by Daniel Defoe
yousorry?"--"Because," said he, "you have brought me here twenty-five daysjourney, and will leave me to go back alone; and which way shall I getto my port afterwards, without a ship, without a horse, without pecune?"so he called money; being his broken Latin, of which he had abundance tomake us merry with.
In short, he told us there was a great caravan of Muscovy and Polishmerchants in the city, and that they were preparing to set out on theirjourney, by land, to Muscovy, within four or five weeks, and he was surewe would take the opportunity to go with them, and leave him behind togo back alone. I confess I was surprised with this news: a secret joyspread itself over my whole soul, which I cannot describe, and neverfelt before or since; and I had no power, for a good while, to speak aword to the old man; but at last I turned to him: "How do you knowthis?" said I: "are you sure it is true?"--"Yes," he said, "I met thismorning in the street an old acquaintance of mine, an Armenian, or oneyou call a Grecian, who is among them; he came last from Astracan, andwas designing to go to Tonquin; where I formerly knew him, but hasaltered his mind, and is now resolved to go back with the caravan toMoscow, and so down the river of Wolga to Astracan."--"Well, Seignior,"said I, "do not be uneasy about being left to go back alone; if this bea method for my return to England, it shall be your fault if you go backto Macao at all." We then went to consult together what was to be done,and I asked my partner what he thought of the pilot's news, and whetherit would suit with his affairs: he told me he would do just as I would;for he had settled all his affairs so well at Bengal, and left hiseffects in such good hands, that as we made a good voyage here, if hecould vest it in China silks, wrought and raw, such as might be worththe carriage, he would be content to go to England, and then make hisvoyage back to Bengal by the Company's ships.
Having resolved upon this, we agreed, that, if our Portuguese pilotwould go with us, we would bear his charges to Moscow, or to England, ifhe pleased; nor, indeed, were we to be esteemed over-generous in thatpart neither, if we had not rewarded him farther; for the service he haddone us was really worth all that, and more; for he had not only been apilot to us at sea, but he had been also like a broker for us on shore;and his procuring for us the Japan merchant was some hundreds of poundsin our pockets. So we consulted together about it; and, being willing togratify him, which was, indeed, but doing him justice, and very willingalso to have him with us besides, for he was a most necessary man on alloccasions, we agreed to give him a quantity of coined gold, which, as Icompute it, came to about one hundred and seventy-five pounds sterlingbetween us, and to bear his charges, both for himself and horse, exceptonly a horse to carry his goods.
Having settled this among ourselves, we called him to let him know whatwe had resolved: I told him, he had complained of our being like to lethim go back alone, and I was now to tell him we were resolved he shouldnot go back at all: that as we had resolved to go to Europe with thecaravan, we resolved also he should go with us, and that we called himto know his mind. He shook his head, and said it was a long journey, andhe had no pecune to carry him thither, nor to subsist himself when hecame thither. We told him, we believed it was so, and therefore we hadresolved to do something for him, that would let him see how sensible wewere of the service he had done us; and also how agreeable he was to us;and then I told him what we had resolved to give him here, which hemight lay out as we would do our own; and that as for his charges, if hewould go with us, we would set him safe ashore (life and casualtiesexcepted), either in Muscovy or in England, which he would, at our owncharge, except only the carriage of his goods.
He received the proposal like a man transported, and told us, he wouldgo with us over the whole world; and so, in short, we all preparedourselves for the journey. However, as it was with us, so it was withthe other merchants, they had many things to do; and instead of beingready in five weeks, it was four months and some odd days before allthings were got together.
