Latest / Classic Adventure Books - Daily / 15 - The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen, Attacked by Tartars. It was the beginning of
- 0:04Speaker 1: February New Style when we set out from Pequin. My
- 0:08Speaker 1: partner and the old pilot had gone express back to
- 0:11Speaker 1: the port where we had first put in to dispose
- 0:14Speaker 1: of some goods which we had left there, and I,
- 0:17Speaker 1: with a Chinese merchant whom I had some knowledge of
- 0:19Speaker 1: at Nankin and who came to Pekin on his own affairs,
- 0:23Speaker 1: went to Nankin, where I bought ninety pieces of fine damasks,
- 0:27Speaker 1: with about two hundred pieces of other very fine silk
- 0:30Speaker 1: of several sorts, some mixed with gold, and had all
- 0:33Speaker 1: these brought to Pekin against my partner's return. Besides this,
- 0:37Speaker 1: we bought a large quantity of raw silk and some
- 0:40Speaker 1: other goods our cargo, amounting in these goods only to
- 0:43Speaker 1: about three thousand, five hundred pounds sterling, which, together with
- 0:48Speaker 1: tea and some fine calicoes and three camels, loads of
- 0:51Speaker 1: nutmegs and cloves loaded in all eighteen camels for our share.
- 0:56Speaker 1: Besides those, we rode upon these with two or three
- 0:59Speaker 1: spare horse and two horses loaded with provisions, made together
- 1:03Speaker 1: twenty six camels and horses in our retinue. The company
- 1:08Speaker 1: was very great, and as near as I can remember,
- 1:10Speaker 1: made between three and four hundred horses and upwards of
- 1:13Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty men, very well armed and provided
- 1:17Speaker 1: for all events, for as the Eastern caravans are subject
- 1:20Speaker 1: to be attacked by the Arabs, so are these by
- 1:23Speaker 1: the Tartars. The company consisted of people of several nations,
- 1:27Speaker 1: but there were above sixty of them merchants or inhabitants
- 1:30Speaker 1: of Moscow, though of them some were Livonians, and to
- 1:34Speaker 1: our particular satisfaction, five of them were Scots, who appeared
- 1:38Speaker 1: also to be men of great experience in business, and
- 1:41Speaker 1: of very good substance. When we had traveled one day's journey,
- 1:45Speaker 1: the guides, who were five in number, called all the
- 1:48Speaker 1: passengers except the servants, to a great council, as they
- 1:51Speaker 1: called it. At this council everyone deposited a certain quantity
- 1:55Speaker 1: of money to a common stock, for the necessary expense
- 1:58Speaker 1: of buying forage on the way where it was not
- 2:01Speaker 1: otherwise to be had, and for satisfying the guides getting
- 2:04Speaker 1: horses and the like. Here too, they constituted the journey
- 2:08Speaker 1: as they call it viz. They named captains and officers
- 2:12Speaker 1: to draw us all up and give the word of
- 2:14Speaker 1: command in case of an attack, and give every one
- 2:17Speaker 1: their turn of command. Nor was this forming us into
- 2:20Speaker 1: order any more than what we afterwards found needful on
- 2:23Speaker 1: the way the road, all on this side of the
- 2:26Speaker 1: country is very populous, and is full of potters and earthmakers,
- 2:30Speaker 1: that is to say, people that temper the earth for
- 2:33Speaker 1: the chinawar. As I was coming along, our Portuguese pilot,
- 2:37Speaker 1: who had always something or other to say to make
- 2:40Speaker 1: us merry, told me that he would show me the
- 2:42Speaker 1: greatest rarity of all in the country, and that I
- 2:45Speaker 1: should have this to say of China, after all the
- 2:47Speaker 1: ill humored things that I had said of it, that
- 2:50Speaker 1: I had seen one thing which was not to be
- 2:52Speaker 1: seen in all the world beside. I was very importunate
- 2:56Speaker 1: to know what it was. At last he told me
- 2:58Speaker 1: it was a gentleman's house built with chinaware. Well, says I,
- 3:02Speaker 1: are not the materials of their buildings the products of
- 3:05Speaker 1: their own country, And so it is all chinaware, is
- 3:08Speaker 1: it not? No, No, says he, I mean it is
- 3:11Speaker 1: a house all made of chinaware, such as you call
- 3:14Speaker 1: it in England, or as it is called in our country. Porcelain, well,
- 3:18Speaker 1: says I, such a thing may be, How big is it?
