with the East India worth seeing. Company, so it would be difficult to go from hence without their licence, 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 that name, and we could not contradict him: and withal, 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 a second voyage to the south-east for cloves, &c.; that is to say, among the Philippine and Molucca 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 But my fellow-traveller and I had different notions: beat up and down a great while in the Straits of I acknowledge his were the more suited to the end of Malacca, and among the islands, we were no sooner got a merchant's life: who, when he is abroad upon adven- clear of those difficult seas, than we found our ship tures, is wise to stick to that, as the best thing for had sprung a leak, but could not discover where it was, him, which he is likely to get the most money by. On This forced us to make some port; and my partner, LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 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 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 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 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 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 villanous design on hand against me, I will go on board this minute, and put to sea 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 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-that you were with this ship at Sumatra; that there your captain was murdered by the Malays, 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 can assure story, and you will all be seized as pirates, 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 defence 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 Lothing 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." 64 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."- The gunner had, in the mean time, orders to bring two Two of those boats (which by our glasses we could see were English) outsailed 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 to: 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 to them with a speaking-trumpet, bidding them keep off at their peril. 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 sale 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 a-cruising in her, and that they had already taken an English ship and two Dutch ships very richly laden. This latter part we found to concern us directly, 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 we should go directly back to Bengal, from whence we passion have executed. Therefore it was his opinion came, without putting in at any port whatever,-because there 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 afterwards. it before the proper judges, we should be sure to have some justice, and not to be hanged first, and judged 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 who said he was of my mind, and that we should destroy us. I also asked the English sailor's opinion, diately resolved to go away to the coast of Tonquin, certainly be taken. This danger a little startled my partner, and all the ship's company, and we immeand 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 N.N.E. keeping above fifty leagues off from the usual course to the eastward. This, however, put us to some inconvenience: for, first, the winds, when we came that distance from the shore, seemed to be more steadily against us, blowing almost trade, as we call it, from the E. and E.N.E. so that we were a long while upon our voyage, and we were but ill provided with victuals for so long a run; and, 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. It was all one; they crowded after us, and endeavoured 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 to, so that they lay upon our broadside; when immediately we fired five guns at them, one of which had been levelled 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 We then called again to the foremost boat, and men. offered a truce, to parley again, and to know what her I must confess I was now very uneasy, and thought 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 caseguns, and fired again at her, but the shot missing, the myself, including the late escape from the long-boats, men in the boat shouted, waved their caps, and came to have been in the most dangerous condition that ever The gunner, getting quickly ready again, fired I was in through my past life; for whatever ill circumon. among them a second time, one shot of which, though stances I had been in, I was never pursued for a thief it missed the boat itself, yet fell in among the men, and before; nor had I ever done anything that merited the we could easily see did a great deal of mischief among name of dishonest or fraudulent, much less thievish. them. We now wore the ship again, and brought our I had chiefly been my own enemy, or, as I may rightly quarter to bear upon them, and firing three guns more, say, I had been nobody's enemy but my own; but now we found the boat was almost split to pieces; in par-I was wofully embarrassed; for though I was perfectly ticular, her rudder and a piece of her stern were shot innocent, I was in no condition to make that innocence quite away; so they handed her sail immediately, and appear; and if I had been taken, it had been under a were in great disorder. To complete their misfortune, supposed guilt of the worst kind. This made me very our gunner let fly two guns at them again; where he anxious to make an escape, though which way to do it hit them we could not tell, but we found the boat was I knew not, or what port or place we could go to. My sinking, and some of the men already in the water: partner endeavoured to encourage me by describing the upon this, I immediately manned out our pinnace, with several ports of that coast, and told me he would put in orders to pick up some of the men, if they could, and on the coast of Cochin China, or the Bay of Tonquin, save them from drowning, and immediately come on intending afterwards to go to Macao, where a great many board ship with them, because we saw the rest of the European families resided, and particularly the mis boats began to come up. Our men in the pinnace fol- sionary priests, who usually went thither in order to lowed their orders, and took up three men, one of whom their going forward to China. 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 any one know whither we were going: so we stood out to sea eastward, quite out of the course of all European ships, whether they were bound 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 circumstances of danger we were in, we resolved to put early in the morning; and upon reflection on the past 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 72 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. next morning there came into the bay two Dutch ships; 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 ont a proper place for it. 