n particular which I had heard much of;
and was resolved to see as much of it as I could; and then I thought I
might say I had seen all the world that was worth seeing.

But my fellow-traveller and I had different notions: I do not name this
to insist upon my own, for I acknowledge his was most just, and the most
suited to the end of a merchant's life; who, when he is abroad upon
adventures, it is his wisdom to stick to that, as the best thing for
him, which he is like to get the most money by. My new friend kept
himself to the nature of the thing, and would have been content to have
gone, like a carrier's horse, always to the same inn, backward and
forward, provided he could, as he called it, find his account in it: on
the other hand, mine, as old as I was, 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 the most unsettled resolution imaginable, which way to go.
In the interval of these consultations, my friend, who was always upon
the search for business, proposed another voyage to me, viz. among the
Spice Islands; and to bring home a load of cloves from the Manillas, or
thereabouts; places where, indeed, the Dutch do trade, but the islands
belong partly to the Spaniards; though we went not so far, but to some
other, where they have not the whole power as they have at Batavia,
Ceylon, &c. 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 finding that really stirring about and trading, the
profit being so great, and, as I may say, certain, had more pleasure in
it, and more satisfaction to the mind, than sitting still; which, 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
islands, whose names I do not remember, and came home in about five
months. We sold our spice, which was chiefly cloves, and some nutmegs,
to the Persian merchants, who carried them away for the Gulf; and,
making near five of one, we really got a great deal of money.

My friend, when we made up this account, smiled at me: "Well now," said
he, with a sort of an agreeable insult upon my indolent temper, "is not
this better than walking about here, like a man of nothing to do, and
spending our time in staring at the nonsense and ignorace of t