The inhabitants came wondering down the shore to look at us; and seeing the ship lie down on one side in such a manner, and heeling in towards the shore, and not seeing our men, who were at work on her bottom with stages, and with their boats on the off-side, they presently concluded that the ship was cast away, and lay fast on the ground.  On this supposition they came about us in two or three hours’ time with ten or twelve large boats, having some of them eight, some ten men in a boat, intending, no doubt, to have come on board and plundered¹ the ship, and if they found us there, to have carried us away for slaves.  
When they came up to the ship, and began to row round her, they discovered us all hard at work on the outside of the ship’s bottom and side, washing, and graving, and stopping, as every seafaring man knows how.  They stood for a while gazing at us, and we, who were a little surprised, could not imagine what their design was; but being willing to be sure, we took this opportunity to get some of us into the ship, and others to hand down arms and ammunition² to those that were at work, to defend themselves with if there should be occasion.  And it was no more than need: for in less than a quarter of an hour’s consultation³, they agreed, it seems, that the ship was really a wreck⁴, and that we were all at work endeavouring to save her, or to save our lives by the help of our boats; and when we handed our arms into the boat, they concluded, by that act, that we were endeavouring to save some of our goods.  Upon this, they took it for granted we all belonged to them, and away they came directly upon our men, as if it had been in a line-of-battle.
 
Our men, seeing so many of them, began to be frightened, for we lay but in an ill posture⁵ to fight, and cried out to us to know what they should do.  I immediately called to the men that worked upon the stages to slip them down, and get up the side into the ship, and bade those in the boat to row round and come on board.  The few who were on board worked with all the strength and hands we had to bring the ship to rights; however, neither the men upon the stages nor those in the boats could do as they were ordered before the Cochin Chinese were upon them, when two of their boats boarded our longboat, and began to lay hold of the men as their prisoners.
 
The first man they laid hold of was an English seaman⁷, a stout⁸, strong fellow, who having a musket⁹ in his hand, never offered to fire it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool, as I thought; but he understood his business better than I could teach him, for he grappled the Pagan, and dragged him by main force out of their boat into ours, where, taking him by the ears, he beat his head so against the boat’s gunnel that the fellow died in his hands.  In the meantime, a Dutchman, who stood next, took up the musket, and with the butt-end of it so laid about him, that he knocked down five of them who attempted to enter the boat.  But this was doing little towards resisting thirty or forty men, who, fearless because ignorant of their danger, began to throw themselves into the longboat, where we had but five men in all to defend it; but the following accident, which deserved our laughter, gave our men a complete victory.
 
Our carpenter being prepared to grave the outside of the ship, as well as to pay the seams where he had caulked¹¹ her to stop the leaks, had got two kettles just let down into the boat, one filled with boiling pitch, and the other with rosin, tallow, and oil, and such stuff as the shipwrights¹² use for that work; and the man that attended the carpenter had a great iron ladle in his hand, with which he supplied the men that were at work with the hot stuff.  Two of the enemy’s men entered the boat just where this fellow stood in the foresheets; he immediately saluted¹³ them with a ladle full of the stuff, boiling hot which so burned and scalded them, being half-naked that they roared out like bulls, and, enraged¹⁴ with the fire, leaped both into the sea.  The carpenter saw it, and cried out, “Well done, Jack¹⁵! give them some more of it!” and stepping forward himself, takes one of the mops, and dipping it in the pitch-pot, he and his man threw it among them so plentifully¹⁶ that, in short, of all the men in the three boats, there was not one that escaped being scalded in a most frightful¹⁸ manner, and made such a howling and crying that I never heard a worse noise.
 
I was never better pleased with a victory in my life; not only as it was a perfect surprise to me, and that our danger was imminent¹⁹ before, but as we got this victory without any bloodshed, except of that man the seaman killed with his naked hands, and which I was very much concerned at.  Although it maybe a just thing, because necessary (for there is no necessary wickedness in nature), yet I thought it was a sad sort of life, when we must be always obliged to be killing²⁰ our fellow-creatures to preserve ourselves; and, indeed, I think so still; and I would even now suffer a great deal rather than I would take away the life even of the worst person injuring me; and I believe all considering people, who know the value of life, would be of my opinion, if they entered seriously into the consideration of it.
 
