would have the Blood of those Men, who we kill'd there in our just Defence, to answer for.

The old Man was amaz'd at this Relation, and told us, we were very much in the Right to go away to the North, and that if he might advife us, it fhould be to fell the Ship in China, which we might very well do, and buy or build another in the Country; and, faid he, though you will not get fo good a Ship, yet you may get one able enough to carry you and all your Goods back again to Bengale, or any where else.

I told him, I would take his Advice, when came to any Port where I could find a Ship for my Turn, or get any Cuftomer to buy this: He reply'd, I should meet with Customers enough for the Ship at Nanquin, and that a Chinese Jonk would serve me very well to go back again; and that he would procure me People, both to buy one and fell the other.

Well, but Seignior, fays I, as you fay they know the Ship fo well, I may perhaps, if I follow your Measures, be inftrumental to bring fome honest innocent Men into a terrible Broil, and perhaps to be murther'd in cold Blood; for wherever they find the Ship, they will prove the Guilt upon the Men, by proving this was the Ship, and fo innocent Men may probably be overpower'd and murther'd: Why, fays the old Man, I'll find out a Way to prevent that alfo; for as I know all thofe Commanders you speak of very well, and fhall fee them all as they pafs by, I will be fure to fet them to Rights in the Thing, and let them know that they had been so much in the Wrong; that tho' the People, who were on Board at first, T 4

might

might run away with the Ship, yet it was not true that they had turned Pirates; and that in particular, these were not the Men that first went off with the Ship, but innocently bought her for their Trade; and I am perfuaded they will fo far believe me, as at least to act more cautiously for the Time to come. Well, fays I, And will you deliver one Meffage to them from me? Yes, Ï ́will, says be, if you will give it under your Hand in Writing, that I may be able to prove, that it came from you, and not out of my own Head. I answered, That I would readily give it him under my Hand; fo I took a Pen, and Ink, and Paper, and wrote at large the Story of affaulting me with the LongBoats, &c. the pretended Reafon of it, and the unjuft cruel Design of it, and concluded to the Commanders, that they had done what they not only should ha' been afham'd of; but also, that if ever they came to England, and I liv'd to fee them there, they fhould all pay dearly for it, if the Laws of my Country were not grown out of Ufe before I arrived there.

My old Pilot read this over and over again, and ask'd me feveral Times if I would ftand to it? I answer'd, I would ftand to it as long as I had any Thing left in the World, being fenfible that I fhould one Time or other find an Opportunity to put it home to them: But we had no Occafion ever to let the Pilot carry this Letter; for he never went back again: While thofe Things were paffing between us, by Way of Difcourfe, we went forward, dire&ly for Nanquin, and in about thirteen Days Sail came to an Anchor at the South-west Point of the great Gulph of Nanquin, where, by the Way, I came by Accident to understand, that two Dutch Ships were

gone

gone the length before me, and that I fhould certainly fall into their Hands; I confulted my Partner again in this Exigency, and he was as much at a Lofs as I was, and would very gladly have been fafe on Shore almost any where; however, I was not in fuch Perplexity neither, but I ask'd the old Pilot, if there was no Creek or Harbour, which I might put in to, and purfue my Business with the Chinese privately, and be in no Danger of the Enemy; he told me, if I would fail to the Southward about two and forty Leagues, there was a little Port call'd Quinchang, where the Fathers of the Miffion, ufually landed from Macoa, on their Progress, to teach the Chriftian Religion to the Chineses, and where no European Ships ever put in; and if I thought to put in there, I might confider what farther Courle to take when I was on Shore: He confefs'd he faid, it was not a Place for Merchants, except that at fome certain Times, they had a Kind of a Fair there, when the Merchants from Japan came over thither to buy the Chinese Merchandizes.

We all agreed to go back to this Place; the Name of the Port, as he call'd it, I may perhaps fpell wrong; for I do not particularly remem-. ber it, having loft this, together with the Names of many other Places, fet down in a little PocketBook which was fpoil'd by the Water, on an Accident, which I fhall relate in its Order; but this I remember, that the Chinese, or Japonese Merchants we correfponded with, call'd it by a differing Name from that which our Portugueze Pilot gave it, and pronounc'd it as above, Quinchang,

As

As we were unanimous in our Refolutions to go to this Place, we weigh'd the next Day, having only gone twice on Shore, where we were to get fresh Water; on both which Occafions, the People of the Country were very civil to us, and brought us abundance of Things to fell to us; mean, of Provifions, Plants, Roots, Tea, Rice, and fome Fowls; but nothing without Money.

I

We came to the other Port, (the Wind being contrary) not till five Days, but it was very much to our Satisfaction; and I was joyful, and 1 may say, thankful, when I fet my Foot fafe on Shore; refolving, and my Partner too, that if it was poffible to difpofe of our felves and Effects, any other Way, tho' not every Way to our Satisfation, we would never fet one Foot on board that unhappy Veffel more; and indeed I must acknowledge, that of all the Circumstances of Life that ever I had any Experience of, nothing makes Mankind fo compleatly miferable, as that, of being in conftant Fear: Well does the Scripture fay, the Fear of Man brings a Snare; it is a Life of Death, and the Mind is fo entirely fupprefs'd by it, that it is capable of no Relief; the animal Spirits fink, and all the Vigour of Nature, which ufually fupports Men under other Afflictions, and is prefent to them in the greatest Exigencies, fails them here.

Nor did it fail of its ufual Operations upon the Fancy, by heightening every Danger, reprefenting the English and Dutch Captains, to be Men uncapable of hearing Reafon, or of diftinguishing between honeft Men and Rogues; or between a Story calculated for our own Turn, made out of nothing, on Purpose to deceive;

and

and a true genuine Account of our whole Voyage, Progrefs, and Defign; for we might many Ways have convinc'd any reafonable Creature, that we were not Pirates; the Goods we had on board, the Courfe we fteer'd, our frankly fhewing our felves, and entring into fuch and fuch Ports; and even our very Manner, the Force we had, the Number of Men, the few Arms, little Ammunition, fhort Provifions; all thete would have ferv❜d to convince any Men, that we were no Pirates; the Opium, and other Goods we had on board, would make it appear, the Ship had been at Bengale; the Dutch Men, who it was faid, had the Names of all the Men that was in the Ship, might eafily fee that we were a Mixture of English, Portugueze, and Indians, and but two Dutch Men on board: Thefe, and many other particular Circumftances, might have made it evident to the Understanding of any Commander, whofe Hands we might fall into, that we were no Pirates.

But Fear,that blind ufelefs Paffion, work'd another Way, and threw us into the Vapours; it bewildred our Understandings, and fet the Imagination at Work, to form a thousand terrible Things, that perhaps might never happen; we first fuppos'd, as indeed every Body had related to us, that the Seamen on board the English and Dutch Ships, but efpeially the Dutch, were fo enraged at the Name of a Pirate, and efpecially at our beating of their Boats, and efcaping, that they would not give themfelves leave to enquire, whether we were Pirates or no; but would execute us off Hand, as we call it, without giving us any Room for a Defence; we reflected that there was really fo much apparent Evidence be

fore