by Daniel Defoe
do tohive a swarm of bees.
As this is the only excursion of this kind which I have made in all theaccount I have given of my travels, so I shall make no more descriptionsof countries and people: it is none of my business, or any part of mydesign; but giving an account of my own adventures, through a life ofinfinite wanderings, and a long variety of changes, which, perhaps, fewhave heard the like of, I shall say nothing of the mighty places, desertcountries, and numerous people, I have yet to pass through, more thanrelates to my own story, and which my concern among them will makenecessary. I was now, as near as I can compute, in the heart of China,about the latitude of thirty degrees north of the line, for we werereturned from Nanquin; I had indeed a mind to see the city of Pekin,which I had heard so much of, and Father Simon importuned me daily to doit. At length his time of going away being set, and the othermissionary, who was to go with him, being arrived from Macao, it wasnecessary that we should resolve either to go, or not to go; so Ireferred him to my partner, and left it wholly to his choice; who atlength resolved it in the affirmative; and we prepared for our journey.We set out with very good advantage, as to finding the way; for we gotleave to travel in the retinue of one of their mandarins, a kind ofviceroy, or principal magistrate, in the province where they reside, andwho take great state upon them, travelling with great attendance, andwith great homage from the people, who are sometimes greatlyimpoverished by them, because all the countries they pass through areobliged to furnish provisions for them, and all their attendants. Thatwhich I particularly observed, as to our travelling with his baggage,was this; that though we received sufficient provisions, both forourselves and our horses, from the country, as belonging to themandarin, yet we were obliged to pay for every thing we had after themarket-price of the country, and the mandarin's steward, or commissaryof the provisions, collected it duly from us; so that our travelling inthe retinue of the mandarin, though it was a very great kindness to us,was not such a mighty favour in him, but was, indeed, a great advantageto him, considering there were about thirty other people travelling inthe same manner besides us, under the protection of his retinue, or, aswe may call it, under his convoy. This, I say, was a great advantage tohim; for the country furnished all the provisions for nothing, and hetook all our money for them.
We were five-and-twenty days travelling to Pekin, through a countryinfinitely populous, but miserably cultivated; the husbandry, economy,and the way of living, all very miserable, though they boast so much ofthe industry of the people: I say miserable; and so it is; if we, whounderstand how to live, were to endure it, or to compare it with ourown; but not so to these poor wretches, who know no other. The pride ofthese people is infinitely great, and exceeded by nothing but theirpoverty, which adds to that which I call their misery. I must needsthink the naked savages of America live much more happy, because, asthey have nothing, so they desire nothing; whereas these are proud andinsolent, and, in the main, are mere beggars and drudges; theirostentation is inexpressible, and is chiefly shewed in their clothes andbuildings, and in the keeping multitudes of servants or slaves, and,which is to the last degree ridiculous, their contempt of all the worldbut themselves.
I must confess, I travelled more pleasantly afterwards, in the desertsand vast wildernesses of Grand Tartary, than here; and yet the roadshere are well paved and well kept, and very convenient for travellers:but nothing was more awkward to me, than to see such a haughty,imperious, insolent people, in the midst of the grossest simplicity andignorance; for all their famed ingenuity is no more. My friend FatherSimon, and I, used to be very merry upon these occasions, to see thebeggarly pride of those people. For example, coming by the house of acountry-gentleman, as Father Simon called him, about ten leagues offfrom the city of Nanquin, we had, first of all, the honour to ride withthe master of the house about two miles; the state he rode in was aperfect Don Quixotism, being a mixture of pomp and poverty.
The habit of this greasy Don was very proper for a scaramouch, ormerry-andrew; being a dirty calico, with all the tawdry trappings of afool's coat, such as hanging sleeves, taffety, and cuts and slashesalmost on every side: it covered a rich taffety vest, as greasy as abutcher, and which testified, that his honour must needs be a mostexquisite sloven.