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 her bottom with stages, and with their boats on the off-side, they 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 long-boat, and began to lay hold of the men as their prisoners. the ship, as well as to pay the seams where he had I was never better pleased with a victory in my life; When we were thus got to sea, we kept on N.E. as if 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 From thence we sailed still north, keeping the coast died in his hands. In the mean time, a Dutchman, who stood next, took up the musket, and with the butt-end of China at an equal distance, till we knew we were of it so laid about him, that he knocked down five of beyond all the ports of China where our European them who attempted to enter the boat. But this was ships usually come; being resolved, if possible, not to doing little towards resisting thirty or forty men, who, fall into any of their hands, especially in this country, fearless because ignorant of their danger, began to throw where, as our circumstances were, we could not fail of themselves into the long-boat, where we had but five men being entirely ruined. Being now come to the latitude in all to defend it; but the following accident, which of 30 degrees, we resolved to put into the first trading deserved our laughter, gave our men a complete victory. port we should come at; and standing in for the shore, Our carpenter being prepared to grave the outside of a boat came off two leagues to us with an old Portuguese pilot on board, who, knowing us to be an European ship, us whither we would go, he dismissed the boat he came came to offer his services, which, indeed, we were glad of and took him on board; upon which, without asking 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 course we came. He told us our best port would have cargo and purchase China wares, calicoes, raw silks, tea, wrought silks, &c.; and so would return by the same been to put in at Macao, where we could not have 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. 66 Not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of we were gentlemen as well as merchants, and that we which he was very opinionated or conceited, I told him had a mind to go and see the great city of Pekin, and you should go to Ningpo, the famous court of the monarch of China. "Why, then," says the old man, 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 very well, and that there was a great Dutch ship gone This gave me a little shock, travel to Pekin afterwards?" He said he could do so up that way just before 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 "No," said I, "that's true; but I know not me, "Sir, you need be under no apprehensions of the Dutch: I suppose they are not now at war with your nation?" 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 Upon this we fell into further disway you think fit, and depend upon it, I'll do you all the service I can." course, in which, to my alarm and amazement, he spoke of the villanous 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 if he might advise us, it should be to sell the ship in we were in the right to go away to the north; and that, China, which we might well do, and buy or build another in the country; adding, that I should meet Well, but, seignior," said 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. 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 "Why," says the old man, "I'll find out a way to preguilt upon the men, by proving this was the ship."vent 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 first might run away with the ship. yet it was not true let them know that they had been so much in the wrong; that though the people who were on board at that they had turned pirates; and that, in particular, am persuaded they will so far believe me, as at least these were not the men that first went off with the ship, but innocently bought her for their trade; and I In about thirteen days' sail we came to an anchor, at where to act more cautiously for the time to come." the south-west point of the great Gulf of Nankin; I consulted my partner again in this I learned by accident that two Dutch ships were gone the length before me, and that I should certainly fall into their hands. exigency, and he was as much at a loss as I was. I then of my sleep. Another apprehension I had was, the cruel asked the old pilot if there was no creek or harbour usage we might meet with from them if we fell into which I might put into and pursue my business with their hands: then the story of Amboyna came into my the Chinese privately, and be in no danger of the head, and how the Dutch might perhaps torture us, as enemy. He told me if I would sail to the southward they did our countrymen there, and make some of our about forty-two leagues, there was a little port called men, by extremity of torture, confess to crimes they Quinchang, where the fathers of the mission usually never were guilty of, or own themselves and all of us landed from Macao, on their progress to teach the to be pirates, and so they would put us to death with a Christian religion to the Chinese, and where no Euro- formal appearance of justice, and that they might be pean ships ever put in; and if I thought to put in there, tempted to do this for the gain of our ship and cargo, I might consider what further course to take when I worth altogether four or five thousand pounds. We was on shore. He confessed, he said, it was not a did not consider that the captains of ships have no place for merchants, except that at some certain times authority to act thus; and if we had surrendered they had a kind of a fair there, when the merchants prisoners to them, they could not answer the destroying from Japan came over thither to buy Chinese merchan- us, or torturing us, but would be accountable for it dises. The name of the port I may perhaps spell when they came to their country. However, if they wrong, having lost this, together with the names of were to act thus with us, what advantage would it be to many other places set down in a little pocket-book, us that they should be called to an account for it?-or which was spoiled by the water by an accident; but if we were first to be murdered, what satisfaction would this I remember, that the Chinese merchants we cor- it be to us to have them punished when they came home? responded with called it by a different name from that which our Portuguese pilot gave it, who pronounced it 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, and brought abundance of provisions to sell to us: but nothing without money. We did not come to the other port (the wind being contrary) for five days; but it was very much to our satisfaction, and I was 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 profitably, we would never more set foot on board that unhappy vessel. 