sound.
I have now no more to say of my isle, as I had left it for the lasttime, but my life in lands no less far from home was not yet at an end.From the Bay of All Saints we went straight to the Cape of Good Hope.Here I made up my mind to part from the ship in which I had come fromthe Isle, and with two of the crew to stay on land, and leave the restto go on their way. I soon made friends with some men from France, aswell as from my own land, and two Jews, who had come out to the Cape totrade.
As I found that some goods which I had brought with me from home wereworth a great deal, I made a large sum by the sale of them. When we hadbeen at the Cape of Good Hope for nine months, we thought that the bestthing we could do would be to hire a ship, and sail to the Spice Isles,to buy cloves, so we got a ship, and men to work her, and set out. Whenwe had bought and sold our goods in the course of trade, we came back,and then set out once more; so that, in short, as we went from port toport, to and fro, I spent, from first to last, six years in this part ofthe world.
At length we thought we would go and seek new scenes where we could getfresh gains. And a strange set of men we at last fell in with, as youwho read this tale will say when you look at the print in front of thispage.
When we had put on shore, we made friends with a man who got us a largehouse, built with canes, and a small kind of hut of the same near it.It had a high fence of canes round it to keep out thieves, of whom, itseems, there are not a few in that land. The name of the town was Ching,and we found that the fair or mart which was kept there would not beheld for three or four months. So we sent our ship back to the Cape, aswe meant to stay in this part of the world for some time, and go fromplace to place to see what sort of a land it was, and then come back tothe fair at Ching.
We first went to a town which it was well worth our while to see, andwhich must have been, as near as I can guess, quite in the heart of thisland. It was built with straight streets which ran in cross lines.
But I must own, when I came home to the place of my birth, I was muchstruck to hear my friends say such fine things of the wealth and tradeof these parts of the world, for I saw and knew that the men were a mereherd or crowd of mean slaves. What is their trade to ours, or to that ofFrance and Spain? What are their ports, with a few junks and barks, toour grand fleets? One of our large ships of war would sink all theirships, one line of French troops would beat all their horse, and thesame may be said of their ports, which would not stand for one monthsuch a siege as we could bring to bear on them.
In three weeks more we came to their chief town. When we had laid in alarge stock of tea, shawls, fans, raw silks, and such like goods, we setout for the north. As we knew we should run all kinds of risks on ourway, we took with us a strong force to act as a guard, and to keep usfrom the wild hordes who rove from place to place all through the land.Some of our men were Scots, who had come out to trade here, and hadgreat wealth, and I was glad to join them, as it was by no means thefirst time that they had been here.
We took five guides with us, and we all put our coin in one purse, tobuy food on the way, and to pay the men who took charge of us. One of uswe chose out for our chief, to take the lead in case we should have tofight for our lives; and when the time came, we had no small need ofhim. On the sides of all the roads, we saw men who made pots, cups,pans, and such like ware, out of a kind of earth, which is, in fact, thechief trade in this part of the world.
One thing, the guide said he would show me, that was not to be seen inall the world else (and this, in good sooth, I could not sneer at, asI had done at most of the things I had seen here), and this was a housethat was built of a kind of ware, such as most plates and cups are madeof. "How big is it?" said I, "can we take it on the back of a horse?""On a horse!" said the guide, "why, two score of men live in it." Hethen took us to it, and I found that it was in truth a large house,built with lath and the best ware that can be made out of earth. Thesun shone hot on the walls, which were quite white, hard, and smooth asglass, with forms on them in blue paint. On the walls of the rooms weresmall square tiles of the best ware, with red, blue, and green paint ofall shades and hues, in rare forms, done in good taste; and as they usethe same kind of earth to join the tiles with, you could not see wherethe tiles met. The floors of the rooms were made of the same ware, andas strong as those we have at home; and the same may be said of theroofs, but they were of a dark shade. If we had had more time to spare,I should have been glad to have seen more of this house, for there werethe ponds for the fish, the walks, the yards, and courts, which wereall made in the same way. This odd sight kept me from my friends for twohours, and when I had come up to them, I had to pay a fine to our chief,as they had to wait so long.
In two days more we came to the Great Wall, which was made as a fortto keep the whole land safe,--and a great work it is. It goes in a longtrack for miles and miles, where the rocks are so high and steep thatno foe could climb them; or, if they did, no wall could stop them. TheGreat Wall is as thick as it is high, and it turns and winds in allsorts of ways.
We now saw, for the first time, some troops of the hordes I spoke of,who rove from place to place, to rob and kill all whom they meet with.They know no real mode of war, or skill in fight. Each has a poor leanhorse, which is not fit to do good work. Our chief gave some of us leaveto go out and hunt as they call it, and what was it but to hunt sheep!These sheep are wild and swift of foot, but they will not run far, andyou are sure of sport when you start in the chase. They go in flocks ofa score, or two, and like true sheep, keep close when they fly. In thissort of chase it was our hap to meet with some two score of the wildhordes, but what sort of prey they had come to hunt I know not. As soonas they saw us, one of them blew some loud notes on a kind of horn, witha sound that was quite new to me. We all thought this was to call theirfriends round them, and so it was, for in a short time a fresh troop ofthe same size came to join them; and they were all, as far as we couldjudge, a mile off. One of the Scots was with us, and as soon as he heardthe horn, he told us that we must lose no time, but draw up in line, andcharge them at once. We told him we would, if he would take the lead.
They stood still, and cast a wild gaze at us, like a mere crowd, drawnup in no line; but as soon as they saw us come at them, they let flytheir darts, which did not hit us, for though their aim was true, theyfell short of us. We now came to a halt to fire at them, and then wentat full speed to fall on them sword in hand, for so the bold Scot thatled us, told us to do.
As soon as we came up to them, they fled right and left. The sole standmade was by three of them, who had a kind of short sword in their hands,and bows on their backs, and who did all they could to call all the restback to them. The brave Scot rode close up to them, and with his gunthrew one off his horse, shot the next, and the third ran off, and thiswas the end of our fight. All the bad luck we met with, was that thesheep that we had in chase got off. We had not a man hurt, but as forthe foe, five of them were dead, and not a few had wounds, while therest fled at the mere noise of our guns.
Thus we went on our way from town to town, and now and then met someof these wild hordes, whom we had to fight and I need not add that eachtime we had the best of the fray. At last we made our way to the chieftown of the North Seas at the end of a year, five months and three days,from the time when we left Ching. When I had been there six weeks, andhad bought some more goods; I took ship and set sail for the land of mybirth, which I had left, this time, for ten years, nine months and threedays.
And now I must bring this tale of my life to a close, while at the ageof three score years and twelve, I feel that the day is at hand, whenI shall go forth on that sea of peace and love, which has no waves orshores but those of bliss that knows no end.
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