my priest that I had left in the Brazils; but Father Simon did not
come up to his character by a great deal; for though this friar had
no appearance of a criminal levity in him, yet he had not that fund
of Christian zeal, strict piety, and sincere affection to religion
that my other good ecclesiastic had.
But to leave him a little, though he never left us, nor solicited
us to go with him; we had something else before us at first, for we
had all this while our ship and our merchandise to dispose of, and
we began to be very doubtful what we should do, for we were now in
a place of very little business. Once I was about to venture to
sail for the river of Kilam, and the city of Nankin; but Providence
seemed now more visibly, as I thought, than ever to concern itself
in our affairs; and I was encouraged, from this very time, to think
I should, one way or other, get out of this entangled circumstance,
and be brought home to my own country again, though I had not the
least view of the manner. Providence, I say, began here to clear
up our way a little; and the first thing that offered was, that our
old Portuguese pilot brought a Japan merchant to us, who inquired
what goods we had: and, in the first place, he bought all our
opium, and gave us a very good price for it, paying us in gold by
weight, some in small pieces of their own coin, and some in small
wedges, of about ten or twelves ounces each. While we were dealing
with him for our opium, it came into my head that he might perhaps
deal for the ship too, and I ordered the interpreter to propose it
to him. He shrunk up his shoulders at it when it was first
proposed to him; but in a few days after he came to me, with one of
the missionary priests for his interpreter, and told me he had a
proposal to make to me, which was this: he had bought a great
quantity of our goods, when he had no thoughts of proposals made to
him of buying the ship; and that, therefore, he had not money to
pay for the ship: but if I would let the same men who were in the
ship navigate her, he would hire the ship to go to Japan; and would
send them from thence to the Philippine Islands with another
loading, which he would pay the freight of before they went from
Japan: and that at their return he would buy the ship. I began to
listen to his proposal, and so eager did my head still run upon
rambling, that I could not but begin to entertain a notion of going
myself with him, and so to set sail from the Philippine Islands
away to the South Seas; accordingly, I asked the Japanese merchant
if he would not hire us to the Philippine Islands and discharge us
there. He said No, he could not do that, for then he could not
have the return of his cargo; but he would discharge us in Japan,
at the ship’s return. Well, still I was for taking him at that
proposal, and going myself; but my partner, wiser than myself,
persuaded me from it, representing the dangers, as well of the seas
as of the Japanese, who are a false, cruel, and treacherous people;
likewise those of the Spaniards at the Philippines, more false,
cruel, and treacherous than they.
But to bring this long turn of our affairs to a conclusion; the
first thing we had to do was to consult with the captain of the
ship, and with his men, and know if they were willing to go to
Japan. While I was doing this, the young man whom my nephew had
left with me as my companion came up, and told me that he thought
that voyage promised very fair, and that there was a great prospect
of advantage, and he would be very glad if I undertook it; but that
if I would not, and would give him leave, he would go as a