faction would it be to us to have them punished when they came home? I cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections I now had upon the past variety of my particular cir cumstances; how hard I thought it was, that I, who had spent forty years in a life of continued difficulties, and was, at last, come, as it were, at the port or haven which all men drive at, viz. to have rest and plenty, fhould be a volunteer in new forrows, by my own unhappy choice; and that I, who had efcaped fo many dangers in my youth, fhould now come to be hanged in my old age, and in fo remote a place, for a crime I was not in the least inclined to, much less guilty of; and in a place and circumstance, where innocence was not like to be any protection at all to me. After thefe thoughts, fomething of religion would come in; and I would be confidering that this feemed to me to be a difpofition of immediate Providence; and I ought to look upon it, and fubmit to it, as fuch: that 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 moft obvious to me, and for which Providence might justly inflict this punishment as a retribution; and that I ought to fubmit to this, just as I would to a fhipwreck, if it had pleafed GOD to have brought fuch a difafter upon me. In its turn, natural courage would fometimes take its place; and then I would be talking myfelf up to vigorous refolution, that I would not be taken to be barbarously used by a parcel of mercilefs wretches in cold blood; that it was much better to have fallen into the hands of the favages, who were men-eaters, and who, I was fure, would feast upon me, when they had taken me, than by thofe, who would, perhaps, glut their rage upon me by inhuman tortures and barbarities that, in the cafe of the favages, I always refolved to die fighting, to the last gasp; and why fhould I not do fo now, feeing it was much more dreadful, to me at least, to think of falling into these men's hands, than ever it was to think of being eaten by men for the favages, give them their due, would not eat a man till he was dead; and killed him first, as we do a bullock; but that these men had many arts beyond the cruelty of death. Whenever these thoughts prevailed, I was fure to put myself into a kind of fever, with the agitations of a fuppofed fight; my blood would boil, and my eyes fparkle, as if I was engaged; and I always refolved that I would take no quarter at their hands; but even at last, if I could refift no longer, I would blow up the fhip, and all that was in her, and leave them but little booty to boast of. But by how much the greater weight the anxieties and perplexities of those things were to our thoughts while we were at fea, by so much the greater was our satisfaction, when we faw ourselves on fhore; and my partner told me, he dreamed, that he had a very heavy load upon his back, which he was to carry up an hill, and found that he was not able to ftand long under it; but the Portuguese pilot came, and took it off his back, and the hill disappeared, the ground before him fhewing all smooth and plain: And truly it was fo; we were all like men who had a load taken off their backs. For : For my part, I had a weight taken off from my heart, that I was not able any longer to bear; and, as I faid above, we refolved to go no more to fea in that ship. When we came on fhore, the old pilot, who was now our friend, got us a lodging, and a warehoufe for our goods, which, by the way, was much the fame it was a little house or hut, with a large house joining to it, all built with canes, and palifadoed round with large canes, to keep out pilfering thieves, of which it seems there were not a few in the country. However, the magiftrates allowed us all a little guard, and we had a foldier with a kind of halbert, or half pike, who stood fentinel at our door; to whom we allowed a pint of rice, and a little piece of money, about the value of three-pence per day: fo that our goods were kept very fafe. The fair or mart, ufually kept in this place, had been over fome time; however, we found that there were three or four junks in the river, and two Japanners, I mean, fhips from Japan, with goods which they had bought in China, and were not gone away, having Japanese merchants on fhore. The first thing our old Portuguefe pilot did for us, was, to bring us acquainted with three miffionary Romifh priefts, who were in the town, and who had been there fome time, converting the people to Christianity; but we thought they made but poor work of it; and made them but forry Christians when they had done. However, that was not our bufinefs. One of thefe was a Frenchman, whom they called father Simon; he was a jolly well-conditioned man, very free in his converfation, not feeming fo ferious and grave as the other two did, one of whom was was a Portugucfe, and the other a Genoefe; but father Simon was courteous, eafy in his manner, and very agreeable company; the other two were more referved, feemed rigid and auftere, and applied seriously to the work they came about, viz. to talk with, and infinuate themselves among the inhabitants, whereever they had opportunity: we often eat and drank with those men: and though I must confefs, the converfion, as they call it, of the Chinese to Christianity, is fo far from the true converfion required to bring heathen people to the faith of CHRIST, that it feems to amount to little more than letting them know the name of CHRIST, fay fome prayers to the Virgin Mary, and her Son, in a tongue which they understand not, and to cross themselves, and the like; yet it must be confeffed, that these religious, whom we call Miffionaries, have a firm belief that these people fhould be faved, and that they are the inftrument of it; and, on this account, they undergo not only the fatigue of the voyage, and hazards of living in fuch places, but oftentimes death itself, with the most violent tortures, for the fake of this work and it would be a great want of charity in us, whatever opinion we have of the work itself, and the manner of their doing it, if we should not have a good opinion of their zeal, who undertake it with fo many hazards, and who have no prospect of the least temporal advantage to themfelves. But, to return to my ftory: This French priest, father Simon, was appointed, it feems, by order of the chief of the miffion, to go up to Pekin, the royal feat of the Chinese emperor; and waited only for another priest, who was ordered to come to him from Macao, ney Macao, to go along with him; and we fcarce ever met together, but he was inviting me to go that jourwith him, telling me, how he would fhew me all the glorious things of that mighty empire; and among the relt, the greatest city in the world; a city, faid he, that your London, and our Paris, put together, cannot be equal to, This was the city of Pekin, which, I confefs, is very great, and infinitely full of people; but, as I looked on thofe things with different eyes from other men, fo I fhall give my opinion of them in few words, when I come, in the courfe of my travels, to speak more particularly of them. But first, I come to my friar or miffionary: Dining with him one day, and being very merry together, I fhewed fome little inclination to go with him; and he preffed me and my partner very hard, and with a great many perfuafions to confent. Why, father Simon, fays my partner, why should you desire our company fo much? You know we are heretics, and you do not love us, nor can keep us company with any pleafure. O fays 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, faid I, so you will preach to us all the way. I won't be troublesome to you, faid he; our religion does not diveft us of good manners; befides, faid he, we are all here like countrymen; and so we are, compared to the place we are in; and if you are hugonots, and I a catholic, we may be all Chriftians at laft; at least, faid he, we are all gentlemen, and we may converfe fo, without being uneafy to one another. I liked that part of his discourse very well, and it began to put me in mind of my priest |