by Daniel Defoe
trading and bartering,though, from supercilious punctilio, we had in a manner been denied it.
The next day the captain went on shore to visit the governor, and withhim several of our officers; and the captain of the Madagascar ship,formerly my second mate, and the captain of the brigantine. I did not gomyself for that time, nor the supercargo, because, whatever mighthappen, I would be reserved on board; besides, I did not care to appearin this part of the business.
The captain went on shore like a captain, attended with his twotrumpeters, and the ship firing eleven guns at his going off. Thegovernor received him like himself, with prodigious state and formality;sending five gentlemen and a guard of soldiers to receive him and hismen at their landing, and to conduct them to his palace.
When they came there they were entertained with the utmost profusion andmagnificence, after the Spanish manner; and they all had the honour todine with his excellence; that is to say, all the officers. At the sametime the men were entertained very handsomely in another house, and hadvery good cheer; but it was observed that they had but very little wine,except such as we had sent them, which the governor apologised for, bysaying his store, which he had yearly from New Spain, was nearly spent.This deficiency we supplied the next day by sending him a quarter caskof very good Canary, and half a hogshead of Madeira; which was a presentso acceptable, that, in short, after this, we might do just as wepleased with him and all his men.
While they were thus conversing together after dinner, Captain Merlottewas made to understand, that though the governor could not admit an openavowed trade, yet that the merchants would not be forbid coming on boardour ship, and trading with us in such manner as we should be very wellsatisfied with; after which, we should be at no hazard of getting thegoods we should sell put on shore; and we had an experiment of this madein a few days, as follows:
When Captain Merlotte took his leave of the governor, he invited hisexcellence to come on board our ship, with such of his attendants as hepleased to bring with him, and in like manner offered hostages for hisreturn. The governor accepted the invitation, and with the samegenerosity, said he would take his parole of honour given, as he was theKing of France's captain, and would come on board.
The governor did not come to the shore side with our people; but stoodin the window of the palace, and gave them the compliment of his hat andleg at their going into their boats, and made a signal to the platform,to fire eleven guns at their boats putting off.
These were unusual and unexpected honours to us, who, but for thisstratagem of the French commission, had been declared enemies. It wassuggested to me here, that I might with great ease surprise the wholeisland, nay, all the islands, the governor putting such confidence inus, that we might go on shore in the very fort unsuspected. But thoughthis was true, and that we did play them a trick at the Rio de laPlata, I could not bear the thoughts of it here; besides, I had quiteanother game to play, which would turn out more advantageous to us andto our voyage, than an enterprise of so much treachery could be toEngland, which also we might not be able to support from thence, beforethe Spaniards might beat us out again from Acapulco, and then we mightpass our time ill enough.
Upon the whole, I resolved to keep every punctilio with the governorvery justly, and we found our account in it presently.
About three days afterwards we had notice that the governor would pay usa visit, and we prepared to entertain his excellence with as much stateas possible. By the way, we had private notice that the governor wouldbring with him some merchants, who, perhaps, might lay out some money,and buy some of our cargo; nor was it without a secret intimation thateven the governor himself was concerned in the market that should bemade.
Upon this intelligence, our supercargo caused several bales of Englishand French goods to be brought up and opened, and laid so in thesteerage and upon the quarter-deck of the ship, that the governor andhis attendants should see them of course as they passed by.
When the boats came off from the shore, which we knew by their fortfiring eleven guns, our ship appeared as fine as we could make her,having the French flag at the main-top, as admiral, and streamers andpendants at the yard-arms, waste cloths out, and a very fine awning overthe quarter-deck. When his excellency entered the ship, we firedone-and-twenty guns, the Madagascar ship fired the like number, and thebrigantine fifteen, having loaded her guns nimbly enough to fire twice.
