man, speaking English to admiration, and had a
monstrous pretty Housekeeper, with eyes as bright as her own Pots and
Pans), by Consent of our Council we discharged such men as we had
shipped at Batavia and the Cape, and sold the half-dozen Negroes we had
from time to time picked up for about a Hundred Dollars apiece. But this
last had to be managed by private Contract, and somewhat under the Rose;
for their High Mightinesses, the States-General, allow no Slaves to be
sold openly in Amsterdam.

On the 10th we went up to the Vlieder, which is a better Road than the
Texel, and then to Amsterdam again, where Captain Blokes and his chief
officers had to make Affidavits before a Notary Public to the truth of
an Abstract of our Voyage, the which I had drawn up from the Log of the
_Marquis_, to justify our proceedings to our own Government in answer to
what the East India Company had to allege against us; they being, as we
were informed, resolved to trouble us on pretence that we had Encroached
upon their Charter. On the 31st August comes Mr. Vandepeereboom on board
to take Account of what Plate, Gold, and Pearl was in the Ship; and on
the 5th September he took his leave of us.

But not of me; for as I had been much with him ever since we had lain at
Amsterdam, we had become great Chums, and he had persuaded me not to
return just yet to England, but to remain with him in Holland, and
become his partner in Mercantile Adventure, that should not necessitate
my going to Sea again. And by this time, to tell truth, I was heartily
sick of being Tossed and Tumbled about by the Waves. No man could say
that I had not done my Duty during my momentous Voyage round the World.
I had worked as hard as any Moose on board the _Marquis_, doing
hand-work and head-work as well. I had been Wounded, had had two Fevers
and one bout of Scurvy; but was seldom in such evil case as to shirk
either my Duty or my Grog. I prudently redoubted the Chances of
returning in haste to my native Country, for, although being alone in
the world, and the marriage with Madam Taffetas not provable in Law,
with no other Domestic Troubles to grieve me, I knew from long
experience what Ducks and Drakes Seafaring men do make of their money
coming home from a long voyage with their heads empty and their pockets
full, and was determined that what I had painfully gathered from the
uttermost Ends of the Earth should not be riotously and unprofitably
squandered in the Taverns o