His horse was a poor, lean, starved, hobbling creature, such as inEngland might sell for about thirty or forty shillings; and he had twoslaves followed him on foot, to drive the poor creature along: he had awhip in his hand, and he belaboured the beast as fast about the head ashis slaves did about the tail; and thus he rode by us with about ten ortwelve servants; and we were told he was going from the city to hiscountry-seat, about half a league before us. We travelled on gently, butthis figure of a gentleman rode away before us; and as we stopped at avillage about an hour to refresh us, when we came by the country-seat ofthis great man, we saw him in a little place before his door, eating hisrepast; it was a kind of a garden, but he was easy to be seen; and wewere given to understand, that the more we looked on him, the better hewould be pleased.
He sat under a tree, something like the palmetto-tree, which effectuallyshaded him over the head, and on the south side; but under the tree alsowas placed a large umbrella, which made that part look well enough: hesat lolling back in a great elbow-chair, being a heavy corpulent man,and his meat being brought him by two women-slaves: he had two more,whose office, I think, few gentlemen in Europe would accept of theirservice in, viz. one fed the squire with a spoon, and the other held thedish with one hand, and scraped off what he let fall upon his worship'sbeard and taffety vest, with the other; while the great fat brutethought it below him to employ his own hands in any of those familiaroffices, which kings and monarchs would rather do than be troubled withthe clumsy fingers of their servants.
I took this time to think what pain men's pride puts them to, and howtroublesome a haughty temper, thus ill-managed, must be to a man ofcommon sense; and, leaving the poor wretch to please himself with ourlooking at him, as if we admired his pomp, whereas we really pitied andcontemned him, we pursued our journey: only Father Simon had thecuriosity to stay to inform himself what dainties the country justicehad to feed on, in all his state; which he said he had the honour totaste of, and which was, I think, a dose that an English hound wouldscarce have eaten, if it had been offered him, viz. a mess of boiledrice, with a great piece of garlick in it, and a little bag filled withgreen pepper, and another plant which they have there, something likeour ginger, but smelling like musk and tasting like mustard: all thiswas put together, and a small lump or piece of lean mutton boiled in it;and this was his worship's repast, four or five servants more attendingat a distance. If he fed them meaner than he was fed himself, the spiceexcepted, they must fare very coarsely indeed.
As for our mandarin with whom we travelled, he was respected like aking; surrounded always with his gentlemen, and attended in all hisappearances with such pomp, that I saw little of him but at a distance;but this I observed, that there was not a horse in his retinue, but thatour carriers' pack-horses in England seem to me to look much better; butthey were so covered with equipage, mantles, trappings, and such-liketrumpery, that you cannot see whether they are fat or lean. In a word,we could scarce see any thing but their feet and their heads.
I was now light-hearted, and all my trouble and perplexity that I hadgiven an account of being over, I had no anxious thoughts about me;which made this journey much the pleasanter to me; nor had I any illaccident attended me, only in the passing or fording a small river, myhorse fell, and made me free of the country, as they call it; that is tosay, threw me in: the place was not deep, but it wetted me all over: Imention it, because it spoiled my pocket-book, wherein I had set downthe names of several people and places which I had occasion to remember,and which not taking due care of, the leaves rotted, and the words werenever after to be read, to my great loss, as to the names of some placeswhich I touched at in this voyage.
At length we arrived at Pekin; I had nobody with me but the youth, whommy nephew the captain had gi
ven me to attend me as a servant, and whoproved very trusty and diligent; and my partner had nobody with him butone servant, who was a kinsman. As for the Portuguese pilot, he beingdesirous to see the court, we gave him his passage, that is to say, borehis charges for his company; and to use him as an interpreter, for heunderstood the language of the country, and spoke good French and alittle English; and, indeed, this old man was a most useful implement tous every where; for we had not been above a week at Pekin, when he camelaughing: "Ah, Seignior Inglese," said he, "I have something to tellyou, will make your heart glad."--"My heart glad," said I; "what canthat be? I don't know any thing in this country can either give me joyor grief, to any great degree."--"Yes, yes," said the old man, in brokenEnglish, "make you glad, me sorrow;" sorry, he would have said. Thismade me more inquisitive. "Why," said I, "will it make