650 MAKING FOR THE COAST OF TONQUIN,

with the ship sold her at Bengal to a set of pirates, which were
gone a-cruising in her, and that they had already taken an English
ship and two Dutch ships very richly laden.

This latter part we found to concern us directly, and though we
knew it to be false, yet, as my partner said very well, if we had
fallen into their hands, and they had had such a prepossession
against us beforehand, it had been in vain for us to have defended
ourselves, or to hope for any good quarter at their hands; and
especially considering that our accusers had been our judges, and
that we could have expected nothing from them but what rage
would have dictated and an ungoverned passion have executed.
And, therefore, it was his opinion we should go directly back to
Berval, from whence we came, without putting in at any port
whatever; because there we could give a good account of ourselves,
could prove where we were when the ship put in, whom we bought
her of, and the like; and, which was more than all the rest, if we
were put to the necessity of bringing it before the proper judges,
we should be sure to have some justice, and not be hanged first
and judged afterwards.

T was some time of my partner’s opinion, but, after a little more
serious thinking, I told him I thought it was a very great hazard
for us to attempt returning to Bengal, for that we were on the
wrong side of the Straits of Malacca; and that, if the alarm was
wiven, we should be sure to be waylaid on every side, as well by
the Dutch of Batavia as the English elsewhere: that if we should
be taken, as it were running away, we should even condemn our-
selves, and there would want no more evidence to destroy us. I
also asked the English sailor’s opinion, who said he was of my
mind, and that we should certainly be taken.

This danger a little startled my partner and all the ship’s com-
pany, and we immediately resolved to go away to the coast of
Tonquin, and so on to the coast of China, and pursuing the first
design as to trade, find some way or other to dispose of the ship,
and come back in some of the vessels of the country, such as we
could get. This was approved of as the best method for our
security ; and accordingly we steered away north-north-east, keep:
ing above filty leagues off from the usual course to the eastward.