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14 - The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe · Classic Adventure Books Collection

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Chapter thirteen, arrival in China. The greater weight, the anxieties and perplexities
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of these things were to our thoughts while we were at sea. The greater
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was our satisfaction when we saw ourselves on shore, and my partner told me
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he dreamed that he had a very heavy load upon his back, which he
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was to carry up a hill, and found that he was not able to
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stand longer under it, but that the Portuguese pilot came and took it off
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his back, and the hill disappeared, the ground before him, appearing all
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smooth and plain. And truly it was so. They were all like men
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who had a load taken off their backs. For my part, I had
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a weight taken off from my heart that it was not able any longer to
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bear, And as I said above, we resolved to go no more to
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sea in that ship. When we came on shore, the old pilot,
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who was now our friend, got us a lodging, together with a warehouse
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for our goods. It was a little hut with a larger house adjoining to
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it, built and also palisadoed round with care haines to keep out pilferers,
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of which there were not a few in that country. However, the magistrates
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allowed us a little guard, and we had a soldier with a kind of
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half pike, who stood sentinel at our door, to whom we allowed a
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pint of rice and a piece of money about the value of three pence per
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day, so that our goods were kept very safe. The fair or mart
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usually kept at this place had been over some time. However, we found
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that there were three or four junks in the river, and two ships from
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Japan with goods which they had bought in China and were not gone away,
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having some Japanese merchants on shore. The first thing our old Portuguese pilot did
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for us was to get us acquainted with three missionary Romish priests who were in
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the town, and who had been there some time converting the people to Christianity.
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But we thought they made but poor work of it, and made them
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but sorry Christians when they had done. One of these was a Frenchman whom
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they called Father Simon, another was a Portuguese and a a Genoese. Father
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Simon was courteous and very agreeable company, but the other two were more reserved,
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seemed rigid and austere, and applied seriously to the work. They came
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about, viz. To talk with and insinuate themselves among the inhabitants wherever they
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had opportunity. We often ate and drank with those men. And though I
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must confess, the conversion, as they call it, of the Chinese to
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Christianity, is so far from the true conversion required to bring heathen people to
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the faith of Christ, that it seems to amount to little more than letting
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them know the name of Christ and say some prayers to the Virgin Mary and
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her son in a tongue which they understand not, and to cross themselves and
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the like. Yet it must be confessed that the religionists whom we call missionaries,
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have a firm belief that these people will be saved, and that they
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are the instruments of it. And on this account they undergo not only the
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fatigue of the voyage and the hazards of living in such places, but often
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times death itself and the most violent tortures for the sake of this work.
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Father Simon was appointed, it seems, by order of the chief of the
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mission, to go up to Pequin, and waited only for another priest who
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was ordered to come to him from Macao to go along with him. We
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scarce ever met together, but he was inviting me to go that journey,
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telling me how he would show me all the glorious things of that mighty empire,
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and among the rest, Pequin, the greatest city in the world,
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a city, said he that your London and a Parri put together cannot be
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equal to. But as I looked on those things with different eyes from other
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men, so I shall give my opinion of them in a few words when
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I come in the course of my travels to speak more particularly of them.
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Dining with Father Simon one day, and being very merry together, I showed
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some little inclination to go with him, and he pressed me and my partner
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very hard to consent. Why, father, says my partner, should you
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desire our company so much? You know we are Heretics, and you do
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not love us, nor cannot keep us company with any pleasure, Oh,
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says he. You may perhaps be good Catholics in time. My business here
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is to convert Heathens, and who knows, but I may convert you too
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very well, Father, said I. So you will preach to us all
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the way. I will not be troublesome to you, says he our really
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Jehan does not divest us of good manners. Besides, we are here like
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countrymen, and so we are compared to the place we are in. And
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if you are Huguenots and I a Catholic, we may all be Christians.
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At last. At least we are all gentlemen, and we may converse so
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without being uneasy to one another. I liked this part of his discourse very
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well, and it began to put me in mind of my priest that I
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had left in the Brazils. But Father Simon did not come up to his
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character by a great deal. For though this friar had no appearance of a
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criminal levity in him, yet he had not that fund of Christian zeal,
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strict piety, and sincere affection to religion that my other good ecclesiastic had.
