of cloves and other spice; and there he was not only paid his freight very well, and at a very good price, but being not willing to sell the ship then, the merchant furnished him with goods on his own account; that for some money and some spices of his own, which he brought with him, he went back to the Manillas, to the Spaniards, where he sold his cargo very well.  Here, having gotten a good acquaintance at Manilla, he got his ship made a free ship; and the governor of Manilla hired him to go to Acapulco in America, on the coast of Mexico; and gave him a licence to land there, and 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, some how or other, to go to Jamaica with all his treasure; and about eight years after came to England, exceeding rich; of which I shall take notice in its place; in the mean time, I 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 of Cambodia.  The truth was, they had done us a 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; and 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 to them, which they said was due to them on board their respective ships; that is to say, the Englishman nineteen months pay, and to the Dutchman seven; and, over and above that, I gave each of them a small sum of money in gold, which contented them very well:  then I made the Englishman gunner of the ship, the gunner being now made second mate and purser; the Dutchman I made boatswain:  so they were both very well pleased, and proved very serviceable, being both able seamen, and very stout fellows.

We were now on shore in China.  If I thought myself banished, and remote from my own country at Bengal, where I had many ways to get home for my money, what could I think of myself now, when I was gotten about a thousand leagues farther off from home, and perfectly destitute of all manner of prospect of return!

All we had for it was this, that in about four months time there was to be another fair at that place where we were, and then we might be able to purchase all sorts of the manufactures of the country, and withal might possibly find some Chinese junks or vessels from Nanquin, that would be to be sold, and would carry us and our goods whither we pleased.  This I liked very well, and resolved to wait; besides, as our particular persons were not obnoxious, so if any English or Dutch ships came thither, perhaps we might have an opportunity to load our goods, and get passage to some other place in India nearer home.