- 3:21Speaker 1: Can we carry it in a box upon a camel?
- 3:24Speaker 1: If we can, we will buy it upon a camel,
- 3:27Speaker 1: says the old pilot, holding up both his hands. Why
- 3:30Speaker 1: there is a family of thirty people lives in it.
- 3:34Speaker 1: I was then curious, indeed to see it. And when
- 3:36Speaker 1: I came to it, it was nothing but this. It
- 3:39Speaker 1: was a timber house, or a house built as we
- 3:41Speaker 1: call it in England, with lath and plaster. But all
- 3:45Speaker 1: this plastering was really chinaware, that is to say, it
- 3:48Speaker 1: was plastered with the earth that makes chinaware. The outside,
- 3:52Speaker 1: which the sun shone hot upon, was glazed and looked
- 3:55Speaker 1: very well, perfectly white and painted with blue figures as
- 3:59Speaker 1: the large china wherein England is painted, and hard as
- 4:02Speaker 1: if it had been burnt. As to the inside, all
- 4:05Speaker 1: the walls, instead of wainscut, were lined with hardened and
- 4:09Speaker 1: painted tiles, like the little square tiles we call galley
- 4:12Speaker 1: tiles in England, all made of the finest china, and
- 4:16Speaker 1: the figures exceeding fine, indeed with extraordinary variety of colors,
- 4:21Speaker 1: mixed with gold. Many tiles making but one figure but
- 4:24Speaker 1: joined so artificially, the mortar being made of the same earth,
- 4:28Speaker 1: that it was very hard to see where the tiles met.
- 4:31Speaker 1: The floors of the room were of the same composition,
- 4:34Speaker 1: and as hard as the earthen floors we have in
- 4:36Speaker 1: use in several parts of England, as hard as stone
- 4:39Speaker 1: and smooth, but not burnt and painted, except some smaller
- 4:43Speaker 1: rooms like closets, which were all, as it were, paved
- 4:46Speaker 1: with the same tile. The ceiling and all the plastering
- 4:50Speaker 1: work in the whole house were of the same earth,
- 4:53Speaker 1: and after all the roof was covered with tiles of
- 4:55Speaker 1: the same, but of a deep, shining black. This was
- 4:58Speaker 1: a China warehouse, indeed, truly and literally to be called so,
- 5:03Speaker 1: And had I not been upon the journey, I could
- 5:05Speaker 1: have stayed some days to see and examine the particulars
- 5:09Speaker 1: of it. They told me. There were fountains and fish
- 5:11Speaker 1: ponds in the garden, all paved on the bottom and
- 5:14Speaker 1: sides with the same, and fine statues set up in
- 5:17Speaker 1: rows on the walks, entirely formed of the porcelain earth
- 5:21Speaker 1: burnt whole. As this is one of the singularities of China,
- 5:25Speaker 1: so they may be allowed to excel in it. But
- 5:28Speaker 1: I am very sure they excel in their accounts of it,
- 5:31Speaker 1: for they told me such incredible things of their performance
- 5:34Speaker 1: in crockery, where for such it is that I care
- 5:37Speaker 1: not to relate, as knowing it could not be true.
