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第3章 镇东虚界

　　I was very glad to see my nephew, I must confess; for I was notwithout apprehensions that they would confine him by violence, setsail, and run away with the ship; and then I had been strippednaked in a remote country, having nothing to help myself; in short,I had been in a worse case than when I was alone in the island.But they had not come to that length, it seems, to my satisfaction;and when my nephew told me what they had said to him, and how theyhad sworn and shook hands that they would, one and all, leave theship if I was suffered to come on board, I told him he should notbe concerned at it at all, for I would stay on shore. I onlydesired he would take care and send me all my necessary things onshore, and leave me a sufficient sum of money, and I would find myway to England as well as I could. This was a heavy piece of newsto my nephew, but there was no way to help it but to comply; so, inshort, he went on board the ship again, and satisfied the men thathis uncle had yielded to their importunity, and

　　It happened that the day before two of the Spaniards, having beenin the woods, had seen one of the two Englishmen, whom, fordistinction, I called the honest men, and he had made a sadcomplaint to the Spaniards of the barbarous usage they had met withfrom their three countrymen, and how they had ruined theirplantation, and destroyed their corn, that they had laboured sohard to bring forward, and killed the milch-goat and their threekids, which was all they had provided for their sustenance, andthat if he and his friends, meaning the Spaniards, did not assistthem again, they should be starved. When the Spaniards came homeat night, and they were all at supper, one of them took the freedomto reprove the three Englishmen, though in very gentle and mannerlyterms, and asked them how they could be so cruel, they beingharmless, inoffensive fellows: that they were putting themselvesin a way to subsist by their labour, and that it had cost them agreat deal of pains to bring things to such perfection as they werethen

　　I HAD no more business to go to the East Indies than a man at fullliberty has to go to the turnkey at Newgate, and desire him to lockhim up among the prisoners there, and starve him. Had I taken asmall vessel from England and gone directly to the island; had Iloaded her, as I did the other vessel, with all the necessaries forthe plantation and for my people; taken a patent from thegovernment here to have secured my property, in subjection only tothat of England; had I carried over cannon and ammunition, servantsand people to plant, and taken possession of the place, fortifiedand strengthened it in the name of England, and increased it withpeople, as I might easily have done; had I then settled myselfthere, and sent the ship back laden with good rice, as I might alsohave done in six months' time, and ordered my friends to havefitted her out again for our supply - had I done this, and stayedthere myself, I had at least acted like a man of common sense. ButI was possessed of a wandering spirit, and scorned a

　　But the affair did not end so; the next day came a great number ofthe country people to the town gates, and in a most outrageousmanner demanded satisfaction of the Russian governor for theinsulting their priests and burning their great Cham Chi-Thaungu.The people of Nertsinkay were at first in a great consternation,for they said the Tartars were already no less than thirty thousandstrong. The Russian governor sent out messengers to appease them,assuring them that he knew nothing of it, and that there had not asoul in his garrison been abroad, so that it could not be fromanybody there: but if they could let him know who did it, theyshould be exemplarily punished. They returned haughtily, that allthe country reverenced the great Cham Chi-Thaungu, who dwelt in thesun, and no mortal would have dared to offer violence to his imagebut some Christian miscreant; and they therefore resolved todenounce war against him and all the Russians, who, they said, weremiscreants and Christians.

l day: it wasuppermost in all my thoughts, and my fancy worked so steadily andstrongly upon it that I talked of it in my sleep; in short, nothingcould remove it out of my mind: it even broke so violently intoall my discourses that it made my conversation tiresome, for Icould talk of nothing else; all my discourse ran into it, even toimpertinence; and I saw it myself.

　　We were now on shore in China; if I thought myself banished, andremote from my own country at Bengal, where I had many ways to gethome for my money, what could I think of myself now, when I wasabout a thousand leagues farther off from home, and destitute ofall manner of prospect of return? All we had for it was this:that in about four months' time there was to be another fair at theplace where we were, and then we might be able to purchase variousmanufactures of the country, and withal might possibly find someChinese junks from Tonquin for sail, that would carry us and ourgoods whither we pleased. This I liked very well, and resolved towait; besides, as our particular persons were not obnoxious, so ifany English or Dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have anopportunity to load our goods, and get passage to some other placein India nearer home. Upon these hopes we resolved to continuehere; but, to divert ourselves, we took two or three journeys intothe country.

: for Ibelieve there are a thousand canoes, and you may see them paddlealong, for they are coming towards us apace."

　　But I had no occasion to urge a winter journey of this kind. I wasbound to England, not to Moscow, and my route lay two ways: eitherI must go on as the caravan went, till I came to Jarislaw, and thengo off west for Narva and the Gulf of Finland, and so on toDantzic, where I might possibly sell my China cargo to goodadvantage; or I must leave the caravan at a little town on theDwina, from whence I had but six days by water to Archangel, andfrom thence might be sure of shipping either to England, Holland,or Hamburg.

pon a camel!"says the old pilot, holding up both his hands; "why, there is afamily of thirty people lives in it."