to rights; but, however, neither the men upon the stages nor those in the boats could do as they were ordered, before the Cochin-Chinese were upon them; and two of their boats boarded our long-boat, and began to lay hold of the men as their prisoners.

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The first man they laid hold of was an English seaman, stout, strong fellow, who, having a musket in his hand, never offered to fire it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool, as I thought; but he understood his business better than I could teach him, for he grappled the pagan, and dragged him by main force out of their boat into ours, where, taking him by the ears, he beat his head so against the boat's gunnel, that the fellow died in his hands; and in the mean time, a Dutch man, who stood next, took up the musket, and with the butt end of it so laid about him, that he knocked down five of them who attempted to enter the boat. But this was doing little towards resisting thirty or forty men, who, fearless, because gnorant of their danger, began to throw themselves into the ong-boat, where we had but five men in all to defend it; but he following accident, which deserved our laughter, gave our men a complete victory.

Our carpenter being prepared to grave the outside of the ship, as well as to pay the seams where he had calked her to stop the leaks, had got two kettles just let down into tho boat, one filled with boiling pitch, and the other with rosin

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tallow, and oil, and such stuff as the shipwrights use for that work; and the man that attended the carpenter had a great iron ladle in his hand, with which he supplied the men that were at work with the hot stuff; two of the enemy's men entered the boat just where this fellow stood, being in the foresheets; he immediately saluted them with a ladle full of the stuff, boiling-hot, which so burned and scalded them, being half naked, that they roared out like bulls, and, enraged with the fire, leaped both into the sea. The carpenter saw it, and cried out, "Well done, Jack! give them some more of it; nd stepping forward himself, takes one of the mops, and dip ping it in the pitch-pot, he and his man threw it among them so plentifully, that, in short, of all the men in the three boats there was not one that escaped being scalded and burned wit it, in a most frightful, pitiful manner, and made such a howling and crying, that I never heard a worse noise; for it is worth observing, that though pain naturally makes all people cry out, yet every nation has a particular way of exclamation, and makes noises as different from one another as their speech. I cannot give the noise these creatures made a better name than howling, nor a name more proper to the tone of it; for I never heard any thing more like the noise of the wolves, which, as I have said, I heard howl in the forest on the frontiers of Languedoc.

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I was never better pleased with a victory in my life; not only as it was a perfect surprise to me, and that our danger was imminent before, but as we got this victory without any bloodshed, except of that man the fellow killed with his naked hands, and which I was very much concerned at, for I was sick of killing such poor savage wretches, even though it was in my own defence, knowing they came on errands which they thought just, and knew no better; and that though it may be a just thing, because necessary (for there is no ne cessary wickedness in nature), yet I thought it was a sad life when we must be always obliged to be killing our fellow-crea ures to preserve ourselves; and, indeed, I think so still,,anc I would even now suffer a great deal, rather than I would tak away the life even of the worst person injuring me; and I be lieve all considering people who know the value of life would be of my opinion, if they entered seriously into the consid

ration of it.

But to return to my story ;-All the while this was doing, my partner and I, who managed the rest of the men on board, had with great dexterity brought the ship almost to rights, and having got the guns into their places again, the gunner called to me to bid, our boat get out of the way, for he would let fly among them. I called back again to him, and bid him not offer to fire, for the carpenter would do the work without him; but bid him heat another pitch-kettle, which our cook, who

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was on board, took care of; but the enemy was so terrified with what they had met with in their first attack, that they would not come on again; and some of them who were farthest off, seeing the ship swim, as it were, upright, began, as we suppose, to see their mistake, and give over the enterprise, finding it was not as they expected. Thus we got clear of this merry fight, and having got some rice, and some roots and bread, with about sixteen hogs, on board, two days before, we resolved to stay here no longer, but go forward, whatever came of it; for we made no doubt but we should be surround ed the next day with rogues enough, perhaps more than our pitch-kettle would dispose of for us. We therefore got all our things on board the same evening, and the next morning were ready to sail; in the mean time, lying at anchor at some distance from the shore, we were not so much concerned, being now in a fighting posture, as well as in a sailing posture, if any enemy had presented. The next day having finished our work within board, and finding our ship was perfectly healed of all her leaks, we set sail. We would have gone into the Bay of Tonquin, for we wanted to inform ourselves of what was to be known concerning the Dutch ships that had been there; but we durst not stand in there, because we had seen several ships go in, as we supposed, but a little before; so we kept on N. E. towars the Island of Formosa, as much afraid of being seen by a Dutch or English merchant-ship, as a Autch or English merchant-ship in the Mediterranean is of an Algerine man-of-war.

When we were thus got to sea, we kept on N. E. as if we would go to the Manillas or the Philippine Islands; and this we did that we might not fall into the way of any of the European ships; and then we steered north, till we came to the latitude of 22 deg. 30 min. by which means we made the Island Formosa directly, where we came to an anchor, in order to get water and fresh provisions, which the people there, who are very courteous and civil in their manners, supplied us with willingly, and dealt very fairly and punctually with us in all their agreements and bargains, which is what we did not find among other people, and may be owing to the remains of Christianity which was once planted here by a Dutch mis sionary of Protestants, and is a testimony of what I have ofter observed, viz. that the Christian religion always civilizes th people and reforms their manners, where it is received, whether it works saving effects upon them or no.

