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Hither then we resolved to go, and accordingly, though after a tedious and irregular course, and very much straitened for provisions, we came within sight of the coast very early in the morning; and, upon reflection upon the circumstances we were in, and the danger, if we had not escaped, we resolved to put into a small river, which, however, had depth enough of water for us, and to see if we could, either over land, or by the ship's pinnace, come to know what ships were in any port thereabouts. This happy step was indeed our deliverance; for though we did not immediately see any european ships in the bay of Tonquin, yet the next morning there came into the bay two dutch ships, and a third without any colours spread out, but which we believed to be a Dutchman, passed by at about two leagues' distance steering for the coast of China, and, in the afternoon, went by two english ships, steering the same course; and thus we thought we saw ourselves beset with enemies, both one way and the other. The place we were in was wild and barbarous, the people thieves, even by occupation or profession, and though it is true, we had not much to seek of them, and, except getting a few provisions, cared not how little we had to do with them, yet it was with much difficulty that we kept ourselves from being insulted by them several ways.

We were in a small river of this country, within a few leagues of its utmost limits northward, and by our boat we coasted north-east to the point of land which opens the great bay of Tonquin; and it was in this beating up along the shore that we discovered, as above, that, in a word, we were surrounded with enemies. The people we were among were the most barbarous of all the inhabitants of the coast, having no correspondence with any other nation, and dealing only in fish and oil, and such gross commodities; and it may be particularly seen that they are, as I said, the most barbarous of any of the inhabitants; viz. that, among other customs, they have this as one :-that if any vessel have the misfor tune to be shipwrecked upon their coast, they presently make the men all prisoners, that is to say, slaves; and it was not long before we found a spice of their kindnes, this way, on the occasion following.

I have observed above, that our ship sprang a leak at sea, and that we could not find it out; and, however, it happened that, as I have said, it was stopped, unexpectedly, in the happy minute of our being to be seized, by the dutch and english ships, near the bay of Siam; yet as we did not find the ship so perfectly tight and sound as we desired, we resolved, while we were in this place, to lay her on shore, take out what heavy things we had on board, which were not many, and to wash and clean her bottom, and, if possible, to find out where the leaks were. Accordingly, having lightened the ship, and brought all our guns, and other moveable things, to one side, we tried to bring her down, that we might come at her bottom; for, on second thoughts, we did not care to lay her dry aground, neither could we find out a proper place for it.

The inhabitants, who had never been acquainted with such a sight, came down to the shore, wondering, to look at us, and seeing the ship lie down on one side in such a manner, and heeling towards the shore, and not seeing our men, who

Chinese, weak and dastardly as they are, that they have gained every point they proposed, however unjust.

Yet this train of proceeding, extraordinary as it must appear, still continnes without exciting either the surprise or the sensibility of the nation: such is the power of preconceived opinions and habit, which lead both nations and individuals to think and to act in the course that prejudice or erroneous precedent have established. If we reflect on the usual wise and manly policy observed by Great Britain, in her foreign relations, and contrast it with that which has prevailed with respect to the Chinese, we shall trace a strong resemblance to certain indian tribes of North America, who glory in encounter. ing every real danger, yet tremble with fear at the idea of evil spirits, that have no other existence than in their own perverted imagination. The English are not ignorant of the character and national impotence of the Chinese; but here, as in many other cases, the distance between knowledge, and its application, is inconceivably great. The Chinese see and marvel at the fact, that they are treated by the English, and by the other nations of Europe, as if there really were danger to be apprehended from their threats or utmost vengeance, and very properly continue to avail themselves of all the good effects which prejudice has raised up in their favour,

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were at work on her bottom, with stages, and with their boats on the off-side, they presently concluded that the ship was cast away, and so lay fast on the ground. On this supposition they came all about us in two or three hours' time, with ten or twelve large boats, having some of them eight, some ten men, in a boat, intending, no doubt, to have come on board and plundered the ship, and, if they had found us there, to have carried us away for slaves to their king, or whatever they call him, for we knew nothing who was their governor.

When they came up to the ship, and began to row round her, they discovered us all hard at work, on the outside of the ship's bottom and side, washing, and graving, and stopping, as every seafaring man knows how.

They stood for a while gazing at us, and we, who were a little surprised, could not imagine what their design was; but, being willing to be sure, we took this opportunity to get some of us into the ship, and others to hand down arms and ammunition to those that were at work, to defend themselves with, if there should be occasion; and it was no more than need, for, in less than a quarter of an hour's consultation, they agreed, it seems, that the ship was really a wreck; that we were all at work, endeavouring to save her, or to save our lives by the help of our boats; and when we handed our arms into the boats, they concluded, by that motion, that we were endeavouring to save some of our goods. Upon this, they took it for granted that all belonged to them; and away they came directly upon our men, as if it had been in a line of battle.

