by Daniel Defoe
set in; blowing like a kindof monsoon, or trade-wind, though in those latitudes I know there is nosuch thing properly called, as a trade-wind.
We tried, the wind abating, to beat up again to the north, and we didso; but it was by running a great way to the east; and once, I believe,we were in the longitude of St. Helena, though so far south, but it costus infinite labour, and near six weeks' time. At length we made thecoast, and arrived again at the Port of St. Julian the 20th of June,which, by the way, is the depth of their winter.
Here we resolved to lay up for the winter, and not attempt to go so farsouth again at that time of the year, but our eager desire of pursuingour voyage prevailed, and we put out to sea again, having taken in freshprovisions, such as are to be had there; that is to say, seals,penguins, and such like, and with this recruit we put to sea, I say, asecond time.
We had this time worse luck than we had before; for, the wind setting inat south-west, blew a storm, and drove us with such force away to seaeastward, that we were never able to make any way to the southward atall, but were carried away with a continued storm of wind, from the samecorner, or near it. Our pilot, or master, as we called him, findinghimself often obliged to go away before it, which kept us out long atsea, and drove us far to the north-east, eastward, that he advised us tostand away for the Cape of Good Hope; and accordingly we did so, andarrived there the last day of July.
We were now disheartened indeed, and I began to revive my proposal ofgoing to the East Indies, as I at first proposed; and to answer theobjection which they then made against it, as being against the natureof trade, and that we had nothing on board but European goods, whichwere not fitted for the East Indies, where money only was suitable tothe market we were to make; I say, to answer this objection, I told themI would engage that I would sell our whole cargo at the PhilippineIslands as well as on the coast of America; for that those islands beingSpanish, our disguise of being French would serve us as well at thePhilippines, as it would in New Spain; and with this particularadvantage, that we should sell here for four times the value we shouldon the coast of Chili, or Peru; and that, when we had done, we couldload our ship again there, or in other places in the Indies, with suchgoods as would come to a good market again in New Spain.
This I told them was indeed what had not been practised, nor at anyother time would it be practicable: for as it was not usual for anyships to go from the East Indies to the Philippines, so neither was itusual for any European ships to trade with freedom in the South Seas,till, since the late war, when the French had the privilege; and I couldnot but be amazed that the French had never gone this way, where theymight have made three or four voyages in one, and with much less hazardof meeting with the English or Dutch cruisers; and have made twice theprofits which they made the other way, where they were frequently outthree or four years upon one return; whereas here they might make noless than three returns, or perhaps four, in the same voyage and in muchless time.
They were now a little surprised, for in all our first debates we hadnothing of this matter brought in question; only they entertained anotion that I was going upon strange projects to make discoveries,search for the South pole, plant new colonies, and I know not how manywhims of their own, which were neither in my design, or in myinstructions. The person, therefore, who was our supercargo, and theother captain, whose name I have not mentioned, together with the FrenchCaptain, Merlotte, and the rest, who had all opposed me before, camecheerfully into my proposal; only the supercargo told me, in the name ofthe rest, that he began to be more sensible of the advantages of thevoyage I had proposed, than he was before; but that, as he was equallyintrusted with me in the government of the trading part, he begged Iwould not take it ill, that he desired I would let him farther into thatparticular, and explain myself, at least as far as I thought proper.