- 5:40Speaker 1: They told me, in particular of one workman that made
- 5:43Speaker 1: a ship with all its tackle and masts and sails
- 5:45Speaker 1: in earthenware, big enough to carry fifty men. If they
- 5:49Speaker 1: had told me he launched it and made a voyage
- 5:51Speaker 1: to Japan in it, I might have said something to it, indeed,
- 5:55Speaker 1: but as it was, I knew the whole of the story,
- 5:57Speaker 1: which was, in short, that the fellow love, so I
- 6:01Speaker 1: smiled and said nothing to it. This odd site kept
- 6:04Speaker 1: me two hours behind the caravan, for which the leader
- 6:07Speaker 1: of it for the day find me about the value
- 6:09Speaker 1: of three shillings and told me if it had been
- 6:12Speaker 1: three days journey without the wall, as it was three
- 6:15Speaker 1: days within, he must have find me four times as much,
- 6:19Speaker 1: and made me ask pardon. The next council day, I
- 6:22Speaker 1: promised to be more orderly, and indeed I found afterwards
- 6:26Speaker 1: the orders made for keeping altogether were absolutely necessary for
- 6:30Speaker 1: our common safety. In two days more we passed the
- 6:33Speaker 1: Great China wall made for a fortification against the tartars,
- 6:37Speaker 1: and the very great work it is, going over hills
- 6:40Speaker 1: and mountains in an endless track, where the rocks are impassable,
- 6:44Speaker 1: and the precipices such as no enemy could possibly enter
- 6:48Speaker 1: or indeed climb up, or where if they did, no
- 6:51Speaker 1: wall could hinder them. They tell us its length is
- 6:54Speaker 1: near a thousand English miles, but that the country is
- 6:57Speaker 1: five hundred in a straight measured line which the wall bounds,
- 7:00Speaker 1: without measuring the windings and turnings it takes. It is
- 7:03Speaker 1: about four fathoms high and as many thick in some places.
- 7:08Speaker 1: I stood still an hour or thereabouts, without trespassing on
- 7:12Speaker 1: our orders. For so long the caravan was in passing
- 7:15Speaker 1: the gate to look at it on every side, near
- 7:18Speaker 1: and far off, I mean, what was within my view.
- 7:22Speaker 1: And the guide, who had been extolling it for the
- 7:24Speaker 1: wonder of the world, was mighty eager to hear my
- 7:27Speaker 1: opinion of it. I told him it was a most
- 7:29Speaker 1: excellent thing to keep out the tartars, which he happens
- 7:32Speaker 1: not to understand as I meant it, and so took
- 7:35Speaker 1: it for a compliment. But the old pilot laughed, oh,
- 7:38Speaker 1: signoring lazy, He says, you speak in colors in colors,
- 7:42Speaker 1: said I, what do you mean by that? Why you speak?
- 7:45Speaker 1: What looks white this way and black that way? Gay
- 7:48Speaker 1: one way and dull another. You tell him it is
- 7:51Speaker 1: a good wall to keep out tartars. You tell me
- 7:54Speaker 1: by that it is good for nothing but to keep
- 7:56Speaker 1: out tartars. I understand you, signoringinglazy. I understand you. But
- 8:01Speaker 1: Segnor Chinese understood you his own way well, says I.
- 8:05Speaker 1: Do you think it would stand out an army of
- 8:07Speaker 1: our country people with a good train of artillery, or
- 8:10Speaker 1: our engineers with two companies of miners, would not they
- 8:14Speaker 1: batter it down in ten days, that an army might
- 8:17Speaker 1: enter in battalia or blow it up in the air foundation,
- 8:20Speaker 1: and all that there should be no sign of it left.
- 8:23Speaker 1: Ay ay, says he. I know that the Chinese wanted
- 8:28Speaker 1: mightily to know what I said to the pilot, and
- 8:30Speaker 1: I gave him leave to tell him a few days after,
- 8:33Speaker 1: for we were then almost out of their country, and
- 8:36Speaker 1: he was to leave us a little time after this.
- 8:38Speaker 1: But when he knew what I said, he was dumb
- 8:41Speaker 1: all the rest of the way, and we heard no
- 8:43Speaker 1: more of his fine story of the Chinese power and
- 8:46Speaker 1: greatness while he stayed. After we passed this mighty nothing
- 8:51Speaker 1: called a wall, something like the Picts walls so famous
- 8:54Speaker 1: in Northumberland, built by the Romans, we began to find
- 8:58Speaker 1: the country thinly inhabited, and the people rather confined to
- 9:01Speaker 1: live in fortified towns, as being subject to the inroads
- 9:05Speaker 1: and depredations of the Tartars, who rob in great armies,
- 9:08Speaker 1: and therefore are not to be resisted by the naked
- 9:11Speaker 1: inhabitants of an open country. And here I begin to
- 9:14Speaker 1: find the necessity of keeping together in a caravan. As
- 9:17Speaker 1: we traveled, for we saw several troops of Tartars roving about.
