t an equal
distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of China where our
European ships usually come; being resolved, if possible, not to fall
into any of their hands, especially in this country, where, as our
circumstances were, we could not fail of being entirely ruined. Being
now come to the latitude of 30 degrees, we resolved to put into the first
trading port we should come at; and standing in for the shore, a boat
came of two leagues to us with an old Portuguese pilot on board, who,
knowing us to be an European ship, came to offer his service, which,
indeed, we were glad of and took him on board; upon which, without asking
us whither we would go, he dismissed the boat he came in, and sent it
back. I thought it was now so much in our choice to make the old man
carry us whither we would, that I began to talk to him about carrying us
to the Gulf of Nankin, which is the most northern part of the coast of
China. The old man said he knew the Gulf of Nankin very well; but
smiling, asked us what we would do there? I told him we would sell our
cargo and purchase China wares, calicoes, raw silks, tea, wrought silks,
&c.; and so we would return by the same course we came. He told us our
best port would have been to put in at Macao, where we could not have
failed of a market for our opium to our satisfaction, and might for our
money have purchased all sorts of China goods as cheap as we could at
Nankin.

Not being able to put the old man out of his talk, of which he was very
opinionated or conceited, I told him we were gentlemen as well as
merchants, and that we had a mind to go and see the great city of Pekin,
and the famous court of the monarch of China. "Why, then," says the old
man, "you should go to Ningpo, where, by the river which runs into the
sea there, you may go up within five leagues of the great canal. This
canal is a navigable stream, which goes through the heart of that vast
empire of China, crosses all the rivers, passes some considerable hills
by the help of sluices and gates, and goes up to the city of Pekin, being
in length near two hundred and seventy leagues."--"Well," said I,
"Seignior Portuguese, but that is not our business now; the great
question is, if you can carry us up to the city of Nankin, from whence we
can travel to Pekin afterwards?" He said he could do so very well, and
that there was a great Dutch ship gone up that way just before. This
gave me a little shock, for a Dutch