I jumped up upon my feet instantly, and got hold of my sword, but no enemies in view.  I found a Tartar lie dead, and his horse standing very quietly by him; and looking farther, I saw my champion and deliverer, who had been to see what the Chinese had done, coming back with his hanger in his hand.  The old man, seeing me on my feet, came running to me, and embraced me with a great deal of joy, being afraid before that I had been killed; and seeing me bloody, would see how I was hurt; but it was not much, only what we call a broken head; neither did I afterwards find any great inconvenience from the blow, other than the place which was hurt, and which was well again in two or three days.

We made no great gain, however, by this victory; for we lost a camel, and gained a horse:  but that which was remarkable, when we came back to the village, the man demanded to be paid for the camel; I disputed it, and it was brought to a hearing before the Chinese judge of the place; that is to say, in English, we went before a justice of the peace.  Give him his due, he acted with a great deal of prudence and impartiality; and having heard both sides, he gravely asked the Chinese man that went with me to buy the camel, whose servant he was?  “I am no servant,” said he, “but went with the stranger.”—­“At whose request?” said the justice.  “At the stranger’s request,” said he.  “Why then,” said the justice, “you were the stranger’s servant for the time; and the camel being delivered to his servant, it was delivered to him, and he must pay for it.”

I confess the thing was so clear, that I had not a word to say; but admiring to see such just reasoning upon the consequence, and so accurate stating the case, I paid willingly for the camel, and sent for another; but you may observe, I sent for it; I did not go to fetch it myself any more; I had had enough of that.

The city of Naum is a frontier of the Chinese empire:  they call it fortified, and so it is, as fortifications go there; for this I will venture to affirm, that all the Tartars in Karakathy, which, I believe, are some millions, could not batter down the walls with their bows and arrows; but to call it strong, if it were attacked with cannon, would be to make those who understand it laugh at you.

We wanted, as I have said, about two days journey of this city, when messengers were sent express to every part of the road, to tell all travellers and caravans to halt, till they had a guard sent to them; for that an unusual body of Tartars, making ten thousand in all, had appeared in the way, about thirty miles beyond the city.

This was very bad news to travellers; however, it was carefully done of the governor, and we were very glad to hear we should have a guard.  Accordingly, two days after, we had two hundred soldiers sent us from a garrison of the Chinese on our left, and three hundred more from the city of Naum, and with those we advanced boldly:  the three hundred soldiers from Naum marched in our front, the two hundred in our rear, and our men on each side of our camels with our baggage, and the whole caravan in the centre.  In this order, and well prepared for battle, we thought ourselves a match for the whole ten thousand Mogul Tartars, if they had appeared; but the next day, when they did appear, it was quite another thing.