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15 - The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe · Adventure Books Library

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