by Daniel Defoe
signal agreed on between them, at which all the seamen beinggot together, they cried out, "One and All, One and All!"
My nephew, the captain, was a man of spirit, and of great presence ofmind; and though he was surprised, you may be sure, at the thing, yet hetold them calmly he would consider of the matter, but that he could donothing in it till he had spoken to me about it: he used some argumentswith them, to shew them the unreasonableness and injustice of the thing,but it was all in vain; they swore, and shook hands round, before hisface, that they would go all on shore unless he would engage to them notto suffer me to come on board the ship.
This was a hard article upon him, who knew his obligation to me, and didnot know how I might take it; so he began to talk cavalierly to them;told them that I was a very considerable owner of the ship, and that injustice he could not put me out of my own house; that this was next doorto serving me as the famous pirate Kid had done, who made the mutiny inthe ship, set the captain on shore in an uninhabited island, and ranaway with the ship; that let them go into what ship they would, if everthey came to England again it would cost them dear; that the ship wasmine, and that he would not put me out of it; and that he would ratherlose the ship, and the voyage too, than disoblige me so much; so theymight do as they pleased. However, he would go on shore, and talk withme there, and invited the boatswain to go with him, and perhaps theymight accommodate the matter with me.
But they all rejected the proposal; and said, they would have nothing todo with me any more, neither on board nor on shore; and if I came onboard, they would go on shore. "Well," said the captain, "if you are allof this mind, let me go on shore, and talk with him:" so away he came tome with this account, a little after the message had been brought to mefrom the coxswain.
I was very glad to see my nephew I must confess, for I was not withoutapprehensions that they would confine him by violence, set sail, and runaway with the ship; and then I had been stripped naked, in a remotecountry, and nothing to help myself: in short, I had been in a worsecase than when I was all alone in the island.
But they had not come to that length, it seems, to my greatsatisfaction; and when my nephew told me what they had said to him, andhow they had sworn, and shook hands, that they would one and all leavethe ship, if I was suffered to come on board, I told him he should notbe concerned at it at all, for I would stay onshore; I only desired hewould take care and send me all my necessary things on shore, and leaveme a sufficient sum of money, and I would find my way to England as wellas I could.
This was a heavy piece of news to my nephew; but there was no way tohelp it, but to comply with it. So, in short, he went on board the shipagain, and satisfied the men that his uncle had yielded to theirimportunity, and had sent for his goods from on board the ship. So thematter was over in a very few hours; the men returned to their duty, andI begun to consider what course I should steer.
I was now alone in the remotest part of the world, as I think I may callit, for I was near three thousand leagues, by sea, farther off fromEngland than I was at my island; only, it is true, I might travel hereby land, over the Great Mogul's country to Surat, might go from thenceto Bassora by sea, up the Gulf of Persia, and from thence might take theway of the caravans, over the deserts of Arabia, to Aleppo andScanderoon, and from thence by sea again to Italy, and so overland intoFrance; and this, put together, might be, at least, a full diameter ofthe globe; but, if it were to be measured, I suppose it would appear tobe a great deal more.
I had another way before me, which was to wait for some English ships,which were coming to Bengal, from Achin, on the island of Sumatra, andget passage on board them for England: but as I came hither without anyconcern with the English East India Company, so it would be difficult togo from hence without their licence, unless with great favour of thecaptains of the ships, or of the Company's factors; and to both I was anutter stranger.
Here I had the particular pleasure, speaking by contrarieties, to seethe ship set sail without me; a treatment, I think, a man in mycircumstances scarce ever met with, except from pirates running awaywith a ship, and setting those that would not agree with their villanyon shore: indeed this was the next door to it both ways. However, mynephew left me two servants, or rather, one companion and one servant:the first was clerk to the purser, whom he engaged to go with me; andthe other was his own servant. I took me also a good lodging in thehouse of an English woman, where several merchants lodged, some French,two Italians, or rather Jews, and one Englishman. Here I was handsomelyenough entertained; and that I might not be said to run rashly upon anything, I stayed here above nine months, considering what course to take,and how to manage myself. I had some English goods with me of value, anda considerable sum of money; my nephew furnishing me with a thousandpieces of eight, and a letter of credit for more, if I had occasion,that I might not be straitened, whatever might happen.
