only stand any of them made was on our right, where three of them ftood, and, by figns, called the rest to come back to them, having a kind of fcymitar in their hands, and their bows hanging at their backs. Our brave commander, without asking any body to follow him, galloped up close to them, and with his fufil knocked one of them off his horse, killed the fecond with his pistol, and the third ran away; and thus ended our fight; but we had this misfortune attending it, viz. That all our mutton that we had in chace got away. We had not a man killed or hurt; but, as for the Tartars, there were about five of them killed; how many were wounded, we knew not; but this we knew, that the other party was fo frighted with the noife of our guns, that they fled, and never made any attempt upon us.

We were all this while in the Chinefe dominions, and therefore the Tartars were not fo bold as afterwards; but in about five days we entered a vast great wild defart, which held us three days and nights march; and we were obliged to carry our water with us in great leather bottles, and to encamp all night, just as I have heard they do in the defarts of Arabia.

I asked our guides, whofe dominion this was in? and they told me this was a kind of border that might be called No Man's Land; being part of the Great Karakathy, or Grand Tartary; but that, however, it was reckoned to China; that there was no care taken here to preferve it from the inroads of thieves; and therefore it was reckoned the worst desart in the whole march, though we were to go over fome much larger.

In paffing this wilderness, which, I confefs, was at the first view very frightful to me, we faw two or three times little parties of the Tartars, but they seemed to be upon their own affairs, and to have no defign upon us; and fo, like the man who met the devil, if they had nothing to fay to us, we had nothing to fay to them; we let them go.

Once, however, a party of them came fo near as to stand and gaze at us; whether it was to confider what they should do, viz. to attack us, or not áttack us, we knew not; but when we were passed at some distance by them, we made a rear guard of forty men, and stood ready for them, letting the caravan pass half a mile, or thereabouts, before us: After a while they marched off, only we found they affaulted us with five arrows at their parting; one of which wounded a horse, so that it disabled him; and we left him the next day, poor creature, in great need of a good farrier. We fuppofe they might shoot more arrows, which might fall fhort of us; but we faw no more arrows, or Tartars, at that time.

We travelled near a month after this, the ways being not fo good as at firft, though ftill in the dominions of the Emperor of China; but lay, for the most part, in villages, fome of which were fortified, because of the incurfions of the Tartars. When we came to one of these towns (it was about two days and a half's journey before we were to come to the city of Naum,) I wanted to buy a camel, of which there are plenty to be fold all the way upon that road, and of horses alfo, fuch as they are, because so many caravans coming that way, they are

very often wanted.

The perfon that I spoke to to get me a camel, would have gone and fetched it for me; but I, like a fool, must be officious, and go myself along with him. The place was about two miles out of the village, where, it seems, they kept the camels and horses feeding under a guard.

I walked it on foot, with my old pilot in company, and a Chinese, being defirous, forfooth, of a little variety. When we came to this place, it was a low marshy ground, walled round with a stone wall, piled up dry, without mortar or earth among it, like a park, with a little guard of Chinese foldiers at the doors: Having bought a camel, and agreed for the price, I came away; and the Chinese man, that went with me, led the camel, when on a fudden came up five Tartars on horseback; two of them seized the fellow, and took the camel from him, while the other three stepped up to me and my old pilot; feeing us, as it were, unarmed, for I had no weapon about me but my fword, which could but ill defend me against three horsemen. The first that came up ftopped fhort upon my drawing my fword (for they are arrant cowards;) but a fecond coming upon my left, gave me a blow on the head, which I never felt till afterwards, and wondered, when I came to myself, what was the matter with me, and where I was, for he laid me flat on the ground; but my never-failing old pilot, the Portuguese (fo providence, unlooked for, directs deliverances from dangers, which to us are unforeseen,) had a piftol in his pocket, which I knew nothing of, nor the Tartars neither; if they had, I suppose they would not have attacked

us;

us; but cowards are always boldest when there is no danger.

The old man, feeing me down, with a bold heart stepped up to the fellow that had ftruck me, and laying hold of his arm with one hand, and pulling him down by main force a little towards him with the other, he shot him into the head, and laid him dead on the spot; he then immediately stepped up to him who had stopped us, as I faid, and before he could come forward again (for it was all done as it were in a moment) made a blow at him with a fcymitar, which he always wore, but, mifling the man, cut his horfe into the fide of his head, cut one of his ears off by the root, and a great flice down the fide of his face. The poor beaft, enraged with the wounds, was no more to be governed by his rider, though the fellow fat well enough too; but away he flew, and carried him quite out of the pilot's reach; and, at some distance, rising upon his hind legs, threw down the Tartar, and fell upon him.

1

In this interval the poor Chinese came in, who had loft the camel, but he had no weapon; however, seeing the Tartar down, and his horfe fallen upon him, he runs to him, and feizing upon an ugly ill-favoured weapon he had by his fide, fomething like a poleaxe, but not a pole-axe either, he wrenched it from him, and made shift to knock his Tartarian brains out with it. But my old man had the third Tartar to deal with ftill; and, feeing he did not fly as he expected, nor come on to fight him, as he apprehended, but ftood stock still, the old man stood still too, and falls to work with his tackle to charge his piftol again but as foon as the Tartar faw the

pistol, whether he supposed it to be the fame or another, I know not; but away he fcoured, and left my pilot, my champion I called him afterwards, a complete victory.

By this time I was a little awake; for I thought, when I first began to awake, that I had been in a fweet fleep; but, as I faid above, I wondered where I was, how I came upon the ground, and what was the matter in a word, a few minutes after, as sense returned, I felt pain, though I did not know where; I clapped my hand to my head, and took it away bloody; then I felt my head ache; and then, in another moment, memory returned, and every thing was prefent to me again.

I jumped up upon my feet inftantly, and got hold of my fword, but no enemies in view. I found a Tartar lie dead, and his horfe ftanding very quietly by him; and looking farther, I faw my champion and deliverer, who had been to see what the Chinese had done, coming back with his hanger in his hand. The old man, feeing me on my feet, came running to me, and embraced me with a great deal of joy, being afraid before that I had been killed; and feeing me bloody, would fee how I was hurt; but it was not much, only what we call a broken head; neither did I afterwards find any great inconvenience from the blow, other than the place which was hurt, and which was well again in two or three days.

We made no great gain, however, by this victory; for we loft a camel, and gained a horfe: but that which was remarkable, when we came back to the village, the man demanded to be paid for the ca

mel;