put in, of whom we bought her, and the like; and what was more than
all the rest, if we were put upon the necessity of bringing it
before the proper judges, we should be sure to have some justice,
and not to be hanged first and judged afterwards.
I was some time of my partner’s opinion; but after a little more
serious thinking, I told him I thought it was a very great hazard
for us to attempt returning to Bengal, for that we were on the
wrong side of the Straits of Malacca, and that if the alarm was
given, we should be sure to be waylaid on every side – that if we
should be taken, as it were, running away, we should even condemn
ourselves, and there would want no more evidence to destroy us. I
also asked the English sailor’s opinion, who said he was of my
mind, and that we certainly should be taken. This danger a little
startled my partner and all the ship’s company, and we immediately
resolved to go away to the coast of Tonquin, and so on to the coast
of China – and pursuing the first design as to trade, find some way
or other to dispose of the ship, and come back in some of the
vessels of the country such as we could get. This was approved of
as the best method for our security, and accordingly we steered
away NNE., keeping above fifty leagues off from the usual course to
the eastward. This, however, put us to some inconvenience: for,
first, the winds, when we came that distance from the shore, seemed
to be more steadily against us, blowing almost trade, as we call
it, from the E. and ENE., so that we were a long while upon our
voyage, and we were but ill provided with victuals for so long a
run; and what was still worse, there was some danger that those
English and Dutch ships whose boats pursued us, whereof some were
bound that way, might have got in before us, and if not, some other
ship bound to China might have information of us from them, and
pursue us with the same vigour.
I must confess I was now very uneasy, and thought myself, including
the late escape from the longboats, to have been in the most
dangerous condition that ever I was in through my past life; for
whatever ill circumstances I had been in, I was never pursued for a
thief before; nor had I ever done anything that merited the name of
dishonest or fraudulent, much less thievish. I had chiefly been my
own enemy, or, as I may rightly say, I had been nobody’s enemy but
my own; but now I was woefully embarrassed: for though I was
perfectly innocent, I was in no condition to make that innocence
appear; and if I had been taken, it had been under a supposed guilt
of the worst kind. This made me very anxious to make an escape,
though which way to do it I knew not, or what port or place we
could go to. My partner endeavoured to encourage me by describing
the several ports of that coast, and told me he would put in on the
coast of Cochin China, or the bay of Tonquin, intending afterwards
to go to Macao, where a great many European families resided, and
particularly the missionary priests, who usually went thither in
order to their going forward to China.
Hither then we resolved to go; and, accordingly, though after a
tedious course, and very much straitened for provisions, we came
within sight of the coast very early in the morning; and upon
reflection on the past circumstances of danger we were in, we
resolved to put into a small river, which, however, had depth
enough of water for us, and to see if we could, either overland 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