I quickly disposed of my goods, and to advantage too; and, as Ioriginally intended, I bought here some very good diamonds, which, ofall other things, was the most proper for me, in my circumstances,because I might always carry my whole estate about me.
After a long stay here, and many proposals made for my return toEngland, but none falling to my mind, the English merchant, who lodgedwith me, and with whom I had contracted an intimate acquaintance, cameto me one morning: "Countryman," says he, "I have a project tocommunicate to you, which, as it suits with my thoughts, may, for aughtI know, suit with yours also, when you shall have thoroughlyconsidered it.
"Here we are posted," says he, "you by accident, and I by my own choice,in a part of the world very remote from our own country; but it is in acountry where, by us who understand trade and business, a great deal ofmoney is to be got: if you will put a thousand pounds to my thousandpounds, we will hire a ship here, the first we can get to our minds; youshall be captain, I'll be merchant, and we will go a trading voyage toChina; for what should we stand still for? The whole world is in motion,rolling round and round; all the creatures of God, heavenly bodies andearthly, are busy and vibrant: why should we be idle? There are nodrones," says he, "living in the world but men: why should we be ofthat number?"
I liked this proposal very well; and the more because it seemed to beexpressed with so much good will, and in so friendly a manner. I willnot say, but that I might, by my loose and unhinged circumstances, bethe fitter to embrace a proposal for trade, and indeed for any thingelse; or otherwise trade was none of my element; however, I might,perhaps, say with some truth, that if trade was not my element, ramblingwas; and no proposal for seeing any part of the world, which I had neverseen before, could possibly come amiss to me.
It was, however, some time before we could get a ship to our mind; andwhen we got a vessel, it was not easy to get English sailors; that is tosay, so many as were necessary to govern the voyage, and manage thesailors which we should pick up there. After some time we got a mate, aboatswain, and a gunner, English; a Dutch carpenter, and threePortuguese foremast-men: with these we found we could do well enough,having Indian seamen, such as they are, to make up.
There are so many travellers who have written the history of theirvoyages and travels this way, that it would be but very little diversionto any body, to give a long account of the places we went to, and thepeople who inhabit there: those things I leave to others, and refer thereader to those journals and travels of Englishmen, many of which, Ifind, are published, and more promised every day. It is enough for me totell you that we made the voyage to Achin, in the island of Sumatra,first; and from thence to Siam, where we exchanged some of our wares foropium, and for some arrack; the first a commodity which bears a greatprice among the Chinese, and which, at that time, was very much wantedthere: in a word, we went up to Susham; made a very great voyage; wereeight months out; and returned to Bengal: and I was very well satisfiedwith my adventure.
I observe, that our people in England often admire how the officers,which the Company send into India, and the merchants which generallystay there, get such very good estate
s as they do, and sometimes comehome worth sixty, seventy, and a hundred thousand pounds at a time. Butit is no wonder, or, at least, we shall see so much farther into it,when we consider the innumerable ports and places where they have a freecommerce, that it will then be no wonder; and much less will it be so,when we consider, that at all those places and ports where the Englishships come, there is so much, and such constant demand for the growth ofall other countries, that there is a certain vent for the return, aswell as a market abroad for the goods carried out.
In short, we made a very good voyage, and I got so much money by thefirst adventure, and such an insight into the method of getting more,that, had I been twenty years younger, I should have been tempted tohave stayed here, and sought no farther for making my fortune: but whatwas all this to a man on the wrong side of threescore, that was richenough, and came abroad more in obedience to a restless desire of seeingthe