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But to leave him a little. Though he never left us, nor solicited
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us to go with him. We had something else before us at first,
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for we had all this while our ship and our merchandise to dispose of,
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and we began to be very doubtful what we should do, for we were
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now in a place of very little business. Once I was about to venture
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to sail for the river of Keelam and the city of Nankin. But Providence
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seemed now more visibly, as I thought, than ever, to concern itself
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in our affairs, and I was encouraged from this very time to think I
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should, one way or other, get out of this entangled circumstance and be
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brought home to my own country again. Though I had not the least view
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of the manner, Providence I say, began here to clear up our way
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a little. And the first thing that offered was that our old Portuguese pilot
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brought a japan merchant to us, who inquired what goods we had, And
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in the first place he bought all our opium and gave us a very good
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price for it, paying us in gold by weight, some in small pieces
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of their own coin, and some in small wedges of about ten or twelve
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ounces each. While we were dealing with him for our opium, it came
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into my head that he might perhaps deal for the ship too, and I
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ordered the interpreter to propose it to him. He shrunk up his shoulders at
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it when it was first proposed to him, but in a few days after
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he came to me with one of the missionary priests for his interpreter, and
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told me he had a proposal to make to me, which was this,
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he had bought a great quantity of our goods when he had no thoughts of
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proposals made to him of buying the ship, and that therefore he had not
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money to pay for the ship. But if I would let the same men
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who were in the ship navigate her, he would hire the ship to go
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to Japan, and would send them from thence to the fill Elopeene Islands with
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another loading, which he would pay the freight of before they went from Japan,
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and that at their return he would buy the ship. I began to
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listen to his proposal, and so eager did my head still run upon rambling,
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that I could not but begin to entertain a notion of going myself with
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him, And so set sail from the Philippine Islands away to the South Seas.
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Accordingly, I asked the Japanese merchant if he would not hire us to
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the Philippine Islands and discharge us there. He said no, he could not
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do that, for then he could not have the return of his cargo.
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But he would discharge us in Japan at the ship's return. Well still,
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I was for taking him at that proposal and going myself, but my partner,
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wiser than myself, persuaded me from it, representing the dangers as well
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of the seas as of the Japanese, who are a false, cruel and
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treacherous people. Likewise those of the Spaniards at the Philippines more false, cruel
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and treacherous than they. But to bring this long turn of our affairs to
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a conclusion, the first thing we had to do was to consult with the
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captain of the ship and with his men, and know if they were willing
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to go to Japan. While I was doing this, the young man whom
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my nephew had left with me as my companion, came up and told me
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that he thought that voyage promised very fair, and that there was a great
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prospect of advantage, and he would be very glad if I undertook it,
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but that if I would not, and would give him leave, he would
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go as a merchant, or as I pleased to order him, that if
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ever he came to England and I was there and alive, he would render
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me a faithful account of his success, which should be as much mine as
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I pleased. I was loath to part with him, but considering the prospect
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of advantage, which really was considerable, and that he was a young fellow
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likely to do well in it, I inclined to let him go. But
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I told him I would consult my partner and give him an answer. The
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next day I discoursed about it with my partner, who thereupon made me a
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mostion generous offer. You know it has been an unlucky ship, said he,
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and we both resolve not to go to sea in it again. If
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your steward, so he called my man, will venture the voyage, I
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will leave my share of the vessel to him and let him make the best
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of it. And if we live to meet in England, and he meets
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with success abroad, he shall account for one half of the profits of the
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ship's freight to us. The other shall be his own. If my partner,
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who was no way concerned with my young man, made him such an
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offer, I could not do less than offer him the same, And all
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the ship's company, being willing to go with him, we made over half
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the ship to him in property, and took a writing from him obliging him
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to account for the other, and away he went to Japan. The japan
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merchant proved a very punctual, honest man to him, protected him at Japan,
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and got him a license to come on shore, which the Europeans in
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general have not lately obtained. He paid him his freight very punctually, sent
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him to the Philippines loaded with Japan and China wares and a supercargo of their
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own, who trafficking with the Spaniards, brought back European goods again and a
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great quantity of spices. And there he was not only paid his freight very
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well and at a very good price, but not being willing to sell the
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ship, then the merchant furnished him with goods on his own account, and
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with some money and some spices of his own, which he brought with him.
