had made the English mate, one Mr. Thompfon, captain, not being willing to take the charge of the fhip upon myfelf: This river lies on the north fide of the great bay or gulph, which goes up to Siam.

While we were here, and going often on fhore for refreshment, there comes to me one day an Englifhman, and he was, it feems, a gunner's mate on board an English East India fhip, which rode in the fame river, up at, or near the city of Cambodia : what brought him hither we knew not; but he comes up to me, and, fpeaking English, Sir, fays he, you are a ftranger to me, and I to you; but I have fomething to tell you, that very nearly concerns

you.

I looked ftedfastly at him a good while, and he thought at first I had known him, but I did not: If it very nearly concerns me, faid I, and not yourfelf, what moves you to tell it me? I am moved, fays he, by the imminent danger you are in; and for aught I fee, you have no knowledge of it. I know no danger I am in, faid I, but that my fhip is leaky, and I cannot find it out; but I propofe to lay her aground to-morrow, to fee if I can find it. But, Sir, fays he, leaky or not leaky, find it or not find it, you will be wifer than to lay your fhip on fhore to-morrow, when hear what I have to fay to you: Do you know, Sir, faid he, the town of Cambodia lies about fifteen leagues up this river? And there are two large English fhips about five leagues on this fide, and three Dutch. Well faid I, and what is that to me? Why, Sir, fays he, is it for a man that is upon fuch adventures as you are, to come into a port, and not examine first what ships there are there,

you

and

and whether he is able to deal with them? I fuppofe you do not think you are a match for them? I was amufed very much at his discourse, but not amazed at it; for I could not conceive what he meant; and I turned fhort upon him, and faid, Sir, I wish you would explain yourself; I cannot imagine what reafon I have to be afraid of any of the Company's fhips, or Dutch fhips; I am no interloper; what can they have to fay to me?

He looked like a man half angry, half pleased; and, pausing awhile, but fmiling, Well, Sir, fays he, if you think yourself fecure, you must take your chance; I am forry your fate fhould blind you against good advice; but affure yourself, if you do not put to fea immediately, you will the very next tide be attacked by five long-boats full of men; and, perhaps if you are taken, you will be hanged for a pirate, and the particulars be examined into afterwards: I thought, Sir, added he, I fhould have met with a better reception than this, for doing you a piece of fervice of fuch importance. I can never be ungrateful, faid I, for any fervice, or to any man that offers me any kindness; but it is past my comprehenfion, faid I, what they fhould have fuch a design upon me for: However, fince you say there is no time to be loft, and that there is fome villainous defign in hand against me, I will go on board this minute, and put to fea immediately, if my men can stop the leak, or if we can swim without stopping it: But, Sir, faid I, fhall I go away ignorant of the reafon of all this? Can you give me no farther light into it?

I can tell you but part of the story, Sir, fays he ; but I have a Dutch feaman here with me, and, I believe, I could perfuade him to tell you the rest; but there is fcarce time for it: But the fhort of the story is this, the first part of which, I fuppofe, you know well enough, viz. That you were with this fhip at Sumatra; that there your captain was murdered by the Malaccans, with three of his men; and that you, or fome of those that were on board with you, ran away with the fhip, and are fince turned PIRATES. This is the fum of the ftory, and you will all be seized as pirates, I can affure you, and executed with very little ceremony; for you know merchant fhips fhew but little law to pirates, if they get them in their power.

you

Now you fpeak plain English, faid I, and I thank you; and though I know nothing that we have done, like what you talk of, but I am fure we came honestly and fairly by the ship; yet seeing fuch work is a doing, as you fay, and that you feem to mean honeftly, I will be upon my guard. Nay, Sir, fays he, do not talk of being upon your guard; the best defence is to be out of the danger : if have any regard to your life, and the lives of all your men, put out to fea without fail at high-water; and as you have a whole tide before you, you will be gone too far out before they can come down; for they will come away at high water; and as they have twenty miles to come, you'll get near two hours of them by the difference of the tide, not reckoning the length of the way: Besides, as they are only boats, and not fhips, they will not venture to follow you far out to fea, especially if it blows.

Well,

Well, faid I, you have been very kind in this: What shall I do for you to make you amends? Sir, fays he, you may not be fo willing to make me amends, because you may not be convinced of the truth of it: I will make an offer to you; I have nineteen months pay due to me on board the ship which I came out of England in; and the Dutchman, that is with me, has feven months pay due to him; if you will make good our pay to us, we will go along with If you: you find nothing more in it, we will defire no more; but if we do convince you, that we have faved your life, and the fhip, and the lives of all the men in her, we will leave the rest to you.

who was on

called to me

I confented to this readily; and went immediately on board, and the two men with me. As foon as I came to the fhip's fide, my partner, board, came on the quarter-deck, and with a great deal of joy, O ho! O ho! we have ftopped the leak! Say you fo, faid I, thank God; but weigh the anchor then immediately: Weigh! fays he, what do you mean by that? What is the matter? fays he. Ask no questions, said I, but all hands to work, and weigh without lofing a minute. He was surprised: But, however, he called the captain, and he immediately ordered the anchor to be got up; and though the tide was not quite done, yet a little land-breeze blowing, we ftood out to fea; then I called him into the cabin, and told him the ftory at large; and we called in the men, and they told us the rest of it: but as it took us up a great deal of time, fo before we had done, a seaman comes to the cabin-door, and calls out to us, that

I

сар

the captain bade him tell us, we were chafed : Chafed, faid I, by whom, and by what? By five floops, or boats, faid the fellow, full of men. Very well, faid I; then it is apparent there is fomething in it. In the next place, I ordered all our men to be called up and told them, that there was a defign to feize the fhip, and to take us for pirates; and asked them, if they would stand by us, and by one another? The men anfwered, chearfully, one and all, that they would live and die with us. Then I asked the captain, what way he thought beft for us to manage a fight with them: For refift them I refolved we would, and that to the laft drop. He faid, readily, that the way was to keep them off with our great shot, as long as we could, and then to fire at them with our finall arms, to keep them from boarding us; but when neither of thefe would do any longer, we fhould retire to our clofe quarters; perhaps they had not materials to break open our bulk-heads, or get in upon us.

The gunner had, in the mean time, orders to bring two guns to bear fore and aft, out of the fteerage, to clear the deck, and load them with mufquet-bullets, and small pieces of old iron, and what next came to hand; and thus we made ready for fight; but all this while kept out to fea, with wind enough, and could fee the boats at a distance, being five large long-boats following us, with all the fail they could

make.

Two of thefe boats, which, by our glaffes, we could fee were English, had out-failed the reft, were near two leagues a-head of them, and gained upon us confiderably; to that we found they would come

up