Our men, seeing so many of them, began to be frighted, for we lay but in an ill posture to fight, and cried out to us to know what they should do. I immediately called to the men who worked upon the stage, to slip them down, and get up the side into the ship and bade those in the boat to row round, and come on board, and those few of us who were on board, worked with all the strength and hands we had to bring the ship to rights. But, however, neither the men upon the stage, nor those in the boats, could do as they were ordered, before the Cochin-chinese were upon them, and, with two of their boats, boarded our longboat, and began to lay hold of the men as their prisoners.

The first man they laid hold of was an english seaman, a stout, strong fellow, who, having a musket in his hand, never offered to fire it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool, as I thought. But he understood his business much better than I could teach him, for he grappled the Pagan, and dragged him by main force out of their own boat into our's, where, taking him by the two ears, he beat his head so against the boat's gun-wale, that the fellow died instantly in his hands;

GRAVING:-In sea-language, the bringing a ship a ground, and then burning off, with furze, reed, or broom, all the filth and foulness that sticks to her bottom withoutboard, in order to pay her a-new.

and, in the mean time, a Dutchman, who stood next, took up the musket, and, with the butt-end of it, so laid about him, that he knocked down five of them, who attempted to enter the boat; but this was little towards resisting thirty or forty men, who fearless, because ignorant of their danger, began to throw themselves into the long-boat, where we had but five men to defend it. But an acci dent gave our men a complete victory, which deserved our laughter rather than any thing else; and that was this:

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Our carpenter being preparing to grave the outside of the ship, as well as to pay the seams where he had caulked her to stop the leaks, had got two kettles just let down into the boat; one filled with boiling pitch, and the other with rosin, tallow, and oil, and such stuff as the shipwrights use for that work; and the man that attended the carpenter had a great iron ladle in his hand, with which he supplied the men that were at work with that hot stuff; two of the enemy's men entered the boat just where this fellow stood, being in the foresheets; he immediately saluted them with a ladleful of the stuff, boiling hot, which so burned and scalded them, being half naked, that they roared out like two bulls, and, enraged with the fire, leaped both into the sea. The carpenter saw it, and cried out, Well done, Jack, give them some more of it;' when, stepping forward himself, he takes one of their mops, and dipping it in the pitch-pot, he and his man threw it among them so plentifully, that, in short, of all the men in three boats, there was not one that was not scalded and burned with it, in a most frightful, pitiful manner, and made such a howling and crying, that I never heard a worse noise, and indeed nothing like it; for it is worth observing, that though pain naturally makes all people cry out, yet every nation have a particular way of exclamation, and make noises as different from another as their speech. I cannot give the noise these creatures made a better name than howling, nor a name more proper to the tone of it; for I never heard any thing more like the noise of the wolves, which, as I have said, I heard howl in the forest on the frontiers of Languedoc.

I was never pleased with a victory better in my life, not only as it was a perfect surprise to me, and that our danger was imminent before, but as we got this victory without any bloodshed, except of that man the fellow killed with his naked hands, aud which I was very much concerned at, for I was sick of killing such poor savage wretches, even though it was in my own defense, knowing they came on errands which they thought just, and knew no better; and that though it may be a just thing, because necessary, for there is no necessary wickedness in nature, yet I thought it was a sad life, when we must be always obliged to be killing our fellow-creatures to preserve ourselves, and, indeed I think so still: and I would even now, suffer a great deal, rather than I would take away the life even of the worst person injuring me. I believe also, all considering people, who know the value of life, would be of my opinion, if they entered seriously into the consideration of it.

But to return to my story: all the while this was doing, my partner and I, who managed the rest of the men on board, bad, with great dexterity, brought the ship almost to rights, and having gotten the guns into their places again, the gunner called to me, to bid our boats get out of the way, for he would let fly among them. I called back again to him, and bid him not to offer to fire, for the carpenter would do the work without him, but bade him heat another pitch-kettle, which our cook, who was on board took care of. But the enemy was so terrified with what they met with in their first attack, that they would not come on again; and some of them, that were farthest off, sceing the ship swim, as it were, upright, began, as we supposed, to see their mistake, and give over the enterprise, finding it was not as they expected. Thus we got clear of this merry fight; and, having gotten some rice, and some roots, and bread, with about sixteen good big hogs on board, two days before, we resolved to stay here no longer, but go forward, whatever came of it; for we made no doubt but we should be surrounded the

*CAULKING (or Calking):-the driving of oakum, or somewhat of that kind, into the seams, or commissure of the planks, to prevent a ship's leaking. It is afterwards Covered over with hot melted pitch, or resin, to prevent its rotung. KENNET derives the word from the barbarous Laun calciatura, shoeing.

next day with rogues enough, perhaps more than our pitch-kettle would dispose of for us.