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He went back to the Manilas, where he sold his cargo very well.
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Here, having made a good acquaintance at Manila, he got his ship
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made a free ship, and the governor of Manila hired him to go to
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Acapulco on the coast of America, and gave him a license to land there
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and to travel to Mexico, and to pass in any Spanish ship to Europe
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with all his men. He made the voyage to Acapulco very happily, and
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there he sold his ship, and, having there also obtained allowance to travel
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by land to Portobello, he found means to get to Jamaica with all his
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treasure, and about eight years after came to England, exceeding rich. But
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to return to our particular affairs. Being now to part with the ship and
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ship's company, it came before us, of course, to consider what recompense
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we should give to the two men that gave us such timely notice of the
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design against us in the River Cambodia. The truth was they had done us
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a very considerable service and deserved well at our hands. Though by the way
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they were a couple of rogues too, for as they believed the story of
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our being pirates, and that we had really run away with the ship,
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they came down to us not only to betray the design that was formed against
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us, but to go to sea with us as pirates. One of them
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confessed afterwards that nothing else but the hopes of going a roguing brought him to
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do it. However, the service they did us was not the less,
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and therefore, as I had promised to be grateful to them. I first
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ordered the money to be paid them, which they said was due to them
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on board their respective ships. Over and above them. I gave each of
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them a small sum of money in gold, which contented them very well.
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I then made the Englishman gunner in the ship, the gunner being now made
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second mate and purser. The Dutchmen I made bosun. So they were both
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very well pleased and proved very serviceable, being both able seamen and very stout
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fellows. We were now on shore in China. If I thought myself banished
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and remote from my own country at Bengal, where I had many ways to
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get home for my money, what could I think of myself now, when
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I was about a thousand leagues farther off from home and destitute of all manner
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of prospect of return. All we had for it was this that in about
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four months time there was to be another fare at the place where we were,
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and then we might be able to purchase some various manufactures of the country,
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and withal might possibly find some Chinese junks from Tonquin for sale that would
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carry us and our goods whither we pleased. This I liked very well,
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and resolved to wait. Besides, as our particular persons were not obnoxious,
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so if any English or Dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have an
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opportunity to load our goods and get passage to some other place in India nearer
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home. Upon these hopes we resolved to continue here, but to divert ourselves.
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We took two or three journeys into the country. First, we went
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ten days journey to Nankeen, a city well worth seeing. They say it
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has a million of people in it. It is regularly built, and the
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streets are all straight and cross one another in direct lines. But when I
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come to compare the miserable people of these countries with ours, their fabrics,
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their manner of living, their government, their religion, their wealth, and
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their glory, as some call it, I must confess that I scarcely think
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it worth my while to mention them. Here we wonder at the grandeur,
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the riches, the pomp, the ceremonies, the government, the manufactures,
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the commerce and conduct of these people. Not that there is really any matter
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for wonder, but because having a true notion of the barbarity of those countries,
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the rudeness and the ignorance that prevail there. We do not expect to
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find any such things so far off. Otherwise, What are their buildings to
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the palaces and royal buildings of Europe? What their trade to the universal commerce
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of England, Holland, France and Spain. What are their cities to ours
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for wealth, strength, gaiety of apparel, rich furniture and infinite variety?
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What are their ports supplied with a few junks and barks to our navigation?