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 oppressed 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 creatures that we were no 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, the little ammunition, short provisions; all these would have served to convince 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 everybody 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, 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. Therefore 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 I cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections I now had upon the vast variety of my particular circircumstances; how hard I thought it that I, who had spent forty years in a life of continual difficulties, and was at last come, as it were, to the port or haven which all men drive at, viz. to have rest and plenty, should be a volunteer in new sorrows by my own unhappy choice; and that I, who had escaped so many dangers in my youth, should now come to be hanged in my old age, and in so remote a place, for a crime which I was not in the least inclined to, much less guilty of. After these thoughts, something of religion would come in; and I would be considering that this seemed to me to be a disposition of immediate Providence, and I ought to look upon it and submit to it as such. For, although I was innocent as to men, I was far from being innocent as to my Maker; and I ought to look in and examine what other crimes in my life were most obvious to me, and for which Providence might justly inflict this punishment as a retribution; and thus I ought to submit to this, just as I would to a shipwreck, if it had But let that be how it will, these were our apprehen- pleased God to have brought such a disaster upon me. sions; and both my partner and I scarce slept a night In its turn, natural courage would sometimes take its without dreaming of halters and yard-arms; of fighting, place, and then I would be talking myself up to vigorous and being taken; of killing, and being killed: and one resolutions; that I would not be taken to be barbarously night I was in such a fury in my dream, fancying the used by a parcel of merciless wretches in cold blood; Dutchmen had boarded us, and I was knocking one of that it were much better to have fallen into the hands their seamen down, that I struck my double fist against of the savages, though I was sure they would feast upon the side of the cabin I lay in with such a force as me when they had taken me, than those who would wo inded my hand grievously, broke my knuckles, and perhaps glut their rage upon me by inhuman tortures cut and bruised the flesh, so that it awakened me out and barbarities; that in the case of the savages I have to offer in their defence. always resolved to die fighting to the last gasp, and why should I not do so now? Whenever these thoughts prevailed, I was sure to put myself into a kind of fever with the agitation of a supposed fight; my blood would boil, and my eyes sparkle, as if I was engaged, and I always resolved to take no quarter at their hands; but even, at last, if I could resist no longer, I would blow up the ship and all that was in her, and leave them but little booty to boast of. The greater weight the anxieties and perplexities of these things were to our thoughts while we were at sea, the greater was our satisfaction when we saw ourselves on shore; and my partner told me he dreamed that he had a very heavy load upon his back, which he was to carry up a hill, and found that he was not able to stand longer under it; but that the Portuguese pilot came and took it off his back, and the hill disappeared, the ground before him appearing all smooth and plain: and truly it was so; they were all like men who had a load taken off their backs. For my part, I had a weight taken off from my heart that it was not able any longer to bear: and as I said above, we resolved to go no more to sea in that ship. When we came on shore, the old pilot, who was now our friend, got us a lodging, together with a warehouse for our goods; it was a little hut, with a larger house adjoining to it, built and also palisadoed round with canes, to keep out pilferers, of which there were not a few in that country: however, the magistrates allowed us a little guard, and we had a soldier with a kind of half-pike, who stood sentinel at our door; to whom we allowed a pint of rice, and a piece of money, about the value of three-pence, per day, so that our goods were kept very safe. The fair, or mart, usually kept at this place, had been over some time: however, we found that there were three or four junks in the river, and two ships from Japan, with goods which they had bought in China, and were not gone away, having some Japanese merchants on shore. The first thing our old Portuguese pilot did for us was to get us acquainted with three missionary Romish priests who were in the town, and who had been there some time converting the people to Christianity; but we thought they made but poor work of it, and made them but sorry Christians when they had done. One of these was a Frenchman, whom they called Father Simon; another was a Portuguese; and the third a Genoese. Father Simon was courteous, and very agreeable company; but the other two were more reserved, seemed rigid and austere, and applied seriously to the work they came about, viz. to talk with, and insinuate themselves among the inhabitants, wherever they had opportunity. We often ate and drank with those men; and though, I must confess, the conversion, as they call it, of the Chinese to Christianity, is so far from the true conversion required to bring heathen people to the faith of Christ, that it seems to amount to little more than letting them know the name of Christ, and say some prayers to the Virgin Mary and her Son, in a tongue which they understood not, and to cross themselves, and the like; yet it must be confessed that the religionists, whom we call missionaries, have a firm belief that these people will be saved, and that they are the instruments of it; and on this account they undergo not only the fatigue of the voyage, and the hazards of living in such places, but oftentimes death itself, and the most violent tortures, for the sake of this work. Father Simon was appointed, it seems, by order of the chief of the mission, to go up to Pekin, and waited only for another priest, who was ordered to come to him from Macao, to go along with him. We scarce ever met together but he was inviting me to go that journey; telling me how he would show me all the glorious things of that mighty empire, and, among the rest, Pekin, the greatest city in the world; "a city," said he, that your London and our Paris put together cannot be equal to." But as I looked on those things with different eyes from other men, so I shall give my opinion of them in a few words, when I come in the course of my travels to speak more particularly of them. Dining with Father Simon one day, and being very merry together, I showed some little inclination to go with him; and he pressed me and my partner very hard to consent. "Why, father," says my partner, "should you desire our company so much? you know we are heretics, and you do not love 18, nor cannot keep us company with any pleasure."--"Oh," says he, " you may perhaps be good Catholics in time; my business here is to convert heathens, and who knows but I may convert you too?"-"Very well, father," said I," so you will preach to us all the way?"-"I will not be troublesome to you," says he; "our religion does not divest us of good manners; besides, we are here like countrymen nd so we are, compared to the place we are in; and it you are Huguenots, and I a Catholic, we may all be Christians at last; at least, we are all gentlemen, and we may converse so, without being uneasy to one another." I liked this part of his discourse very well, and it began to put me in mind of my priest that I had left in the Brazils; but Father Simon did not come up to his character by a great deal; for though this friar had no appearance of a criminal levity in him, yet he had not that fund of Christian zeal, strict piety, |