low-traveller and I had different notions: I acknowledge his
were the more suited to the end of a merchant's life: who, when he is
abroad upon adventures, is wise to stick to that, as the best thing for
him, which he is likely to get the most money by. On the other hand,
mine was the notion of a mad, rambling boy, that never cares to see a
thing twice over. But this was not all: I had a kind of impatience upon
me to be nearer home, and yet an unsettled resolution which way to go. In
the interval of these consultations, my friend, who was always upon the
search for business, proposed another voyage among the Spice Islands, to
bring home a loading of cloves from the Manillas, or thereabouts.

We were not long in preparing for this voyage; the chief difficulty was
in bringing me to come into it. However, at last, nothing else offering,
and as sitting still, to me especially, was the unhappiest part of life,
I resolved on this voyage too, which we made very successfully, touching
at Borneo and several other islands, and came home in about five months,
when we sold our spices, with very great profit, to the Persian
merchants, who carried them away to the Gulf. My friend, when we made up
this account, smiled at me: "Well, now," said he, with a sort of friendly
rebuke on my indolent temper, "is not this better than walking about
here, like a man with nothing to do, and spending our time in staring at
the nonsense and ignorance of the Pagans?"--"Why, truly," said I, "my
friend, I think it is, and I begin to be a convert to the principles of
merchandising; but I must tell you, by the way, you do not know what I am
doing; for if I once conquer my backwardness, and embark heartily, old as
I am, I shall harass you up and down the world till I tire you; for I
shall pursue it so eagerly, I shall never let you lie still."

CHAPTER XI--WARNED OF DANGER BY A COUNTRYMAN

A little while after this there came in a Dutch ship from Batavia; she
was a coaster, not an European trader, of about two hundred tons burden;
the men, as they pretended, having been so sickly that the captain had
not hands enough to go to sea with, so he lay by at Bengal; and having,
it seems, got money enough, or being willing, for other reasons, to go
for Europe, he gave public notice he would sell his ship. This came to
my ears before my new partner heard of it, and I had a great mind to buy
it; so I went to him and told him of it. He considered a whi