542 PURCHASING A SHIP.

having, it seems, got money enough, or being willing, for other
reasons, to go for Europe, he gave public notice that he would sell
his ship. This came to my ears before my new partner heard of
it, and I had a great mind to buy it; so I goes home to him, and
told-him of it. He considered a while; for he was no rash man
neither; but musing some time, he replied, “She is a little too
big; but, however, we will have her.” Accordingly we bought
the ship, and agreeing with the master, we paid for her and took
possession. When we had done so, we resolved to entertain the
men, if we could, to join them with those we had, for the pursuing
our business; but on a sudden, they having received not their
wages, but their share of the money, not one of them was to be
found. We inquired much about them, and at length were told
that they were all gone together by land to Agra, the great city of
the Mogul’s residence, and from thence were to travel to Surat,
and so by sea to the Gulf of Persia.

Nothing had so heartily troubled me a good while, as that J
missed the opportunity of going with them; for such a ramble, I
thought, and in such company as would both have guarded me and
diverted me, would have suited mightily with my great design;
and I should both have seen the world and gone homewards too.
But I was much better satisfied a few days after, when I came to
know what sort of fellows they were; for, in short, their history
was, that this man they called captain was the gunner only, not
the commander; that they had been a trading voyage, in which
they were attacked on shore by some of the Malayans, who had
killed the captain and three of his men; and that after the captain
was killed, these men, eleven in number, had resolved to run away
with the ship, which they did, and brought her in at the Bay of
Bengal, leaving the mate and five men more on shore, of whom
we shall hear further.

Well, let them come by the ship how they would, we came
honestly by her, as we thought; though we did not, I confess,
examine into things so exactly as we ought, for we never inquired
anything of the seamen; who, if we had examined, would certainly
have faltered in their account, contradicted one another, and per-
haps contradicted themselves; or, somehow or other we should have