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第3章 流矢不长眼睛

　　IT was the beginning of February, new style, when we set out fromPekin. My partner and the old pilot had gone express back to theport where we had first put in, to dispose of some goods which wehad left there; and I, with a Chinese merchant whom I had someknowledge of at Nankin, and who came to Pekin on his own affairs,went to Nankin, where I bought ninety pieces of fine damasks, withabout two hundred pieces of other very fine silk of several sorts,some mixed with gold, and had all these brought to Pekin against mypartner's return. Besides this, we bought a large quantity of rawsilk, and some other goods, our cargo amounting, in these goodsonly, to about three thousand five hundred pounds sterling; which,together with tea and some fine calicoes, and three camels' loadsof nutmegs and cloves, loaded in all eighteen camels for our share,besides those we rode upon; these, with two or three spare horses,and two horses loaded with provisions, made together twenty-sixcamels and horses in our retinue.

　　Upon this, after long debate, it was concluded that they would notremove their habitation; because that, some time or other, theythought they might hear from their governor again, meaning me; andif I should send any one to seek them, I should be sure to directthem to that side, where, if they should find the place demolished,they would conclude the savages had killed us all, and we weregone, and so our supply would go too. But as to their corn andcattle, they agreed to remove them into the valley where my cavewas, where the land was as proper for both, and where indeed therewas land enough. However, upon second thoughts they altered onepart of their resolution too, and resolved only to remove part oftheir cattle thither, and part of their corn there; so that if onepart was destroyed the other might be saved. And one part ofprudence they luckily used: they never trusted those three savageswhich they had taken prisoners with knowing anything of theplantation they had made in that valley, or of any cattle

　　They went out presently to go up to the top of the hill, where Iused to go; but they being strong, and a good company, nor alone,as I was, used none of my cautions to go up by the ladder, andpulling it up after them, to go up a second stage to the top, butwere going round through the grove unwarily, when they weresurprised with seeing a light as of fire, a very little way fromthem, and hearing the voices of men, not of one or two, but of agreat number.

　　About two days after this they had the farther satisfaction ofseeing three of the savages' canoes come driving on shore, and, atsome distance from them, two drowned men, by which they had reasonto believe that they had met with a storm at sea, which had oversetsome of them; for it had blown very hard the night after they wentoff. However, as some might miscarry, so, on the other hand,enough of them escaped to inform the rest, as well of what they haddone as of what had happened to them; and to whet them on toanother enterprise of the same nature, which they, it seems,resolved to attempt, with sufficient force to carry all beforethem; for except what the first man had told them of inhabitants,they could say little of it of their own knowledge, for they neversaw one man; and the fellow being killed that had affirmed it, theyhad no other witness to confirm it to, them.

　　I cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections I now had uponthe vast variety of my particular circumstances; how hard I thoughtit that I, who had spent forty years in a life of continualdifficulties, and was at last come, as it were, to the port orhaven which all men drive at, viz. to have rest and plenty, shouldbe a volunteer in new sorrows by my own unhappy choice, and that I,who had escaped so many dangers in my youth, should now come to behanged in my old age, and in so remote a place, for a crime which Iwas not in the least inclined to, much less guilty of. After thesethoughts something of religion would come in; and I would beconsidering that this seemed to me to be a disposition of immediateProvidence, and I ought to look upon it and submit to it as such.For, although I was innocent as to men, I was far from beinginnocent as to my Maker; and I ought to look in and examine whatother crimes in my life were most obvious to me, and for whichProvidence might justly inflict this punishment as a ret

to make themall easy at last. "For," said they, "we are not so many of us;here is room enough for us all, and it is a great pity that weshould not be all good friends." At length they did consent, andwaited for the issue of the thing, living for some days with theSpaniards; for their own habitation was destroyed.

　　I was now alone in a most remote part of the world, for I was nearthree thousand leagues by sea farther off from England than I wasat my island; only, it is true, I might travel here by land overthe Great Mogul's country to Surat, might go from thence to Bassoraby sea, up the Gulf of Persia, and take the way of the caravans,over the desert of Arabia, to Aleppo and Scanderoon; from thence bysea again to Italy, and so overland into France. I had another waybefore me, which was to wait for some English ships, which werecoming to Bengal from Achin, on the island of Sumatra, and getpassage on board them from England. But as I came hither withoutany concern with the East Indian Company, so it would be difficultto go from hence without their licence, unless with great favour ofthe captains of the ships, or the company's factors: and to both Iwas an utter stranger.

　　As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on boardwith his men, to refresh them, so I also forgot not the starvingcrew that were left on board, but ordered my own boat to go onboard the ship, and, with my mate and twelve men, to carry them asack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef to boil. Oursurgeon charged the men to cause the meat to be boiled while theystayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room, to prevent the mentaking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot before it waswell boiled, and then to give every man but a very little at atime: and by this caution he preserved the men, who wouldotherwise have killed themselves with that very food that was giventhem on purpose to save their lives.

　　Wife. - What you put down the knee for? What you hold up the handfor? What you say? Who you speak to? What is all that?