- 9:22Speaker 1: But when I came to see them distinctly, I wondered
- 9:24Speaker 1: more that the Chinese Empire could be conquered by such
- 9:27Speaker 1: contemptible fellows. For they are a mere horde of wild fellows,
- 9:31Speaker 1: keeping no order and understanding no discipline or manner of it.
- 9:35Speaker 1: Their horses are poor, lean creatures, taught nothing and fit
- 9:39Speaker 1: for nothing. And this we found the first day we
- 9:42Speaker 1: saw them, which was after we entered the wilder part
- 9:45Speaker 1: of the country. Our leader for the day gave leave
- 9:48Speaker 1: for about sixteen of us to go a hunting, as
- 9:50Speaker 1: they call it, And what was this but a hunting
- 9:53Speaker 1: of sheep? However, it may be called hunting too, for
- 9:56Speaker 1: these creatures are the wildest and swiftest of foot that
- 9:59Speaker 1: ever I saw of their kind. Only they will not
- 10:02Speaker 1: run a great way, and you are sure of sport
- 10:04Speaker 1: when you begin the chase, for they appear generally thirty
- 10:07Speaker 1: or forty in a flock, and like true sheep, always
- 10:11Speaker 1: keep together when they fly. In pursuit of this odd
- 10:15Speaker 1: sort of game, it was our hap to meet with
- 10:17Speaker 1: about forty tartars. Whether they were hunting mutton as we were,
- 10:21Speaker 1: or whether they looked for another kind of prey, we
- 10:24Speaker 1: know not. But as soon as they saw us, one
- 10:27Speaker 1: of them blew a hideous blast on a kind of horn.
- 10:30Speaker 1: This was to call their friends about them, and in
- 10:32Speaker 1: less than ten minutes a troop of forty or fifty
- 10:35Speaker 1: more appeared at about a mile distance. But our work
- 10:39Speaker 1: was over first, As it happened one of the Scott's
- 10:42Speaker 1: merchants of Moscow happened to be amongst us, and as
- 10:45Speaker 1: soon as he heard the horn, he told us that
- 10:47Speaker 1: we had nothing to do but to charge them without
- 10:50Speaker 1: loss of time, and drawing us up in a line,
- 10:53Speaker 1: he asked if we were resolved. We told him we
- 10:55Speaker 1: were ready to follow him. So he rode directly towards them,
- 11:00Speaker 1: good gazing at us like a mere crowd, drawn up
- 11:02Speaker 1: in no sort of order at all. But as soon
- 11:05Speaker 1: as they saw us advance, they let fly their arrows,
- 11:08Speaker 1: which missed us very happily. Not that they mistook their aim,
- 11:12Speaker 1: but their distance, for their arrows all fell a little
- 11:15Speaker 1: short of us, but with so true an aim that
- 11:18Speaker 1: had we been about twenty yards nearer, we must have
- 11:21Speaker 1: had several men wounded, if not killed. Immediately we halted,
- 11:26Speaker 1: and though it was at a great distance, we fired
- 11:28Speaker 1: and sent them leaden bullets for wooden arrows, following our
- 11:32Speaker 1: shot full gallop to fall in among them, sword in hand,
- 11:36Speaker 1: for so our bold scot that led us directed. He
- 11:39Speaker 1: was indeed but a merchant, but he behaved with such
- 11:42Speaker 1: vigor and bravery on this occasion, and yet with such
- 11:45Speaker 1: cool courage, too, that I never saw any man in
- 11:48Speaker 1: action fitter for command. As soon as we came up
- 11:52Speaker 1: to them, we fired our pistols in their faces, and
- 11:54Speaker 1: then drew, But they fled in the greatest confusion. Imaginable.
