should be to sell the ship in China, which we might well do, and
buy, or build another in the country; adding that I should meet
with customers enough for the ship at Nankin, that a Chinese junk
would serve me very well to go back again, and that he would
procure me people both to buy one and sell the other. “Well, but,
seignior,” said I, “as you say they know the ship so well, I may,
perhaps, if I follow your measures, be instrumental to bring some
honest, innocent men into a terrible broil; for wherever they find
the ship they will prove the guilt upon the men, by proving this
was the ship.” – “Why,” says the old man, “I’ll find out a way to
prevent that; for as I know all those commanders you speak of very
well, and shall see them all as they pass by, I will be sure to set
them to rights in the thing, and let them know that they had been
so much in the wrong; that though the people who were on board at
first might run away with the ship, yet it was not true that they
had turned pirates; and that, in particular, these were not the men
that first went off with the ship, but innocently bought her for
their trade; and I am persuaded they will so far believe me as at
least to act more cautiously for the time to come.”
In about thirteen days’ sail we came to an anchor, at the south-
west point of the great Gulf of Nankin; where I learned by accident
that two Dutch ships were gone the length before me, and that I
should certainly fall into their hands. I consulted my partner
again in this exigency, and he was as much at a loss as I was. I
then asked the old pilot if there was no creek or harbour which I
might put into and pursue my business with the Chinese privately,
and be in no danger of the enemy. He told me if I would sail to
the southward about forty-two leagues, there was a little port
called Quinchang, where the fathers of the mission usually landed
from Macao, on their progress to teach the Christian religion to
the Chinese, and where no European ships ever put in; and if I
thought to put in there, I might consider what further course to
take when I was on shore. He confessed, he said, it was not a
place for merchants, except that at some certain times they had a
kind of a fair there, when the merchants from Japan came over
thither to buy Chinese merchandises. The name of the port I may
perhaps spell wrong, having lost this, together with the names of
many other places set down in a little pocket-book, which was
spoiled by the water by an accident; but this I remember, that the
Chinese merchants we corresponded with called it by a different
name from that which our Portuguese pilot gave it, who pronounced
it Quinchang. As we were unanimous in our resolution to go to this
place, we weighed the next day, having only gone twice on shore
where we were, to get fresh water; on both which occasions the
people of the country were very civil, and brought abundance of
provisions to sell to us; but nothing without money.
We did not come to the other port (the wind being contrary) for
five days; but it was very much to our satisfaction, and I was
thankful when I set my foot on shore, resolving, and my partner
too, that if it was possible to dispose of ourselves and effects
any other way, though not profitably, we would never more set foot
on board that unhappy vessel. Indeed, I must acknowledge, that of
all the circumstances of life that ever I had any experience of,
nothing makes mankind so completely miserable as that of being in
constant fear. Well does the Scripture say, “The fear of man
brings a snare”; it is a life of death, and the mind is so entirely
oppressed by it, that it is capable of no relief.