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第5章 裘水镜弄权

ytawny; and two of them, had they been perfect white, would havepassed for very handsome women, even in London, having pleasantcountenances, and of a very modest behaviour; especially when theycame afterwards to be clothed and dressed, though that dress wasvery indifferent, it must be confessed.

ons I did not think fit to let them know anything of the sloopI had framed, and which I thought of setting up among them; for Ifound, at least at my first coming, such seeds of division amongthem, that I saw plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it amongthem, they would, upon every light disgust, have separated, andgone away from one another; or perhaps have turned pirates, and somade the island a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of soberand religious people, as I intended it; nor did I leave the twopieces of brass cannon that I had on board, or the extra twoquarter-deck guns that my nephew had provided, for the same reason.I thought it was enough to qualify them for a defensive war againstany that should invade them, but not to set them up for anoffensive war, or to go abroad to attack others; which, in the end,would only bring ruin and destruction upon them. I reserved thesloop, therefore, and the guns, for their service another way, as Ishall observe in its place.

　　Having thus given a view of the state of things as I found them, Imust relate the heads of what I did for these people, and thecondition in which I left them. It was their opinion, and minetoo, that they would be troubled no more with the savages, or ifthey were, they would be able to cut them off, if they were twiceas many as before; so they had no concern about that. Then Ientered into a serious discourse with the Spaniard, whom I callgovernor, about their stay in the island; for as I was not come tocarry any of them off, so it would not be just to carry off someand leave others, who, perhaps, would be unwilling to stay if theirstrength was diminished. On the other hand, I told them I came toestablish them there, not to remove them; and then I let them knowthat I had brought with me relief of sundry kinds for them; that Ihad been at a great charge to supply them with all thingsnecessary, as well for their convenience as their defence; and thatI had such and such particular persons with me, as well to i

　　From thence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of China at anequal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of Chinawhere 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 beingentirely ruined. Being now come to the latitude of 30 degrees, weresolved to put into the first trading port we should come at; andstanding in for the shore, a boat came of two leagues to us with anold Portuguese pilot on board, who, knowing us to be an Europeanship, came to offer his service, which, indeed, we were glad of andtook him on board; upon which, without asking us whither we wouldgo, he dismissed the boat he came in, and sent it back. I thoughtit was now so much in our choice to make the old man carry uswhither we would, that I began to talk to him about carrying us tothe Gulf of Nankin, which is the most northern part of the coast ofChina. The old man said he knew the Gulf o

　　IT was talking one night with a certain prince, one of the banishedministers of state belonging to the Czar, that the discourse of myparticular case began. He had been telling me abundance of finethings of the greatness, the magnificence, the dominions, and theabsolute power of the Emperor of the Russians: I interrupted him,and told him I was a greater and more powerful prince than ever theCzar was, though my dominion were not so large, or my people somany. The Russian grandee looked a little surprised, and, fixinghis eyes steadily upon me, began to wonder what I meant. I saidhis wonder would cease when I had explained myself, and told himthe story at large of my living in the island; and then how Imanaged both myself and the people that were under me, just as Ihave since minuted it down. They were exceedingly taken with thestory, and especially the prince, who told me, with a sigh, thatthe true greatness of life was to be masters of ourselves; that hewould not have exchanged such a state of life as mi

ld hardlyhave been any need of the fifth commandment.

rn; and,in a word, sacked and plundered everything as completely as a hordeof Tartars would have done.

ation; and though it is true we had not much toseek of them, and, except getting a few provisions, cared not howlittle we had to do with them, yet it was with much difficulty thatwe kept ourselves from being insulted by them several ways. Wewere in a small river of this country, within a few leagues of itsutmost limits northward; and by our boat we coasted north-east tothe point of land which opens the great bay of Tonquin; and it wasin this beating up along the shore that we discovered we weresurrounded with enemies. The people we were among were the mostbarbarous of all the inhabitants of the coast; and among othercustoms they have this one: that if any vessel has the misfortuneto be shipwrecked upon their coast, they make the men all prisonersor slaves; and it was not long before we found a spice of theirkindness this way, on the occasion following.

　　All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not wakenthe people faster than they could master them; but the fire beganto waken them fast enough, and our fellows were glad to keep alittle together in bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all thehouses being made of light combustible stuff, that they couldhardly bear the street between them. Their business was to followthe fire, for the surer execution: as fast as the fire eitherforced the people out of those houses which were burning, orfrightened them out of others, our people were ready at their doorsto knock them on the head, still calling and hallooing one toanother to remember Tom Jeffry.