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Our merchant fleets are large and powerful navies. Our city of London has more
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trade than half their mighty empire. One English, Dutch or French man of
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war of eighty guns would be able to fight almost all the shipping belonging to
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China. But the greatness of their wealth, their trade, the power of
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their government, and the strength of their armies may be a little surprising to
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us, because, as I have said, considering them them as a barbarous
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nation of pagans, little better than savages, we did not expect such things
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among them. But all the forces of their empire, though they were to
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bring two millions of men into the field together, would be able to do
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nothing but ruin the country and starve themselves. A million of their foot could
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not stand before one embattled body of our infantry posted so as not to be
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surrounded, though they were not to be one to twenty in number. Nay,
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I do not boast if I say that thirty thousand German or English foot
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and ten thousand horse well managed could defeat all the forces of China. Nor
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is there a fortified town in China that could hold out one month against the
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batteries and attacks of a European army. They have firearms, it is true,
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but they are awkward and uncertain in their going off, and their powder
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has but little strength. Their armies are badly disciplined, and want skilled to
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attack or temper to retreat. And therefore I must confess it seemed strange to
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me when I came home and heard our people say such fine things of the
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power, glory, magnificence and trade of the Chinese, because as far as
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I saw, they appeared to be a contemptible herd or crowd of ignorant,
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sordid slaves, subjected to a government qualified only to rule such a people,
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and were not its distance inconceivably great from Muscovy and that empire in a manner
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as rude, impotent, and ill governed as they the Tsar of muscovie might
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with ease drive them all out of their country and conquer them in one campaign.
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And had the Tsar, who is now a growing prince, fallen this
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way instead of attacking the warlike Swedes, and equally improved himself in the art
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of war, as they say he has done, and if none of the
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powers of Europe had envied or interrupted him, he might by this time have
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been Emperor of China instead of being beaten by the King of Sweden at Narva,
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when the latter was not one to six in number. As their strength
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and their grandeur, so their navigation, commerce, and husbandry are very imperfect
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compared to the same things in Europe. Also in their knowledge, their learning,
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and in their skill in the sciences, they are either very awkward or
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defective. Though they have globes or spheres and a smattering of the mathematics,
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and think they know more than all the world. Besides, but they know
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little of the motions of the heavenly bodies. And so grossly and absurdly ignorant
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are their common people that when the sun is eclipsed they think a great dragon
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has assaulted it and is going to run away with it, And they fall
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a clattering with all the drums and kettles in the country to fright the monster
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away, just as we do to hive a swarm of bees. As this
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is the only excursion of the kind which I have made in all the accounts
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I have given of my travels, so I shall make no more such.
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It is none of my business, nor any part of my design, but
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to give an account of my own adventures through a life of inimitable wanderings and
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a long variety of changes, which perhaps few that come after me will have
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heard the like of. I shall therefore say very little of all the mighty
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places, desert countries, and numerous people I have yet to pass through,
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more than relates to my own story, and which my concern among them will
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make necessary. I was now, as near as I can compute, in
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the heart of China, about thirty degrees north of the line, for we
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were returned from Nankin. I had indeed a mind to see the city of
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Pequin, which I had heard so much of, and Father Simon importuned me
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daily to do it. At length. His time of going away being set,
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and the other missionary who was to go with him being arrived from Macao.
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It was necessary that we should resolve either to go or not, So
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I referred it to my partner and left it wholly to his choice, who
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at length resolved it in the affirmative, and we prepared for our journey.
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We set out with a very good advantage as to finding the way, for
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we got leave to travel in the retinue of one of their mandarins, a
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kind of viceroy or principal magistrate in the province where they reside, and who
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take great state upon them traveling with great attendants and great homage from the people,
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who are sometimes greatly impoverished by them being obliged to furnish provisions for them
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and all their attendants in their journeys. I particularly observed in our traveling with
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his baggage, that though we received sufficient provisions both for ourselves and our horses
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from the country as belonging to the Mandarin, yet we were obliged to pay
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for everything we had after the market price of the country, and the mandarin's
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steward collected it duly from us. Thus, our traveling in the retinue of
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the Mandarin, though it was a great act of kindness, was not such
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a mighty favor to us, but was a great advantage to him, considering
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there were above thirty other people traveled in the same manner besides us, under
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the protection of of his retinue. For the country furnished all the provisions for
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nothing to him, and yet he took our money for them. We were
