The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

fellow likely to do well in it, I inclined to let him go; but I

  told him I would consult my partner, and give him an answer the

  next day. I discoursed about it with my partner, who thereupon

  made a most generous offer: "You know it has been an unlucky

  ship," said he, "and we both resolve not to go to sea in it again;

  if your steward" (so he called my man) "will venture the voyage, I

  will leave my share of the vessel to him, and let him make the best

  of it; and if we live to meet in England, and he meets with success

  abroad, he shall account for one half of the profits of the ship's

  freight to us; the other shall be his own."

  If my partner, who was no way concerned with my young man, made him

  such an offer, I could not do less than offer him the same; and all

  the ship's company being willing to go with him, we made over half

  the ship to him in property, and took a writing from him, obliging

  him to account for the other, and away he went to Japan. The Japan

  merchant proved a very punctual, honest man to him: protected him

  at Japan, and got him a licence to come on shore, which the

  Europeans in general have not lately obtained. He paid him his

  freight very punctually; sent him to the Philippines loaded with

  Japan and China wares, and a supercargo of their own, who,

  trafficking with the Spaniards, brought back European goods again,

  and a great quantity of spices; and there he was not only paid his

  freight very well, and at a very good price, but not being willing

  to sell the ship, then the merchant furnished him goods on his own

  account; and with some money, and some spices of his own which he

  brought with him, he went back to the Manillas, where he sold his

  cargo very well. Here, having made a good acquaintance at Manilla,

  he got his ship made a free ship, and the governor of Manilla hired

  him to go to Acapulco, on the coast of America, and gave him a

  licence to land there, and to travel to Mexico, and to pass in any

  Spanish ship to Europe with all his men. He made the voyage to

  Acapulco very happily, and there he sold his ship: and having

  there also obtained allowance to travel by land to Porto Bello, he

  found means to get to Jamaica, with all his treasure, and about

  eight years after came to England exceeding rich.

  But to return to our particular affairs, being now to part with the

  ship and ship's company, it came before us, of course, to consider

  what recompense we should give to the two men that gave us such

  timely notice of the design against us in the river Cambodia. The

  truth was, they had done us a very considerable service, and

  deserved well at our hands; though, by the way, they were a couple

  of rogues, too; for, as they believed the story of our being

  pirates, and that we had really run away with the ship, they came

  down to us, not only to betray the design that was formed against

  us, but to go to sea with us as pirates. One of them confessed

  afterwards that nothing else but the hopes of going a-roguing

  brought him to do it: however, the service they did us was not the

  less, and therefore, as I had promised to be grateful to them, I

  first ordered the money to be paid them which they said was due to

  them on board their respective ships: over and above that, I gave

  each of them a small sum of money in gold, which contented them

  very well. I then made the Englishman gunner in the ship, the

  gunner being now made second mate and purser; the Dutchman I made

  boatswain; so they were both very well pleased, and proved very

  serviceable, being both able seamen, and very stout fellows.

  We were now on shore in China; if I thought myself banished, and

  remote from my own country at Bengal, where I had many ways to get

  home for my money, what could I think of myself now, when I was

  about a thousand leagues farther off from home, and destitute of

  all 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 the

  place where we were, and then we might be able to purchase various

  manufactures of the country, and withal might possibly find some

  Chinese junks from Tonquin for sail, that would carry us and our

  goods whither we pleased. This I liked very well, and resolved to

  wait; besides, as our particular persons were not obnoxious, so if

  any English or Dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have an

  opportunity to load our goods, and get passage to some other place

  in India nearer home. Upon these hopes we resolved to continue

  here; but, to divert ourselves, we took two or three journeys into

  the country.

  First, we went ten days' journey to Nankin, a city well worth

  seeing; they say it has a million of people in it: it is regularly

  built, and the streets are all straight, and cross one another in

  direct lines. But when I come to compare the miserable people of

  these countries with ours, their fabrics, their manner of living,

  their government, their religion, their wealth, and their glory, as

  some call it, I must confess that I scarcely think it worth my

  while to mention them here. We wonder at the grandeur, the riches,

  the pomp, the ceremonies, the government, the manufactures, the

  commerce, and conduct of these people; not that there is really any

  matter for wonder, but because, having a true notion of the

  barbarity of those countries, the rudeness and the ignorance that

  prevail there, we do not expect to find any such thing so far off.