This was so just a request, and so easy for me to do, and, above all,was made with so much good manners and courtesy, that I told him, if Ihad been otherwise determined, the courteous and good-humoured way withwhich he required it, would constrain me to it; but that, however, I wasvery ready to do it, as he was intrusted with the cargo jointly with me,and that it was a piece of justice to the owners, that whom they thoughtfit to trust I should trust also; upon this I told him my scheme, whichwas as follows:
First, I said, that, as the Philippine Islands received all theirEuropean goods from Acapulco, in America, by the king of Spain's ships,they were obliged to give what price was imposed upon them by themerchants, who brought those goods by so many stages to Acapulco. Forexample, the European goods, or suppose English goods in particular,with which they were loaden, went first from England to Cadiz, fromCadiz by the galleons to Porto Bello, from Porto Bello, to Panama, fromPanama to Acapulco; in all which places the merchants had their severalcommissions and other profits upon the sale; besides the extravagantcharges of so many several ways of carriage, some by water, some byland, and besides the king's customs in all those places; and that,after all this, they were brought by sea from Acapulco to the PhilippineIslands, which was a prodigious voyage, and were then generally sold inthe Philippine Islands at three hundred per cent. advance.
That, in the room of all this, our cargo being well bought and wellsorted, would come to the Philippine Islands at once, without anylanding or re-landing, and without any of all the additions of charge tothe first cost, as those by the way of New Spain had upon them; so that,if we were to sell them at the Philippine Islands a hundred per cent.cheaper than the Spaniards usually sold, yet we should get abundantlymore than we could on the coast of Peru, though we had been allowed afree trade there.
That there were but two objections to this advantage, and these were,our liberty of trading, and whether the place would consume the quantityof goods we had; and to this I had much to answer. First, that it waswell known at the Philippine Isles, that the kings of France and Spainwere united firmly together; that the king of Spain had allowed the kingof France's subjects a free trade in his American dominions, andconsequently, that it would not be denied there; but, on the other hand,that, if it was denied by the governor, yet there would be room to findout a trade with the inhabitants, and especially with the Chinese andJapan merchants, who were always there, which trade the governor couldnot prevent; and thus we could not fear a market for all our cargo, ifit was much greater than it was.
That as to the returns, we had the advantage either way: for, first, weshould be sure to receive a great part of the price of our goods inChinese or Japan gold and silver, or in pieces of eight; or, if wethought fit to trade another way, we might take on board such a quantityof China damasks, and other wrought silks, muslins and chintz, Chinaware, and Japan ware; all which, would be immediately sold in America;that we should carry a cargo of these goods to New Spain, infinitely toour advantage, being the same cargo which the four great Acapulco shipscarry back with them every year: That when we had gone to the South Seaswith this cargo, of which we knew we should make a good market, we hadnothing to do but to come back, if we thought fit, to the East Indiesagain, where we might load for England or Flanders such goods as wethought proper; or, if we did not think fit to take so great a run, wemight go away to the south, and round by Cape Horn into the AtlanticOcean, and perfect those discoveries, which we made part of in thebeginning of our voyage.
This was so clear a scheme of trade, that he seemed surprised with it,and fully satisfied in every part of it. But the captain then objectedagainst the length of the voyage to the South Seas from the Philippines,and raised several scruples about the latitude which we should keep insuch a voyage; that we should not be able to carry any provisions whichwe could take on board in those hot countries, that would keep for solong a run, and several other difficulties; to all which I made answer,that when we had sold our cargo at the Philippines, and found ouradvantages there to answer our desires, I would not oppose our returningfrom thence directly to England if they found it needful; or, if theythought a farther adventure would not answer the risks we were to exp
ectin it, we would never have any dispute about that.
This satisfied them fully, and they went immediately with the news tothe men, as what they thought would please them wonderfully, seeing theywere mighty uneasy but two or three days before, about their being to goback again to the south of America, and the latitude of 64 deg., where wehad not only been twice driven back, as if heaven had forbidden us topass that way, but had been driven so far to the south, that we had metwith a most severe cold, and which pinched our men exceedingly, whobeing come, as we might say, a hot-weather voyage, were but illfurnished for the state of the air usual in the latitudes of 64 deg..
But we had a harder task to go through than we expected, upon thisoccasion; and it may stand here upon record, as a buoy or beacon to warnofficers and commanders of ships, supercargoes, and such as are trustedin the conduct of the voyage, never to have any disputes amongthemselves, (I say not among themselves), about the course they shalltake,