A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before

by Daniel Defoe

  Produced by Steven Gibbs, Martin Pettit and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  A NEW VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD,

  BY A Course never sailed before.

  BEING

  A VOYAGE undertaken by some MERCHANTS, who afterwards proposedthe Setting up an _East-India_ Company in FLANDERS.

  _LONDON:_

  Printed for A. BETTESWORTH, at the _Red-Lyon_,in _Pater-Noster-Row_; and W. MEARS, at the_Lamb_, without _Temple-Bar_. M.DCC.XXV.

  NEW VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.

  It has for some ages been thought so wonderful a thing to sail the touror circle of the globe, that when a man has done this mighty feat, hepresently thinks it deserves to be recorded like Sir Francis Drake's. Sosoon as men have acted the sailor, they come ashore and write books oftheir voyage, not only to make a great noise of what they have donethemselves, but pretending to show the way to others to come after them,they set up for teachers and chart makers to posterity. Though most ofthem have had this misfortune, that whatever success they have had inthe voyage, they have had very little in the relation; except it be totell us, that a seaman when he comes to the press, is pretty much out ofhis element, and a very good sailor may make but a very indifferentauthor.

  I do not in this, lessen the merit of those gentlemen who have made sucha long voyage as that round the globe; but I must be allowed to say, asthe way is now a common road, the reason of it thoroughly known, and theoccasion of it more frequent than in former times, so the world has donewondering at it; we no more look upon it as a mighty thing, a strangeand never heard of undertaking; this cannot be now expected of us, thething is made familiar, every ordinary sailor is able to do it, if hismerchants are but qualified to furnish him for so long a voyage; and hethat can carry a ship to Lisbon, may with the same ease carry it roundthe world.

  Some tell us, it is enough to wonder at a thing nine days, one wouldreasonably then conclude, that it is enough that sailing round the worldhas been wondered at above a hundred years. I shall therefore let thereader know, that it is not the rarity of going round the world that hasoccasioned this publication, but if some incidents have happened insuch a voyage, as either have not happened to others, or as no otherpeople, though performing the same voyage have taken notice of, thenthis account may be worth publishing, though the thing, viz. The Voyageround the World, be in itself of no value.

  It is to be observed, of the several navigators whose Voyages round theWorld have been published, that few, if any of them, have diverted uswith that variety which a circle of that length must needs offer. Wehave a very little account of their landings, their diversions, theaccidents which happened to them, or to others by their means; thestories of their engagements, when they have had any scuffle either withnatives, or European enemies, are told superficially and by halves; thestorms and difficulties at sea or on shore, have nowhere a fullrelation; and all the rest of their accounts are generally filled upwith directions for sailors coming that way, the bearings of the land,the depth of the channels, entrances, and bars, at the several ports,anchorage in the bays, and creeks, and the like things, useful indeedfor seamen going thither again, and how few are they? but not at all tothe purpose when we come expecting to find the history of the voyage.

  Another sort of these writers have just given us their long journals,tedious accounts of their log-work, how many leagues they sailed everyday; where they had the winds, when it blew hard, and when softly; whatlatitude in every observation, what meridian distance, and whatvariation of the compass. Such is the account of Sir John Narborough'sVoyage to the South Seas, adorned with I know not how many charts of thefamous Strait of Magellan, a place only now famous for showing theignorance of Sir John Narborough, and a great many wise gentlemen beforehim, and for being a passage they had no need to have troubledthemselves with, and which nobody will ever go through anymore.

  Such also are the Voyages of Captain John Wood, to Nova Zemla, at thecharge of the public, in King Charles the Second's time, and MartinFrobisher to the North-West Passages, in Queen Elizabeth's time; allwhich, are indeed full of their own journals, and the incidents ofsailing, but have little or nothing of story in them, for the use ofsuch readers who never intend to go to sea, and yet such readers maydesire to hear how it has fared with those that have, and how affairsstand in those remote parts of the world.

  For these reasons, when first I set out upon a cruising and tradingvoyage to the East, and resolved to go anywhere, and everywhere that theadvantage of trade or the hopes of purchase should guide us, I alsoresolved to take such exact notice of everything that past within myreach, that I would be able, if I lived to come home, to give an accountof my voyage, differing from all that I had ever seen before, in thenature of the observations, as well as the manner of relating them. Andas this is perfectly new in its form, so I cannot doubt but it will beagreeable in the particulars, seeing either no voyage ever made before,had such variety of incidents happening in it, so useful and sodiverting, or no person that sailed on those voyages, has thought fit topublish them after this manner.

  Having been fitted out in the river of Thames so lately as the year1713, and on a design perhaps not very consistent with the measurestaking at that time for the putting an end to the war, I must be allowedto own I was at first obliged to act not in my own name, but to put in aFrench commander into the ship, for the reasons which follow, and whichthose, who understand the manner of trade upon closing the late war, Imean the trade with Spain, will easily allow to be just and wellgrounded.

  During the late war between Great Britain and her confederates on oneside, and the united crowns of France and Spain on the other, we allknow the French had a free trade into the South Seas; a trade carried onwith the greatest advantage, and to the greatest degree, that anyparticular commerce has been carried on in the world for many ages past;insomuch, that we found the return of silver that came back to France bythose ships, was not only the enriching of the merchants of St. Malo,Rochelle, and other ports in France, some of whom we saw get immenseestates in a few years, even to a million sterling a man; but it wasevident, the King of France himself was enabled, by the circulation ofso much bullion through his mints, to carry on that war with very greatadvantage.

  It was just at the close of this war, when some merchants of London,looking with envy on the success of that trade, and how the French,notwithstanding the peace, would apparently carry it on, for some yearsat least, to infinite advantage, began to consider whether it might notbe possible to come in for a portion of it with France, as they wereallied to Spain, and yet go abroad in the nature of a private cruiser.

  To bring this to pass, it was thought proper, in the first place, to geta share if possible, in a new design of an East India trade in Flanders,just then intended to be set up by some British merchants, by theassistance of an imperial charter, or at least under colour of it: andso we might go to sea in a threefold capacity, to be made use of asoccasion might present, viz., when on the coast of New Spain we soughtto trade, we were Frenchmen, had a French captain, and a sufficientnumber of French seamen, and Flemish or Walloon seamen, who spokeFrench, so to appear on all proper occasions. When at sea we met withany Spanish ship worth our while, we were English cruisers, had lettersof mart from England, had no account of the peace, and were fitted forthe attack. And when in the East Indies we had occasion to trade, eitherat the English or Dutch settlements, we should have imperial colours,and two Flemish merchants, at least in appearance, to transacteverything as we found occasion. However, this last part of our projectfailed us, that affair not being fully ripe. />
  As this mysterious equipment may be liable to some exceptions, andperhaps to some inquiries, I shall for the present conceal my name, andthat of the ship also. By inquiries, I mean inquiries of private personsconcerned; for, as to public inquiries, we have no uneasiness, havingacted nothing in contradiction to the rules and laws of our country; butI say, as to private persons, it is thought fit to prevent theirinquiries, to which end, the captain, in whose name I write this, givesme leave to make use of his name, and conceal my own.

  The ship sailed from the river the 20th of December, 1713, and wentdirectly over to the coast of Flanders, lying at an anchor in NewportPitts, as they are called, where we took in our French Captain JeanMichael Merlotte, who, with thirty-two French seamen, came on board usin a large snow from Dunkirk, bringing with them one hundred andtwenty-two small ankers or rundlets of brandy, and some hampers andcasks of French wine in wickered bottles. While we were here, we layunder English colours, with pendants flying, our ship being upwards offive hundred ton,