  Otherwise, what are their buildings to the palaces and royal

  buildings of Europe? What their trade to the universal commerce of

  England, Holland, France, and Spain? What are their cities to

  ours, for wealth, strength, gaiety of apparel, rich furniture, and

  infinite variety? What are their ports, supplied with a few junks

  and barks, to our navigation, our merchant fleets, our large and

  powerful navies? Our city of London has more trade than half their

  mighty empire: one English, Dutch, or French man-of-war of eighty

  guns would be able to fight almost all the shipping belonging to

  China: but the greatness of their wealth, their trade, the power

  of their government, and the strength of their armies, may be a

  little surprising to us, because, as I have said, considering them

  as a barbarous nation of pagans, little better than savages, we did

  not expect such things among them. But all the forces of their

  empire, though they were to bring two millions of men into the

  field together, would be able to do nothing but ruin the country

  and starve themselves; a million of their foot could not stand

  before one embattled body of our infantry, posted so as not to be

  surrounded, though they were not to be one to twenty in number;

  nay, I do not boast if I say that thirty thousand German or English

  foot, and ten thousand horse, well managed, could defeat all the

  forces of China. Nor is there a fortified town in China that could

  hold out one month against the batteries and attacks of an European

  army. They have firearms, it is true, but th
ey are awkward and

  uncertain in their going off; and their powder has but little

  strength. Their armies are badly disciplined, and want skill to

  attack, or temper to retreat; and therefore, I must confess, it

  seemed strange to me, when I came home, and heard our people say

  such fine things of the power, glory, magnificence, and trade of

  the Chinese; because, as far as I saw, they appeared to be a

  contemptible herd or crowd of ignorant, sordid slaves, subjected to

  a government qualified only to rule such a people; and were not its

  distance inconceivably, great from Muscovy, and that empire in a

  manner as rude, impotent, and ill governed as they, the Czar of

  Muscovy might with ease drive them all out of their country, and

  conquer them in one campaign; and had the Czar (who is now a

  growing prince) fallen this way, instead of attacking the warlike

  Swedes, and equally improved himself in the art of war, as they say

  he has done; and if none of the powers of Europe had envied or

  interrupted him, he might by this time have been Emperor of China,

  instead of being beaten by the King of Sweden at Narva, when the

  latter was not one to six in number.

  As their strength and their grandeur, so their navigation,

  commerce, and husbandry are very imperfect, compared to the same

  things in Europe; also, in their knowledge, their learning, and in

  their skill in the sciences, they are either very awkward or

  defective, though they have globes or spheres, and a smattering of

  the mathematics, and think they know more than all the world

  besides. But they know little of the motions of the heavenly

  bodies; and so grossly and absurdly ignorant are their common

  people, that when the sun is eclipsed, they think a great dragon

  has assaulted it, and is going to run away with it; and they fall a

  clattering with all the drums and kettles in the country, to fright

  the monster away, just as we do to hive a swarm of bees!

  As this is the only excursion of the kind which I have made in all

  the accounts I have given of my travels, so I shall make no more

  such. It is none of my business, nor any part of my design; but to

  give an account of my own adventures through a life of inimitable

  wanderings, and a long variety of changes, which, perhaps, few that

  come after me will have heard the like of: I shall, therefore, say

  very little of all the mighty places, desert countries, and

  numerous people I have yet to pass through, more than relates to my

  own story, and which my concern among them will make necessary.

  I was now, as near as I can compute, in the heart of China, about

  thirty degrees north of the line, for we were returned from Nankin.

  I had indeed a mind to see the city of Pekin, which I had heard so

  much of, and Father Simon importuned me daily to do it. At length

  his time of going away being set, and the other missionary who was

  to go with him being arrived from Macao, it was necessary that we

  should resolve either to go or not; so I referred it to my partner,

  and left it wholly to his choice, who at length resolved it in the

  affirmative, and we prepared for our journey. We set out with very

  good advantage as to finding the way; for we got leave to travel in

  the retinue of one of their mandarins, a kind of viceroy or

  principal magistrate in the province where they reside, and who

  take great state upon them, travelling with great attendance, and

  great homage from the people, who are sometimes greatly

  impoverished by them, being obliged to furnish provisions for them

  and all their attendants in their journeys. I particularly

  observed in our travelling with his baggage, that though we

  received sufficient provisions both for ourselves and our horses

  from the country, as belonging to the mandarin, yet we were obliged

  to pay for everything we had, after the market price of the

  country, and the mandarin's steward collected it duly from us.

  Thus our travelling in the retinue of the mandarin, though it was a

  great act of kindness, was not such a mighty favour to us, but was

  a great advantage to him, considering there were above thirty other

  people travelled in the same manner besides us, under the

  protection of his retinue; for the country furnished all the

  provisions for nothing to him, and yet he took our money for them.

  We were twenty-five days travelling to Pekin, through a country

  exceeding populous, but I think badly cultivated; the husbandry,

  the economy, and the way of living miserable, though they boast so

  much of the industry of the people: I say miserable, if compared

  with our own, but not so to these poor wretches, who know no other.

  The pride of the poor people is infinitely great, and exceeded by

  nothing but their poverty, in some parts, which adds to that which

  I call their misery; and I must needs think the savages of America

  live much more happy than the poorer sort of these, because as they

  have nothing, so they desire nothing; whereas these are proud and

  insolent and in the main are in many parts mere beggars and

  drudges. Their ostentation is inexpressible; and, if they can,

  they love to keep multitudes of servants or slaves, which is to the

  last degree ridiculous, as well as their contempt of all the world

  but themselves.