From thence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of China at an equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of China where our European ships usually come; being resolved, if possible, not to fall into any of their hands, especially in this country, where, as our circumstances were, we could' not fail of being entirely ruined.

Being now come to the latitude of thirty degrees, we resolvec

to put into the first trading port we should come at ; and standing in for the shore, a boat came off two leagues to us, with an old Portuguese pilot on board, who, knowing us to be a European ship, came to offer his service, which, indeed, we were glad of, and took him on board; upon which, without asking us whether we would go, he dismissed the boat he came in, and sent it back.

I thought it was now so much in our choice to make the old man carry us whither we would, that I began to talk to him about carrying us to the Gulf of Nanquin, which is the most northern part of the coast of China. The old man said he knew the Gulf of Nanquin very well; but smiling, asked us what we would do there. I told him we would sell our cargo and purchase China wares, calicoes, raw silks, tea, wrought silks, &c., and so would return by the same course we camno. He told us our best port had been to have put in at Macao, where we could not have failed of a market for our opium to our satisfaction, and might for our money have purchased all sorts of China goods as cheap as we could at Nanquin.

Not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of which he was very opinionated or conceited, I told him we were gentlemen as well as merchants, and that we had a mind to go and see the great city of Pekin, and the famous court of the monarch of China. "Why then," says the old 66 man, you should go to Ningpo, where, by the river which runs into the sea there, you may go up within five leagues of the great canal. This canal is a navigable stream, which goes through the heart of that vast empire of China, crosses all the rivers, passes some considerable hills by the help of sluices and gates, and goes up to the city of Pekin, being in length near two hundred and seventy leagues."

Well," said I, " Seignior Portuguese, but that is not our business now; the great question is, if you can carry us up to he city of Nanquin, from whence we can travel to Pekin afterwards." He said he could do so very well, and that there was a great Dutch ship gone up that way just before. This gave me a little shock, for a Dutch ship was now our terror, and we had much rather have met the devil, at least if he had not come in too frightful a figure; and we depended upon it that a Dutch ship would be our destruction, for we were in no condition to fight them; all the ships they trade with into those parts being of great burden, and of much greater force than

we were.

"Sir

The old man found me a little confused, and under some concern when he named a Dutch ship, and said to me, you need be under no apprehensions of the Dutch; I sup pose they are not now at war with your nation ?"-"No," said "that's true; but I know not what liberties men may take when they are out of the reach of the laws of their own coun

try.”—“Why,” says he, " you are no pirates; what need you fear? They will not meddle with peaceable merchants, sure.

If I had any blood in my body that did not fly up into my face at that word, it was hindered by some stop in the vessels appointed by nature to circulate it, for it put me into the greatest disorder and confusion imaginable; nor was it possible for me to conceal it so, but the old man easily perceived it.

Sir," says he, "I find you are in some disorder in your houghts at my talk; pray be pleased to go which way you hink fit, and depend upon it, I'll do you all the service I can.

Why, seignior," said I, "it is true, I am a little unsettled in my resolution at this time, whither to go in particular; and I am something more so for what you said about pirates. I hope there are no pirates in these seas; we are but in an ill condition to meet with them, for you see we have but a small force, and are but very weakly manned."—"O, sir,” says he, "don't be concerned, I do not know that there have been any pirates in these seas these fifteen years, except one, which was seen, as I hear, in the Bay of Siam, about a month since; but you may be assured she is gone to the southward; nor was she a ship of any great force, or fit for the work: she was not built for a privateer, but was run away with by a reprobate crew that was on board, after the captain and some of his men had been murdered by the Malayans, at or near the Island of Sumatra.

"What!" said I, seeming to know nothing of the matter, "did they murder the captain ?"-"No," said he, "I don't understand that they murdered him; but as they afterwards ran away with the ship, it is generally believed that they betrayed him into the hands of the Malayans, who did murder him; and perhaps they procured them to do it."-"Why then," said I, "they deserve death as much as if they had done it themselves." Nay," says the old man, "they do deserve it; and they will certainly have it, if they light upon any English or Dutch ship; for they have all agreed together, that if they meet that rogue, they'll give him no quarter.' But," said 1 to him, "you say the pirate is gone out of these seas; how can they meet with him then ?""Why, that's true," says he, "they do say so; but he was, as I tell you, in the Bay of Siam, in the river Cambodia; and was discovered there by some Dutchmen who belonged to the ship, and who were left on shore when they ran away with her; and some English and Dutch traders being in the river, they were within a little of taking him: nay," said he, "if the foremost boats had been well seconded by the rest, they had certainly taken him; but he, finding only two boats within reach of him, tacked about, and fired at those two, and disabled them before the others came up, and then standing off to sea, the others were not able to follow, and so he got away; but they have all so exact a description of the ship, that they will be sure to know her; and