- 11:59Speaker 1: The only stand in any of them made was on
- 12:01Speaker 1: our right, where three of them stood, and by signs
- 12:04Speaker 1: called the rest to come back to them. Having a
- 12:07Speaker 1: kind of scimitar in their hands and their bows hanging
- 12:10Speaker 1: to their backs, Our brave commander, without asking anybody to
- 12:14Speaker 1: follow him, gallops up close to them, and with his
- 12:17Speaker 1: fusey knocks one of them off his horse, killed the
- 12:20Speaker 1: second with his pistol, and the third ran away. Thus
- 12:23Speaker 1: ended our fight. But we had this misfortune attending it
- 12:27Speaker 1: that all our mutton we had in chase got away.
- 12:30Speaker 1: We had not a man killed or hurt. As for
- 12:33Speaker 1: the Tartars, there were about five of them killed. How
- 12:36Speaker 1: many were wounded we knew not. But this we knew
- 12:39Speaker 1: that the other party were so frightened with the noise
- 12:42Speaker 1: of our guns that they fled and never made any
- 12:44Speaker 1: attempt upon us. We were all this while in the
- 12:49Speaker 1: Chinese dominions, and therefore the Tartars were not so bold
- 12:52Speaker 1: as afterwards. But in about five days we entered a
- 12:55Speaker 1: vast wild desert which held us three days and nights March,
- 13:00Speaker 1: and we were obliged to carry our water with us
- 13:02Speaker 1: in great leathern bottles and to encamp all night, just
- 13:06Speaker 1: as I have heard they do in the desert of Arabia.
- 13:09Speaker 1: I asked our guides whose dominion this was in, and
- 13:12Speaker 1: they told me this was a kind of border that
- 13:14Speaker 1: might be called no man's land, being a part of
- 13:17Speaker 1: Great Karkathi or Grand Tartary, that, however, it was all
- 13:21Speaker 1: reckoned as belonging to China, but that there was no
- 13:24Speaker 1: care taken here to preserve it from the inroads of thieves,
- 13:27Speaker 1: and therefore it was reckoned the worst desert in the
- 13:30Speaker 1: whole march, though we were to go over some much larger.
- 13:35Speaker 1: In passing this frightful wilderness, we saw two or three
- 13:38Speaker 1: times little parties of the Tartars. But they seemed to
- 13:41Speaker 1: be upon their own affairs, and to have no design
- 13:44Speaker 1: upon us, And so, like the man who met the devil,
- 13:47Speaker 1: if they had nothing to say to us, we had
- 13:49Speaker 1: nothing to say to them. We let them go. Once, however,
- 13:53Speaker 1: a party of them came so near as to stand
- 13:56Speaker 1: and gaze at us. Whether it was to consider if
- 13:58Speaker 1: they should attack us or not, we knew not. But
- 14:01Speaker 1: when we had passed at some distance by them, we
- 14:04Speaker 1: made a rear guard of forty men, and stood ready
- 14:07Speaker 1: for them, letting the caravan pass half a mile or
- 14:10Speaker 1: thereabouts before us. After a while they marched off, but
- 14:14Speaker 1: they saluted us with five arrows at their parting, which
- 14:17Speaker 1: wounded a horse so that it disabled him, and we
- 14:20Speaker 1: left him the next day, poor creature, in great need
- 14:23Speaker 1: of a good farriure. We saw no more arrows or
- 14:26Speaker 1: tartars that time. We traveled near a month after this,
- 14:30Speaker 1: the ways not being so good as at first, though
- 14:33Speaker 1: still in the dominions of the Emperor of China, but
- 14:36Speaker 1: lay for the most part in the villages, some of
- 14:39Speaker 1: which were fortified because of the incursions of the Tartars.
- 14:43Speaker 1: When we were come to one of these towns, about
- 14:45Speaker 1: two days and a half's journey before we came to
- 14:47Speaker 1: the city of Naom, I wanted to buy a camel,
- 14:50Speaker 1: of which there are plenty to be sold all the
- 14:52Speaker 1: way upon that road, and horses also, such as they are,
- 14:56Speaker 1: because so many caravans coming that way, they are often wanted.