  I must confess I travelled more pleasantly afterwards in the

  deserts and vast wildernesses of Grand Tartary than here, and yet

  the roads here are well paved and well kept, and very convenient

  for travellers; but nothing was more awkward to me than to see such

  a haughty, imperious, insolent people, in the midst of the grossest

  simplicity and ignorance; and my friend Father Simon and I used to

  be very merry upon these occasions, to see their beggarly pride.

  For example, coming by the house of a country gentleman, as Father

  Simon called him, about ten leagues off the city of Nankin, we had

  first of all the honour to ride with the master of the house about

  two miles; the state he rode in was a perfect Don Quixotism, being

  a mixture of pomp and poverty. His habit was very proper for a

  merry-andrew, being a dirty calico, with hanging sleeves, tassels,

  and cuts and slashes almost on every side: it covered a taffety

  vest, so greasy as to testify that his honour must be a most

  exquisite sloven. His horse was a poor, starved, hobbling

  creature, and two slaves followed him on foot to drive the poor

  creature along; he had a whip in his hand, and he belaboured the

  beast as fast about the head as his slaves did about the tail; and

  thus he rode by us, with about ten or twelve servants, going from

  the city to his country seat, about half a league before us. We

  travelled on gently, but this figure of a gentleman rode away

  before us; and as we stopped at a village about an hour to refresh

  us, when we came by the country seat of this great man, we saw him

  in a little place before his door, eating a repast. It was a kind

  of garden, but he was easy to be seen; and we were given to

  understand that the more we looked at him the bette
r he would be

  pleased. He sat under a tree, something like the palmetto, which

  effectually shaded him over the head, and on the south side; but

  under the tree was placed a large umbrella, which made that part

  look well enough. He sat lolling back in a great elbow-chair,

  being a heavy corpulent man, and had his meat brought him by two

  women slaves. He had two more, one of whom fed the squire with a

  spoon, and the other held the dish with one hand, and scraped off

  what he let fall upon his worship's beard and taffety vest.

  Leaving the poor wretch to please himself with our looking at him,

  as if we admired his idle pomp, we pursued our journey. Father

  Simon had the curiosity to stay to inform himself what dainties the

  country justice had to feed on in all his state, which he had the

  honour to taste of, and which was, I think, a mess of boiled rice,

  with a great piece of garlic in it, and a little bag filled with

  green pepper, and another plant which they have there, something

  like our ginger, but smelling like musk, and tasting like mustard;

  all this was put together, and a small piece of lean mutton boiled

  in it, and this was his worship's repast. Four or five servants

  more attended at a distance, who we supposed were to eat of the

  same after their master. As for our mandarin with whom we

  travelled, he was respected as a king, surrounded always with his

  gentlemen, and attended in all his appearances with such pomp, that

  I saw little of him but at a distance. I observed that there was

  not a horse in his retinue but that our carrier's packhorses in

  England seemed to me to look much better; though it was hard to

  judge rightly, for they were so covered with equipage, mantles,

  trappings, &c., that we could scarce see anything but their feet

  and their heads as they went along.

  I was now light-hearted, and all my late trouble and perplexity

  being over, I had no anxious thoughts about me, which made this

  journey the pleasanter to me; in which no ill accident attended me,

  only in passing or fording a small river, my horse fell and made me

  free of the country, as they call it--that is to say, threw me in.

  The place was not deep, but it wetted me all over. I mention it

  because it spoiled my pocket-book, wherein I had set down the names

  of several people and places which I had occasion to remember, and

  which not taking due care of, the leaves rotted, and the words were

  never after to be read.

  At length we arrived at Pekin. I had nobody with me but the youth

  whom my nephew had given me to attend me as a servant and who

  proved very trusty and diligent; and my partner had nobody with him

  but one servant, who was a kinsman. As for the Portuguese pilot,

  he being desirous to see the court, we bore his charges for his

  company, and for our use of him as an interpreter, for he

  understood the language of the country, and spoke good French and a

  little English. Indeed, this old man was most useful to us

  everywhere; for we had not been above a week at Pekin, when he came

  laughing. "Ah, Seignior Inglese," says he, "I have something to

  tell will make your heart glad."--"My heart glad," says I; "what

  can that be? I don't know anything in this country can either give

  me joy or grief to any great degree."--"Yes, yes," said the old

  man, in broken English, "make you glad, me sorry."--"Why," said I,

  "will it make you sorry?"--"Because," said he, "you have brought me

  here twenty-five days' journey, and will leave me to go back alone;

  and which way shall I get to my port afterwards, without a ship,

  without a horse, without pecune?" so he called money, being his

  broken Latin, of which he had abundance to make us merry with. In

  short, he told us there was a great caravan of Muscovite and Polish

  merchants in the city, preparing to set out on their journey by

  land to Muscovy, within four or five weeks; and he was sure we

  would take the opportunity to go with them, and leave him behind,

  to go back alone.

  I confess I was greatly surprised with this good news, and had