infight into the method of getting more, that, had I been twenty years younger, I fhould have been tempted to have stayed here, and fought no farther for making my fortune: but what was all this to a man on the wrong fide of threefcore, that was rich enough, and came abroad more in obedience to a restless defire of feeing the world, than a covetous defire of getting in it? And, indeed, I think, it is with great juftice that I now call it a reftlefs defire; for it was fo: when I was at home, I was restless to go abroad; and now I was abroad, I was restless to be at home. I fay, what was this gain to me? I was rich enough already; nor had I any uneafy defires about getting more money; and therefore, the profits of the voyage to me, were things of no great force to me, for the prompting me forward to farther undertakings: hence I thought, that by this voyage I had made no progress at all; because I was come back, as I might call it, to the place from whence I came, as to an home; whereas my eye, which, like that which Solomon fpeaks of, was never fatisfied with feeing, was ftill more defirous of wandering and feeing. I was come into a part of the world which I never was in before; and that part in particular, which I had heard much of; and was refolved to fee as much of it as I could; and then I thought, I might fay, I had feen all the world that was worth feeing.

But my fellow-traveller and I had different notions: I do not name this to infift upon my own, for I acknowledge his was most juft, and the most suited to the end of a merchant's life; who, when he is

abroad upon adventures, it is his wifdom to ftick to that, as the best thing for him, which he is like to get the moft money by. My new friend kept himself to the nature of the thing, and would have been content to have gone, like a carrier's horfe, always to the fame inn, backward and forward, provided he could, as he called it, find his account in it: on the other hand, mine, as old as I was, was the notion of a mad rambling boy, that never cares to fee a thing twice over.

But this was not all I had a kind of impatience upon me to be nearer home, and yet the most unfettled refolution imaginable, which way to go. In the interval of these confultations, my friend, who was always upon the fearch for business, propofed another voyage to me, viz. among the Spice Islands; and to bring home a load of cloves from the Manillas, or thereabouts; places where, indeed, the Dutch do trade, but the islands belong partly to the Spaniards; though we went not fo far, but to fome other, where they have not the whole power as they have at Batavia, Ceylon, &c. We were not long in preparing for this voyage; the chief difficulty was in bringing me to come into it; however, at last, nothing else offering, and finding that really stirring about and trading, the profit being fo great, and, as I may fay, certain, had more pleasure in it, and more fatisfaction to the mind, than fitting ftill; which, to me especially, was the unhappiest part of life, I refolved on this voyage too which we made very fuccefsfully, touching at Borneo, and several islands, whofe names I do not remember, and came home in about five months. We fold our fpice, which was chiefly cloves, and

fome nutmegs, to the Perfian merchants, who carried them away for the Gulph; and, making near five of one, we really got a great deal of money.

My friend, when we made up this account, fmiled at me: Well now, faid he, with a fort of an agreeable infult upon my indolent temper, is not this better than walking about here, like a man of nothing to do, and spending our time in ftaring at the nonsense and ignorance of the Pagans? Why truly, faid I, my friend, I think it is; and I begin to be a convert to the principles of merchandizing. But I muft tell you, faid I, by the way, you do not know what I am doing; for if once I conquer my backwardness, and embark heartily, as old as I am, I fhall harrass you up and down the world till I tire you; for I fhall purfue it fo eagerly, I fhall never let you lie ftill.

But to be short with my fpeculations: a little while after this, there came in a Dutch ship from Batavia; she was a coafter, not an European trader, and of about two hundred tons burden: the men, as they pretended, having been fo fickly, that the captain had not men enough to go to sea with, he lay by at Bengal; and, as if having got money enough, or being willing, for other reasons, to go for Europe, he gave public notice, that he would fell 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 home to him, and told him of it: he confidered awhile, for he was no rafh man neither; but mufing fome time, he replied, She is a little too big; but, however, we will have her. Accordingly we bought the fhip; and, agreeing with the mafter, we paid

for her, and took poffeffion; when we had done fo, we refolved to entertain the men, if we could, to join them with thofe we had, for the pursuing our business; but on a fudden, they not having received their wages, but their share of the money, as we afterwards learnt, not one of them was to be found. We enquired 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 refidence; and from thence were to travel to Surat, and fo by fea to the gulph of Perfia.

Nothing had so heartily troubled me a good while, as that I miffed the opportunity of going with them; for fuch a ramble, I thought, and in such company as would both have guarded me, and diverted me, would have fuited mightily with my great defign; and I fhould both have feen the world, and gone homewards too; but I was much better fatisfied a few days after, when I came to know what fort of fellows they were; for, in fhort, their hiftory was, that this man they called captain was the gunner only, not the commander; that they had been a trading voyage, in which they were attacked on fhore by fome of the Malaccans, who had killed the captain and three of his men; and that after the captain was killed, thefe men, eleven in number, had refolved to run away with the fhip, which they did; and had brought her in at the bay of Bengal, leaving the mate and five men more on fhore; of whom we fhall hear farther.

Well; let them come by the fhip how they would, we came honestly by her, as we thought; though we did not, I confefs, examine into things fo ex

actly

actly as we ought; for we never enquired any thing of the feamen, who, if we had examined, would certainly have faultered in their accounts, contradicted one another, and perhaps have contradicted themselves; or, one how or other, we fhould have seen reason to have fufpected them: but the man fhewed us a bill of fale for the fhip, to one Emanuel Clofterfboven, or fome fuch name (for I fuppose it was all a forgery) and called himself by that name; and we could not contradi&t him; and being withal a little too unwary, or at leaft, having no fufpicion of the thing, we went through with our bargain.

However we picked up fome English feamen here after this, and fome Dutch; and we now refolved for a fecond voyage to the fouth-eaft, for cloves, &c. that is to fay, among the Philippine and Malacca ifles; and, in fhort, not to fill this part of my story with trifles, when what is yet to come is fo remarkable, I spent, from first to laft, fix years in this country, trading from port to port, backward and forward, and with very good fuccefs; and was now the last year with my partner, going in the fhip above-mentioned, on a voyage to China; but defigning firft to go to Siam, to buy rice.

In this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up and down a great while in the ftraits of Malacca, and among the islands, we were no fooner got clear of those difficult feas, but we found our fhip had sprung a leak, and we were not able, by all our industry, to find out where it was. This forced us to make for fome port; and my partner, who knew the country better than I did, directed the captain to put into the river of Cambodia; for I

had