merchant, or as I pleased to order him; that if ever he came to
England, and I was there and alive, he would render me a faithful
account of his success, which should be as much mine as I pleased.
I was loath to part with him; but considering the prospect of
advantage, which really was considerable, and that he was a young
fellow likely to do well in it, I inclined to let him go; but I
told him I would consult my partner, and give him an answer the
next day. I discoursed about it with my partner, who thereupon
made a most generous offer: “You know it has been an unlucky
ship,” said he, “and we both resolve not to go to sea in it again;
if your steward” (so he called my man) “will venture the voyage, I
will leave my share of the vessel to him, and let him make the best
of it; and if we live to meet in England, and he meets with success
abroad, he shall account for one half of the profits of the ship’s
freight to us; the other shall be his own.”
If my partner, who was no way concerned with my young man, made him
such an offer, I could not do less than offer him the same; and all
the ship’s company being willing to go with him, we made over half
the ship to him in property, and took a writing from him, obliging
him to account for the other, and away he went to Japan. The Japan
merchant proved a very punctual, honest man to him: protected him
at Japan, and got him a licence to come on shore, which the
Europeans in general have not lately obtained. He paid him his
freight very punctually; sent him to the Philippines loaded with
Japan and China wares, and a supercargo of their own, who,
trafficking with the Spaniards, brought back European goods again,
and a great quantity of spices; and there he was not only paid his
freight very well, and at a very good price, but not being willing
to sell the ship, then the merchant furnished him goods on his own
account; and with some money, and some spices of his own which he
brought with him, he went back to the Manillas, where he sold his
cargo very well. Here, having made a good acquaintance at Manilla,
he got his ship made a free ship, and the governor of Manilla hired
him to go to Acapulco, on the coast of America, and gave him a
licence to land there, and to travel to Mexico, and to pass in any
Spanish ship to Europe with all his men. He made the voyage to
Acapulco very happily, and there he sold his ship: and having
there also obtained allowance to travel by land to Porto Bello, he
found means to get to Jamaica, with all his treasure, and about
eight years after came to England exceeding rich.
But to return to our particular affairs, being now to part with the
ship and ship’s company, it came before us, of course, to consider
what recompense we should give to the two men that gave us such
timely notice of the design against us in the river Cambodia. The
truth was, they had done us a very considerable service, and
deserved well at our hands; though, by the way, they were a couple
of rogues, too; for, as they believed the story of our being
pirates, and that we had really run away with the ship, they came
down to us, not only to betray the design that was formed against
us, but to go to sea with us as pirates. One of them confessed
afterwards that nothing else but the hopes of going a-roguing
brought him to do it: however, the service they did us was not the
less, and therefore, as I had promised to be grateful to them, I
first ordered the money to be paid them which they said was due to
them on board their respective ships: over and above that, I gave
each of them a small sum of money in gold, which contented them