is fo far from the true Converfion requir'd, 'to bring Heathen People to the Faith of Chrift, that it seems to amount to little more, than letting them know the Name of Chrift, and fay fome Prayers to the Virgin Mary, and her Son, in a Tongue which they understand not, and to cross themfelves and the like; yet it must be confefs that thefe Religious, who we call Miffionaries, have a firm Belief that thefe People fhall be fav'd, and that they are the In-ftruments of it; and on this Account, they undergo not the Fatigue of the Voyage, and the hazards of living in fuch Places, but often Times Death it felf; with the most violent Tortures, for the Sake of this Work; and it would be a great Want of Charity in us, what ever Opinion we have of the Work it felf, and the manner of their doing it, if we fhould not have a good Opinion of their Zeal, who undertook it with to many Hazards, and who have no Profpect of the leaft temporal Advantage to themselves.

But to return to my Story; this French Prieft, Father Simon,, was appointed it seems, by Order of the Chief of the Miffion, to go up to Peking, the Royal Seat of the Chinese Emperor, and waited only for another Prieft, who was order'd to come to him from Macao, to go along with him; and we fcarce ever met together, but he was inviting me to go that Journey telling me, how he would fhew me all the glorious Things of that mighty Empire; and among the reft, 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 Peking, which I confefs is very great, and infinitely full of People; but as I look'd on those Things

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Things with different Eyes from other Men, fo I fhall give my Opinion of them in few Words, when I come in the Course of my Travels, to fpeak more particularly of them.

But first, I come to my Fryar or Miffionary; dining with him one Day, and being very merry together, fhew'd fome little Inclination to go with him, and he prefs'd me and my Partner very hard, and with a great many Perfuafions to confent; why Father Simon, fays my Partner, why fhould you defire our Company to much You know we are Hereticks, and you do not love us, nor can not keep us Company with any Pleafure? O fays he! You may perhaps be good Catholicks in Time; my Bufinefs here, is to convert Heathens, and who knows, but I may convert you too; very well Father, faid I, fo you will preach to us all the Way; I won't be troublefome to you, fays he our Religion does not diveft us of good Manners; befides, fays he, we are here like Countrymen, and fo we are, compar'd to the Place we are in; and if you are Hugonots, and I a Catholick, we may be all Chriftians at laft; at least said he, we are all Gentlemen, and we may converse so, without being uneafy to one another; 1 lik'd that Part of his Difcourfe very well, and it began to put me in Mind of my Prieft, that I had left in the Brafils, but this Father Simon, did not come up to his Character, by a great deal; for tho' Father Simon, had no Appearance of a Criminal Levity in him neither, yet he had not that Fund of Chriftian Zeal, ftrict Piety, and fincere Affection to Religion, that my other good Ecclefiaftick had, of whom I have faid to much.

But

But to leave him a little, tho' he never left us, nor folliciting us to go with him, but we had fomething elfe before us at first; for we had all this while our Ship, and our Merchandize to difpofe of, and we began to be very doubtful what we fhould do, for we were now in a Place of very little Bufinefs, and once I was about to venture to fail for the River of Kilam, and the City of Nanquin; but Providence feem'd now more vifibly as I thought, than ever, to concern it felf in our Affair; and I was encouraged from this very Time, to think, I should one Way or other get out of this tangl'd Circumftance, and be brought Home to my own Country again, tho' I had not the leaft View of the Manner: and when I began fometimes to think of it, could not imagine by what Method it was to be done: Providence, I fay, began here to clear up our Way a little; and the first Thing, that offer'd was, that our old Portugueze Pilot, brought a Japan Merchant to us, who began to enquire what Goods we had, and in the firft Place, he bought all our Opium, and gave us a very good Price for it, paying us in Gold by Weight, fome in fmall Peices of their own Coin, and fome in fmall Wedges, of about ten or eleven Ounces each; while we were dealing with him for our Opi um, it came into my Head, that he might perhaps deal with us for the Ship too, and I order'd the Interpreter to propofe it to him; he fhrunk up his Shoulders at it, when it was first propos'd to him; but in a few Days after, he came to me with one of the miffionary Priefts for his Interpreter, and told me, he had a Propofal to make to me, and that was this; he had bought U 2 a great

a great Quantity of Goods of us, when he had no Thoughts or (Proposals made to him) of buying the Ship; and that therefore, he had not Money enough to pay for the Ship; but if I would let the fame Men who were in the Ship navigate her, he would hire the Ship to go to Japan, and would fend them from thence to the Philippine flands with another Loading, which he would pay the Freight of, before they went from Japan; and that at their Return, he would buy the Ship: I began to liften to his Propofal, and fo eager did my Head ftill run upon Rambling, that I could not but begin to entertain a Notion of going my felf with him, and fo to fail from the Phillippine Islands, away to the South Seas and accordingly I ask'd the Japonefe Merchant, if he would not hire us to the Philippine Ilands, and difcharge us there; he faid, no he could not do that, for then he could not have the Return of his Cargo; but he would difcharge us in Japan he faid, at the Ship's Return; well, ftill I was for taking him at that Propofal, and going my felf; but my Partner, wiser than my felf, pettuaded me from it, reprefenting the Dangers as well of the Seas, as of the Japoneses, who are a falfe, cruel, and treacherous People; and then of the Spaniards, at the Philippines, more false, more cruel, and more treacherous than they.

But to bring this long Turn of our Affairs to a Conclufion; the firft Thing we had to do, was to confult with the Captain of the Ship, and with his Men, and know if they were willing to go to Japan; and while I was doing this, the young Man, who as I faid, my Nephew had left with me as my Companion for

my

my Travels, came to me, and told me, that he thought that Voyage promifed very fair, and that there was a great Profpect of Advantage, and he would be very glad if I undertook it; but that if I would not, and would give him leave, he would go as a Merchant, or how I pleas'd to order him; that if ever he came to England, and I was there and alive, he would render me a faithful Account of his Succefs, and it fhou'd be as much mine as I pleas'd.

I was really loth to part with him, but confidering the Profpect of Advantage which was really confiderable, and that he was a young Fellow, as likely to do well in it, as any I knew, I enclin'd to let him go; but first I told him, I would confult my Partner, and give him an Anfwer the next Day; my Partner and I difcours'd about it, and my Partner made a moft generous Offer; he told me, you know it has been an unlucky Ship, and we both refolve not to go to Sea in it again; if your Steward, fo he call'd my Man, will venture the Voyage, I'll leave my Share of the Veffel to him and let him make his beft of it; and if we live to meet in England, and he meets with Succefs abroad, he fhall Account for one Half of the Protits of the Ship's Freight to us, the other, fhall be his own.

If my Partner, who was no Way concern'd with my young Man, made him fuch an Offer, I could do no lefs than offer him the fame; and all the Ship's Company being willing to go with him, we made over Half the Ship to him in Property, and took a Writing from him, obliging

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