As the governor's entertainment to us was more meat than liquor, so wegave him more liquor than meat; for, as we had several sorts of verygood wines on board, we spared nothing to let him see he was verywelcome. After dinner we brought a large bowl of punch upon the table, aliquor he was a stranger to: however, to do him justice, he drank verymoderately, and so did most of those that were with him. As to the menthat belonged to his retinue, I mean servants and attendants, and thecrews of the boats, we made some of them drunk enough.
While this was doing, two gentlemen of the governor's company tookoccasion to leave the rest and walk about the ship; and, in so doing,they seemed, as it were by chance, to cast their eyes upon our bales ofcloth and stuffs, baize, linen, silks, &c, and our supercargo and theybegan to make bargains apace, for he found they had not only moneyenough, but had abundance of other things which we were as willing totake as money, and of which they had brought specimens with them; asparticularly spices, such as cloves and nutmegs; also China ware, tea,japanned ware, wrought silks, raw silk, and the like.
However, our supercargo dealt with them at present for nothing but readymoney, and they paid all in gold: the price he made here, was to usindeed extravagant, though to them moderate, seeing they had been usedto buy these goods from the Acapulco ships, which came in yearly, fromwhom to be sure they bought them dear enough. They bought as many goodsat this time as they paid the value of fifteen thousand pieces of eightfor, but all in gold by weight.
As for carrying our goods on shore, the governor, being present, noofficer had anything to say to them; so they were carried on shore aspresents, made by us to the governor and his retinue.
The next day three Spanish merchants came on board us, early in themorning, before it was light, and desired to see the supercargo. Theybrought with them a box of diamonds and some pearl, and a great quantityof gold, and to work they went with our cargo, and I thought once theywould have bought the whole ship's loading; but they contentedthemselves to buy about the value of two-and-twenty thousand pieces ofeight, which did not cost, in England, one-sixth part of the money.
We had some difficulty about the diamonds, because we did not understandthe worth of them, but our supercargo ventured upon them at ten thousandpieces of eight, and took the rest in gold. They desired to stay onboard till the next night, when, soon after it was dark, a small sloopcame on board and took in all their goods, and, as we were told, carriedthem away to some other island.
The same day, and before these merchants were gone, came a large shallopon board with a square sail, towing after her a great heavy boat, whichhad a deck, but seemed to have been a large ship's long-boat, builtinto a kind of yacht, but ill masted, and sailed heavily. In these twoboats they brought seven tons of cloves in mats, some chests of Chinaware, some pieces of China silks, of several sorts, and a great sum ofmoney also.
In short, the merchants sold so cheap and bought so dear, that oursupercargo declared he would sell the whole cargo for goods, if theywould bring them, for, by his calculation, he had disposed of as manygoods as he received the value of one hundred thousand pieces of eightfor, all which, by his accounts, did not amount to, first cost, abovethree thousand pounds sterling in England.
Our ship was now an open fair; for, two or three days after, came thevessel back which went away in the night, and with them a Chinese junk,and seven or eight Chinese or Japanners; strange, ugly, ill-lookingfellows they were, but brought a Spaniard to be their interpreter, andthey came to trade also, bringing with them seventy great chests ofChina ware exceeding fine, twelve chests of China silks of severalsorts, and some lackered cab
inets, very fine. We dealt with them for allthose, for our supercargo left nothing, he took everything they brought.Our traders were more difficult to please than we: for as for baize anddruggets, and such goods, they would not meddle with them; but our finecloths and some bales of linen they bought very freely. So we unloadedtheir vessel and put our goods on board. We took a good sum of money ofthem besides; but whither they went we knew not, for they both came andwent in the night too, as the other did.
This trade held a good while, and we found that our customers came morefrom other islands than from the island where the governor resided; thereason of which, as we understood afterwards, was, because, as thegovernor had not openly granted a freedom of commerce, but privatelywinked at it, so they were not willing to carry it on openly before hisface, or, as we say, under his nose; whereas, in other islands, theycould convey their goods on shore with very little hazard, agreeing withthe custom-house officer for a small matter.
These boats came and went