All the while this was doing, my partner and I, who managed the rest of the men on board, had with great dexterity²¹ brought the ship almost to rights, and having got the guns into their places again, the gunner called to me to bid our boat get out of the way, for he would let fly among them.  I called back again to him, and bid him not offer to fire, for the carpenter would do the work without him; but bid him heat another pitch-kettle, which our cook, who was on broad, took care of.  However, the enemy was so terrified with what they had met with in their first attack, that they would not come on again; and some of them who were farthest off, seeing the ship swim, as it were, upright, began, as we suppose, to see their mistake, and gave over the enterprise, finding it was not as they expected.  Thus we got clear of this merry fight; and having got some rice and some roots and bread, with about sixteen hogs²², on board two days before, we resolved to stay here no longer, but go forward, whatever came of it; for we made no doubt but we should be surrounded the next day with rogues²³ enough, perhaps more than our pitch-kettle would dispose of for us.  We therefore got all our things on board the same evening, and the next morning were ready to sail: in the meantime, lying at anchor at some distance from the shore, we were not so much concerned, being now in a fighting posture, as well as in a sailing posture, if any enemy had presented.  The next day, having finished our work within board, and finding our ship was perfectly²⁴ healed of all her leaks, we set sail.  We would have gone into the bay of Tonquin, for we wanted to inform ourselves of what was to be known concerning the Dutch ships that had been there; but we durst not stand in there, because we had seen several ships go in, as we supposed, but a little before; so we kept on NE. towards the island of Formosa, as much afraid of being seen by a Dutch or English merchant ship as a Dutch or English merchant ship in the Mediterranean²⁵ is of an Algerine man-of-war.
 
When we were thus got to sea, we kept on NE., as if we would go to the Manillas or the Philippine Islands; and this we did that we might not fall into the way of any of the European ships; and then we steered²⁶ north, till we came to the latitude²⁷ of 22 degrees 30 seconds, by which means we made the island of Formosa directly, where we came to an anchor, in order to get water and fresh provisions, which the people there, who are very courteous²⁸ in their manners, supplied us with willingly, and dealt very fairly and punctually with us in all their agreements and bargains.  This is what we did not find among other people, and may be owing to the remains²⁹ of Christianity which was once planted here by a Dutch missionary³¹ of Protestants, and it is a testimony³² of what I have often observed, viz. that the Christian³⁰ religion always civilises the people, and reforms their manners, where it is received, whether it works saving effects upon them or no.
 
From thence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of China at an equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of China where our European ships usually come; being resolved, if possible, not to fall into any of their hands, especially in this country, where, as our circumstances were, we could not fail of being entirely³³ ruined.  Being now come to the latitude of 30 degrees, we resolved to put into the first trading port we should come at; and standing³⁴ in for the shore, a boat came of two leagues to us with an old Portuguese³⁵ pilot on board, who, knowing us to be an European ship, came to offer his service, which, indeed, we were glad of and took him on board; upon which, without asking us whither we would go, he dismissed the boat he came in, and sent it back.  I thought it was now so much in our choice to make the old man carry us whither we would, that I began to talk to him about carrying us to the Gulf³⁶ of Nankin, which is the most northern part of the coast of China.  The old man said he knew the Gulf of Nankin very well; but smiling, asked us what we would do there?  I told him we would sell our cargo³⁷ and purchase China wares³⁸, calicoes, raw silks, tea, wrought³⁹ silks, &c.; and so we would return by the same course we came.  He told us our best port would have been to put in at Macao, where we could not have failed of a market for our opium⁴⁰ to our satisfaction, and might for our money have purchased all sorts of China goods as cheap as we could at Nankin.
 
Not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of which he was very opinionated or conceited⁴¹, I told him we were gentlemen as well as merchants, and that we had a mind to go and see the great city of Pekin, and the famous court of the monarch⁴² of China.  “Why, then,” says the old man, “you should go to Ningpo, where, by the river which runs into the sea there, you may go up within five leagues of the great canal.  This canal is a navigable stream, which goes through the heart of that vast empire of China, crosses all the rivers, passes some considerable hills by the help of sluices⁴³ and gates, and goes up to the city of Pekin, being in length near two hundred and seventy leagues.”—“Well,” said I, “Seignior Portuguese, but that is not our business now; the great question is, if you can carry us up to the city of Nankin, from whence we can travel to Pekin afterwards?”  He said he could do so very well, and that there was a great Dutch ship gone up that way just before.  This gave me a little shock, for a Dutch ship was now our terror, and we had much rather have met the devil, at least if he had not come in too frightful a figure; and we depended upon it that a Dutch ship would be our destruction, for we were in no condition to fight them; all the ships they trade with into those parts being of great burden, and of much greater force than we were.
 
The old man found me a little confused, and under some concern when he named a Dutch ship, and said to me, “Sir, you need be under no apprehensions⁴⁴ of the Dutch; I suppose they are not now at war with your nation?”—“No,” said I, “that’s true; but I know not what liberties men may take when they are out o............