We, therefore, got all our things on board the same evening, and the next morning were ready to sail. In the mean time, lying at an anchor some distance from the shore, we were not so much concerned, being now in a fighting posture, as well as in a sailing posture, if any enemy had presented. The next day, having finished our work within board, and finding our ship was perfectly healed of all her leaks, we set sail. We would have gone into the bay of Tonquin, for we wanted to inform ourselves of what was to be known concerning the dutch ships that bad been there; but we durst not stand in there, because we had seen several ships go in, as we supposed, but a little before. So we kept on N. E. towards the isle of Formosa,* as much afraid of being seen by a dutch or english merchant ship, as a dutch or english merchant ship in the Mediterranean is of an algerine man of war.

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* FORMOSA :-(or PA-KAN, called also Tay-wan, or Ty-oan) is about 70 leagues in length, extending nearly N. N. E. and S. S. W. the land is generally high up the coun

When we were thus got out to sea, we kept on N. E. as if we would go to the Manillas, or the Philipine islands, and this we did that we might not fall into the way of any of the european ships, and then we steered north again, till we came to the latitude of twenty-two degrees twenty minutes, by which means we made the island of Formosa directly, where we came to an anchor, in order to get water and fresh provisions, which the people there, who are very courteous and civil in their manners, supplied us with willingly, and dealt very fairly and punctually with us in all their agreements and bargains, which is what we did not find among other people, and may be owing to the remains of christianity, which was once planted here by a dutch mission of protestants, and is a testi mony of what I have often observed; viz. that the christian religion always civilizes the people, and reforms their manners, where it is received, whether it works saving effects upon them or no.

From hence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of China at an equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of China where our european ships usually come, being resolved, if possible, not to fall into any of their hands, especially in this country, where, as our circumstances were, we could not fail of being entirely ruined; nay, so great was my fear in particular, as to my being taken by them, that I believe firmly, I would much rather have chosen to fall into the hands of the spanish Inquisition.

Being now come to the latitude of thirty degrees, we resolved to put into the first trading port we should come at, and, standing in for the shore, a boat came off two leagues to us, with an old portuguese pilot on board, who, knowing us to be an european ship, came to offer his service, which, indeed, we were very glad of, and took him on board; upon which, without asking us whither we would go, he dismissed the boat he came in, and sent it back.

I thought it was now so much in our choice to make the old man carry us whither we would, that I began to talk with him about carrying us to the gulf of Nanquin, which is the most northern part of the coast of China. The old man said he knew the gulf of Nanquin very well, but, smiling, asked us what we would do there.

I told him we would sell our cargo, and purchase china wares, calicos, raw silks, wrought silks, tea, &c. and so would return by the same course we came. He told us our best port had been to have put in at Macao, where we could not fail of a market for our opium to our satisfaction, and might, for our money, have purchased all sorts of China goods, as cheap as we could at Nanquin.

try, but low in some places seaward; with soundings hear the shore, particularly on the west side. On the southern part is a high double-peaked mountain, discernible 20 leagues in clear weather, from which the land slopes down to a low projecting point called the South cape, or S. E. point of Formosa. This point is situated in latitude 21° 54 N. longitude 121°5′ E. by mean of many chronometers and observations of O; and bears about W. & S. from the west end of Botel-Tobago.Xima, distant 13 leagues. N. E. ward of the point there is a village, with a harbour for small vessels; and there is said to be soundings near it on the west side. N. W. ward of this cape about 13 leagues, is Lamay isle, situated about 3 or 34 leagues distant from the coast with soundings between. Åbout 13 or 14 leagues farther northward lies the harbour of Ty-oan (formerly the Dutch settlement of fort Zeeland), with a table-hill inland eastward. This harbour and the other inlets along the same coast are mostly fronted by shoals; and from the entrance of the river Pon-kan, in latitude 23° 25′ N. sand banks project 3 or 4 leagues to the offing. Ty-oan will not admit vessels drawing above 8 feet, and the other inlets also are shole. The northern extremity is in 25° 18′ N. 121° 34′ E. the N. W. point in 25° 11′ N. 121° 6′ E. the N. E. point in 25° 11′ N. 121° 56′ E. by chronometers. There is a group of three islots off the N. E. point, with a safe channel within about 3 or 4 leagues wide. (D. C. xxx, 214.) Formosa once belonged to the Dutch East-India company but in 1662, the Dutch were expelled after sustaining a siege of 9 months from a chinese rebel named CoXINIA, before they surrendered the citadel. Soon after this, the island was united to the empire of China; and Europeans have no intercourse with this island at present. See the map aunexed unto the text.

See the chart, page 369.

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