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twenty five days traveling to Pekin through a country exceeding populace. But I think
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badly cultivated. The husbandry, the economy, and the way of living miserable
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though they boast so much of the industry of the people. I say miserable
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if compared with our own, but not so to these poor wretches who know
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no other. The pride of the poor people is infinitely great, and exceeded
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by nothing but their poverty in some parts, which adds to that which I
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call their misery. And I must needs think the savages of America live more
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happy than the poorer sort of these, because as they have nothing, so
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they desire nothing, whereas these are proud and insolent in the main, and
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are in many parts mere beggars and drudges. Their ostentation is inexpressible, and
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if they can, they love to keep multitudes of servants or slaves, which
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is, to the last agree ridiculous, as well as their contempt of all
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the world but themselves. I must confess I traveled more pleasantly afterwards in the
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deserts and vast wildernesses of Grand Tartary than here. And yet the roads here
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are well paved and well kept, and very convenient for travelers. But nothing
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was more awkward to me than to see such a haughty, imperious, insolent
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people in the midst of the grossest simplicity and ignorance. And my friend Father
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Simon, and I used to be very merry upon these occasions to see their
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beggarly pride. For example, coming by the house of a country gentleman,
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as Father Simon called him, about ten leagues off the city of Nankeen,
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we had first of all the honor to ride with the master of the house
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about two miles. The state he rode in was a perfect don Quixotism,
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being a mixture of pomp and poverty. His habit was very proper for a
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merry andrew, being a dirty calico with hanging sleeves, tassels, and cuts
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and slashes almost on every side. It covered a taffety vest so greasy as
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to testify that his honor must be a most exquisite sloven. His horse was
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a poor, starved, hobbling creature, and two slaves followed him on foot
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to drive the poor creature along. He had a whip in his hand,
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and he belabored the beast as fast about the head as his slaves did about
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the tail. And thus he rode by us with about ten or twelve servants,
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going from the city to his country seat about half a league before us.
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We traveled on gently, but this figure of a gentleman rode away before
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us, And as we stopped at a village about an hour to refresh us,
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when we came by the country seat of this great man, we saw
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him in a little place before his door, eating a repast. It was
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a kind of garden, but he was easy to be seen, and we
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were given to understand that the more we looked at him, the better he
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would be pleased. He sat under a tree something like the palmetto, which
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effectually shaded him over the head and on the south side, but under the
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tree was placed a large umbrella, which made that part look well enough.
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He sat lolling back in a great elbow chair, being a heavy corpulent man,
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and had his meat brought him by two women's slaves. He had two
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more, one of whom fed the squire with a spoon, and the other
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held the dish with one hand and scraped off what he let fall upon his
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worship's beard and taffety vest, leaving the poor wretch to please himself. With
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our looking at him as if we admired his idle pomp, we pursued our
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journey. Father Simon had the curiosity to stay to inform himself what dainties the
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country justice had to feed on in all his state, which he had the
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honor to taste of, and which was I think a mess of boiled rice,
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with a great piece of garlic in it, and a little bag filled
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with green pepper, and another plant which they have there, something like our
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ginger, but smelling like musk and tasting like mustard. All this was put
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together, and a small piece of lean mutton boiled in it, And this
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was his worship's repast. Four or five servants more attended at a distance,
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who we supposed were to eat of the same after their master. As for
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our Mandarin with whom we traveled, he was respected as a king, surrounded
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always with his gentlemen, and attended in all his appearances with such pomp that
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I saw little of him. But at a distance I observed that there was
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not a horse in his retinue, but that our carrier's pack horses in England
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seemed to me to look much better, though it was hard to judge rightly,
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for they were so covered with equipage, mantles, trappings, et cetera,
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that we could scarce see anything but their feet and their heads as they
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went along. I was now light hearted, and all my late trouble and
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perplexity being over, I had no anxious thoughts about me, which made this
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journey the pleasanter to me, in which no ill accident attended me. Only
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in passing or fording a small river, my horse fell and made me free
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of the country, as they call it, that is to say, through
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me. In The place was not deep, but it wetted me all over.
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I mention it because it spoiled my pocket book, wherein I had set
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down the names of several people and places, which I had occasion to remember,
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and which, not taking due care of the leaves, rotted, and
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the words were never after to be read at length. We arrived at Pequin.
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I had nobody with me but the youth whom my nephew had given me
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to attend me as a servant, and who proved very trusty and diligent.
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And my partner had nobody with him but one servant, who was a kinsman.
