This was a hard article upon him, who knew his obligation to me,and did not know how I might take it.So he began to talk smartlyto them told them that I was a very considerable owner of theship, and that if ever they came to England again it would costthem very dear that the ship was mine, and that he could not putme out of it and that he would rather lose the ship, and thevoyage too, than disoblige me so much:so they might do as theypleased.However, he would go on shore and talk with me, andinvited the boatswain to go with him, and perhaps they mightaccommodate the matter with me.But they all rejected theproposal, and said they would have nothing to do with me any more and if I came on board they would all go on shore."Well," saidthe captain, "if you are all of this mind, let me go on shore andtalk with him."So away he came to me with this account, a littleafter the message had been brought to me from the coxswain. I was now alone in a most remote part of the world, for I was nearthree thousand leagues by sea farther off from England than I wasat my island only, it is true, I might travel here by land overthe Great Mogul's country to Surat, might go from thence to Bassoraby sea, up the Gulf of Persia, and take the way of the caravans,over the desert of Arabia, to Aleppo and Scanderoon from thence bysea again to Italy, and so overland into France.I had another waybefore me, which was to wait for some English ships, which werecoming to Bengal from Achin, on the island of Sumatra, and getpassage on board them from England.But as I came hither withoutany concern with the East Indian Company, so it would be difficultto go from hence without their licence, unless with great favour ofthe captains of the ships, or the company's factors:and to both Iwas an utter stranger.Ī LITTLE while after this there came in a Dutch ship from Batavia she was a coaster, not an European trader, of about two hundredtons burden the men, as they pretended, having been so sickly thatthe captain had not hands enough to go to sea with, so he lay by atBengal and having, it seems, got money enough, or being willing,for other reasons, to go for Europe, he gave public notice he wouldsell his ship.This came to my ears before my new partner heard ofit, and I had a great mind to buy it so I went to him and told himof it.He considered a while, for he was no rash man neither andat last replied, "She is a little too big however, we will haveher."Accordingly, we bought the ship, and agreeing with themaster, we paid for her, and took possession.When we had done sowe resolved to engage the men, if we could, to join with those wehad, for the pursuing our business but, on a sudden, they havingreceived not their wages, but their share of the money, as weafterwards learned, not one of them was to be found we inquiredmuch about them, and at length were told that they were all gonetogether by land to Agra, the great city of the Mogul's residence,to proceed from thence to Surat, and then go by sea to the Gulf ofPersia.
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