- 15:01Speaker 1: The person that I spoke to to get me a
- 15:03Speaker 1: camel would have gone and fetched one for me, but I,
- 15:06Speaker 1: like a fool, must be officious and go myself along
- 15:10Speaker 1: with him. The place was about two miles out of
- 15:12Speaker 1: the village, where it seems they kept the camels and
- 15:15Speaker 1: horses feeding under a guard. I walked it on foot
- 15:19Speaker 1: with my old pilot and a Chinese, being very desirous
- 15:22Speaker 1: of a little variety. When we came to the place,
- 15:25Speaker 1: it was a low, marshy ground walled round with stones
- 15:28Speaker 1: piled up dry, without mortar or earth among them, like
- 15:32Speaker 1: a park, with a little guard of Chinese soldiers at
- 15:34Speaker 1: the door. Having bought a camel and agreed for the price,
- 15:38Speaker 1: I came away and the Chinese that went with me
- 15:41Speaker 1: led the camel, when on a sudden came up five
- 15:43Speaker 1: tartars on horseback. Two of them seized the fellow and
- 15:47Speaker 1: took the camel from him, while the other three stepped
- 15:49Speaker 1: up to me and my old pilot, seeing us as
- 15:52Speaker 1: it were unarmed, For I had no weapon about me
- 15:55Speaker 1: but my sword, which could but ill defend me against
- 15:58Speaker 1: three horsemen. The first that came up stopped short upon
- 16:01Speaker 1: my drawing my sword, for they are errant cowards. But
- 16:05Speaker 1: a second, coming upon my left, gave me a blow
- 16:08Speaker 1: on the head, which I never felt till afterwards, and
- 16:11Speaker 1: wondered when I came to myself, what was the matter
- 16:14Speaker 1: and where I was, for he laid me flat on
- 16:17Speaker 1: the ground, But my never failing old pilot, the Portuguese,
- 16:20Speaker 1: had a pistol in his pocket, which I knew nothing of,
- 16:23Speaker 1: nor the tartars either. If they had, I suppose they
- 16:27Speaker 1: would not have attacked us, for cowards are always boldest
- 16:30Speaker 1: when there is no danger. The old man, seeing me down,
- 16:33Speaker 1: with a bold heart, stepped up to the fellow that
- 16:35Speaker 1: had struck me, and, laying hold of his arm with
- 16:38Speaker 1: one hand, and pulling him down by main force a
- 16:41Speaker 1: little towards him with the other, shot him into the
- 16:43Speaker 1: head and laid him dead upon the spot. He then
- 16:47Speaker 1: immediately stepped up to him who had stopped us, as
- 16:50Speaker 1: I said, and before he could come forward again, made
- 16:53Speaker 1: a blow at him with a scimitar which he always wore.
- 16:56Speaker 1: But missing, the man struck his horse in the side
- 16:59Speaker 1: of his head, cut one of the ears off by
- 17:01Speaker 1: the root, and a great slice down by the side
- 17:04Speaker 1: of his face. The poor beast, enraged with the wound,
- 17:07Speaker 1: was no more to be governed by his rider, though
- 17:10Speaker 1: the fellow sat well enough too. But away he flew
- 17:13Speaker 1: and carried him quite out of the pilot's reach, and
- 17:16Speaker 1: at some distance, rising upon his hind legs, threw down
- 17:19Speaker 1: the tartar and fell upon him. In this interval, the
- 17:23Speaker 1: poor Chinese came in, who had lost the camel, but
- 17:26Speaker 1: he had no weapon. However, seeing the tartar down and
- 17:29Speaker 1: his horse fallen upon him away, he runs to him, and,
- 17:33Speaker 1: seizing upon an ugly weapon he had by his side,
- 17:36Speaker 1: something like a pole axe, he wrenched it from him
- 17:39Speaker 1: and made shift to knock his tartarian brains out with it.