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As for the Portuguese pilot, he being desirous to see the court,
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we bore his charges for his company and for our use of him as an
25:38
interpreter, for he understood the language of the country, and spoke good French
25:44
and a little English. Indeed, this old man was most useful to us
25:48
everywhere, for we had not been above a week at Pequin when he came,
25:52
laughing ah, signor inglazy. Says he, I have something to tell
25:56
will make your heart glad. My heart glad, said I. What can
26:00
that be? I don't know anything in this country can either give me joy
26:03
or grief to any great degree. Yes, yes, says the old man
26:07
in broken English. Make you glad? Me sorry? Why said I?
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Will it make you sorry? Because? Said he you have brought me here
26:17
twenty five days journey, and will leave me to go back alone? And
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which way shall I get to my port afterwards? Without a ship, without
26:25
a horse, without pekune so he called money, being his broken Latin,
26:30
of which he had abundance to make us merry with. In short, he
26:33
told us there was a great caravan of Muscovite and Polish merchants in the city
26:37
preparing to set out on their journey by land to Muscovy within four or five
26:42
weeks, and he was sure we would take the opportunity to go with them
26:47
and leave him behind to go back alone. I confess I was greatly surprised
26:52
with this good news, and had scarce power to speak to him for some
26:55
time. But at last I said to him, how do you know this?
26:59
Are you sure it is true? Yes, says he. I met
27:02
this morning in the street an old acquaintance of mine, an Armenian who is
27:06
among them. He came last from Astra Khan and was designed to go to
27:11
Tonquin, where I formerly knew him, but has altered his mind and is
27:15
now resolved to go with the caravan to Moscow and sow down the river Volga
27:19
to Astrakhan. Well, signor says, I do not be uneasy about being
27:25
left to go back alone. If this be a method for my return to
27:27
England, it shall be your fault if you go back to Macau at all.
27:32
We then went to consult together what was to be done, and I
27:34
asked my partner what he thought of the pilot's news and whether it would suit
27:38
with his affairs. He told me he would do just as I would,
27:42
for he had settled all his affairs so well at Bengal and left his effects
27:48
in such good hands that as we had made a good voyage, if he
27:51
could invest it in China silks wrought and raw, he would be content to
27:56
go to England and then make a voyage back to Bengal by the company the
28:00
ships. Having resolved upon this, we agreed that if our Portuguese pilot would
28:04
go with us, we would bear his charges to Moscow or to England if
28:08
he pleased. Nor, indeed, were we to be esteemed over generous in
28:12
that either if we had not rewarded him further, the service he had done
28:18
us being really worth more than that, for he had not only been a
28:21
pilot to us at sea, but he had been like a broker for us
28:25
on shore, and his procuring for us a japan merchant was some hundreds of
28:29
pounds in our pockets. So, being willing to gratify him, which was
28:33
but doing him justice, and very willing also to have him with us besides,
28:38
for he was a most necessary man on all occasions, we agreed to
28:42
give him a quantity of coined gold, which as I computed, it was
28:47
worth one hundred and seventy five pounds sterling between us, and to bear all
28:52
his charges, both for himself and horse, except only a horse to carry
28:56
his goods. Having settled this between ourselves, we called him to let him
29:00
know what we had resolved. I told him he had complained of our being
29:04
willing to let him go back alone, and I was now about to tell
29:07
him we designed he should not go back at all, that as we had
29:11
resolved to go to Europe with the caravan, we were very willing he should
29:15
go with us, and that we called him to know his mind. He
29:18
shook his head and said it was a long journey, and that he had
29:22
no pecune to carry him thither or to subsist himself when he came there.
29:27
We told him we believed it was so, and therefore we had resolved to
29:32
do something for him that should let him see how sensible we were of the
29:34
service he had done us, and also how agreeable he was to us.
29:40
And then I told him what we had resolved to give him here, which
29:44
he might lay out as we would do our own, and that as for
29:47
his charges, if he would go with us, we would set him safe
29:49
on shore, life and casualties accepted either in Muscovy or England, as he
29:56
would choose, at our own charge, except only the carriage of his goods.
30:00
He received the proposal like a man transported, and told us he would
30:04
go with us over all the whole world. And so we all prepared for
30:07
our journey. However, as it was with us, so it was with
30:11
the other merchants. They had many things to do, and instead of being
30:15
ready in five weeks, it was four months and some days before all things
30:21
were got together. End of Chapter thirteen,