o be false; yet, as my partner said, very justly, if we had
fallen into their hands, and they had had such a prepossession against us
beforehand, it had been in vain for us to have defended ourselves, or to
hope for any good quarter at their hands; especially considering that our
accusers had been our judges, and that we could have expected nothing
from them but what rage would have dictated, and an ungoverned passion
have executed. Therefore it was his opinion we should go directly back
to Bengal, from whence we came, without putting in at any port
whatever--because where we could give a good account of ourselves, could
prove where we were when the ship put in, of whom we bought her, and the
like; and what was more than all the rest, if we were put upon the
necessity of bringing it before the proper judges, we should be sure to
have some justice, and not to be hanged first and judged afterwards.

I was some time of my partner's opinion; but after a little more serious
thinking, I told him I thought it was a very great hazard for us to
attempt returning to Bengal, for that we were on the wrong side of the
Straits of Malacca, and that if the alarm was given, we should be sure to
be waylaid on every side--that if we should be taken, as it were, running
away, we should even condemn ourselves, and there would want no more
evidence to destroy us. I also asked the English sailor's opinion, who
said he was of my mind, and that we certainly should be taken. This
danger a little startled my partner and all the ship's company, and we
immediately resolved to go away to the coast of Tonquin, and so on to the
coast of China--and pursuing the first design as to trade, find some way
or other to dispose of the ship, and come back in some of the vessels of
the country such as we could get. This was approved of as the best
method for our security, and accordingly we steered away NNE., keeping
above fifty leagues off from the usual course to the eastward. This,
however, put us to some inconvenience: for, first, the winds, when we
came that distance from the shore, seemed to be more steadily against us,
blowing almost trade, as we call it, from the E. and ENE., so that we
were a long while upon our voyage, and we were but ill provided with
victuals for so long a run; and what was still worse, there was some
danger that those English and Dutch ships whose boats pursued us, whereof
some were bound that way, might have got in before us, an