It was the beginning of February, our style, when we set out from Pekin.My partner and the old pilot had gone express back to the port where wehad first put in, to dispose of some goods which he had left there; andI, with a Chinese merchant, whom I had some knowledge of at Nanquin, andwho came to Pekin on his own affairs, went to Nanquin, where I boughtninety pieces of fine damasks, with about two hundred pieces of othervery fine silks, of several sorts, some mixed with gold, and had allthese brought to Pekin against my partner's return: besides this, webought a very large quantity of raw silk, and some other goods; ourcargo amounting, in these goods only, to about three thousand fivehundred pounds sterling, which, together with tea, and some finecalicoes, and three camel-loads of nutmegs and cloves, loaded in alleighteen camels for our share, besides those we rode upon; which, withtwo or three spare horses, and two horses loaded with provisions, madeus, in short, twenty-six camels and horses in our retinue.
The company was very great, and, as near as I can remember, made betweenthree and four hundred horses and camels, and upward of a hundred andtwenty men, very well armed, and provided for all events. For, as theeastern caravans are subject to be attacked by the Arabs, so are theseby the Tartars; but they are not altogether so dangerous as the Arabs,nor so barbarous when they prevail.
The company consisted of people of several nations, such as Muscoviteschiefly; for there were about sixty of them who were merchants orinhabitants of Moscow, though of them some were Livonians; and to ourparticular satisfaction, five of them were Scots, who appeared also tobe men of great experience in business, and very good substance.
When we had travelled one day's journey, the guides, who were five innumber, called all the gentlemen and merchants, that is to say, all thepassengers, except the servants, to a great council, as they termed it.At this great council every one deposited a certain quantity of money toa common stock, for the necessary expense of buying forage on the waywhere it was not otherwise to be had, and for satisfying the guides,getting horses, and the like. And here they constituted the journey, asthey called it, viz. they named captains and officers to draw us all upand give the command in case of an attack; and give every one their turnof command. Nor was this forming us into order any more than what wefound needful upon the way, as shall be observed in its place.
The road all on this side of the country is very populous, and is fullof potters and earth makers; that is to say, people that tempered theearth for the China ware; and, as I was going along, our Portuguesepilot, who had always something or other to say to make us merry, camesneering to me, and told me, he would shew the greatest rarity in allthe country; and that I should have this to say of China, after all theill humoured things I had said of it, that I had seen one thing whichwas not to be seen in all the world beside. I was very importunate toknow what it was; at last he told me, it was a gentleman's house, builtall with China ware. "Well," said I, "are not the materials of theirbuilding the product of their own country; and so it is all China ware,is it not?"--"No, no," says he, "I mean, it is a house all made of Chinaware, such as you call so in England; or, as it is called in ourcountry, porcelain."--"Well," said I, "such a thing may be: how big isit? can we carry it in a box upon a camel? If we can, we will buyit."--"Upon a camel!" said the old pilot, holding up both his hands;"why, there is a family of thirty people lives in it."
I was then curious, indeed, to see it; and when I came to see it, it wasnothing but this: it was a timber house, or a house built, as we call itin England, with lath and plaster, but all the plastering was reallyChina ware, that is to say, it was plastered with the earth that makesChina ware.
The outside, which the sun shone hot upon, was glazed, and looked verywell, perfectly white, and painted with blue figures, as the large Chinaware in England is painted, and hard, as if it had been burnt. As to theinside, all the walls, instead of wainscot, were lined with hardened andpainted tiles, like the little square tiles we call gally tiles inEngland, all made of the finest china, and the figures exceeding fineindeed, with extraordinary variety of colours, mixed with gold, manytiles making but one figure, but j
oined so artificially with mortar,being made of the same earth, that it was very hard to see where thetiles met. The floors of the rooms were of the same composition, and ashard as the earthen floors we have in use in several parts of England,especially Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, &c. as hard asstone, and smooth, but not burnt and painted, except some smaller rooms,like closets, which were all, as it were, paved with the same tile: theceilings, and, in a word, all the plastering work in the whole house,were of the same earth; and, after all, the roof was covered with tilesof the same, but of a deep shining black.
This was a china warehouse indeed, truly and lite rally to be called so;and had I not been upon the journey, I could have staid some days to seeand examine the particulars of it. They told me there were fountains