- 17:42Speaker 1: But my old man had the third tartar to deal
- 17:45Speaker 1: with still, and seeing he did not fly as he expected,
- 17:48Speaker 1: nor come on to fight him as he apprehended, but
- 17:51Speaker 1: stood stock still. The old man stood still too, and
- 17:55Speaker 1: fell to work with his tackle to charge his pistol again.
- 17:58Speaker 1: But as soon as the tartar saw the pistol away,
- 18:01Speaker 1: he scoured and left my pilot my champion, I called
- 18:04Speaker 1: him afterwards, a complete victory. By this time I was
- 18:09Speaker 1: a little recovered. I thought, when I first began to wake,
- 18:12Speaker 1: that I had been in a sweet sleep. But as
- 18:15Speaker 1: I said above, I wondered where I was, how I
- 18:17Speaker 1: came upon the ground, and what was the matter. A
- 18:20Speaker 1: few moments after, as SINCE returned, I felt pain, though
- 18:24Speaker 1: I did not know where, so I clapped my hand
- 18:26Speaker 1: to my head and took it away bloody. Then I
- 18:30Speaker 1: felt my head ache, and in a moment memory returned
- 18:33Speaker 1: and everything was present to me again. I jumped upon
- 18:36Speaker 1: my feet instantly and got hold of my sword, but
- 18:39Speaker 1: no enemies were in view. I found a tartar lying dead,
- 18:43Speaker 1: and his horse standing very quietly by him. And looking further,
- 18:47Speaker 1: I saw my deliverer, who had been to see what
- 18:50Speaker 1: the Chinese had done, coming back with his hanger in
- 18:53Speaker 1: his hand. The old man, seeing me on my feet,
- 18:56Speaker 1: came running to me and joyfully embraced me, being afraid
- 19:00Speaker 1: before that I had been killed. Seeing me bloody, he
- 19:03Speaker 1: would see how I was hurt, but it was not much,
- 19:06Speaker 1: only what we call a broken head. Neither did I
- 19:09Speaker 1: afterwards find any great inconvenience from the blow, for it
- 19:13Speaker 1: was well again in two or three days. We made
- 19:17Speaker 1: no great gain, however, by this victory, for we lost
- 19:20Speaker 1: a camel and gained a horse. I paid for the
- 19:23Speaker 1: lost camel and sent for another, but I did not
- 19:26Speaker 1: go to fetch it myself. I had had enough of that.
- 19:30Speaker 1: The city of Naom, which we were approaching, is a
- 19:33Speaker 1: frontier of the Chinese Empire and is fortified in their fashion.
- 19:37Speaker 1: We wanted, as I have said above, two days journey
- 19:40Speaker 1: of this city, when messengers were sent express to every
- 19:43Speaker 1: part of the road to tell all travelers and caravans
- 19:46Speaker 1: to halt till they had a guard sent for them,
- 19:49Speaker 1: or that an unusual body of tartars, making ten thousand
- 19:52Speaker 1: in all, had appeared in the way about thirty miles
- 19:56Speaker 1: beyond the city. This was very bad news to travel. However,
- 20:01Speaker 1: it was carefully done of the governor, and we were
- 20:03Speaker 1: very glad to hear we should have a guard. Accordingly,
- 20:07Speaker 1: two days after we had two hundred soldiers sent us
- 20:10Speaker 1: from a garrison of the Chinese on our left, and
- 20:13Speaker 1: three hundred more from the city of Naom, and with
- 20:15Speaker 1: these we advanced boldly. The three hundred soldiers from Naom
- 20:19Speaker 1: marched in our front, the two hundred in the rear,
- 20:22Speaker 1: and our men on each side of our camels with
- 20:25Speaker 1: our baggage, and the whole caravan in the center. In
- 20:28Speaker 1: this order and well prepared for battle, we thought ourselves
- 20:31Speaker 1: a match for the whole ten thousand Mogul tartars if
- 20:34Speaker 1: they had appeared. But the next day, when they did appear,
- 20:38Speaker 1: it was quite another thing. End of chapter fourteen,