eleven in number, had resolved to run away with the
ship, which they did; and had brought her in at the Bay of Bengal,
leaving the mate and five men more on shore; of whom we shall
hear farther.

Well; let them come by the ship how they would, we came honestly by her,
as we thought; though we did not, I confess, examine into things so
exactly as we ought; for we never inquired any thing of the seamen, who,
if we had examined, would certainly have faltered in their accounts,
contradicted one another, and perhaps have contradicted themselves; or,
one how or other, we should have seen reason to have suspected them: but
the man shewed us a bill of sale for the ship, to one Emanuel
Clostershoven, or some such name, (for I suppose it was all a forgery)
and called himself by that name; and we could not contradict him; and
being withal a little too unwary, or at least having no suspicion of the
thing, we went through with our bargain.

However, we picked up some English seamen here after this, and some
Dutch; and we now resolved for a second voyage to the south-east, for
cloves, &c. that is to say, among the Philippine and Malacca isles; and,
in short, not to fill this part of my story with trifles, when what is
yet to come is so remarkable, I spent, from first to last, six years in
this country, trading from port to port, backward and forward, and with
very good success; and was now the last year with my partner, going in
the ship above-mentioned, on a voyage to China; but designing first to
go to Siam, to buy rice.

In this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up and down a
great while in the Straits of Malacca, and among the islands, we were no
sooner got clear of those difficult seas, but we found our ship had
sprung a leak, and we were not able, by all our industry, to find out
where it was. This forced us to make for some port; and my partner, who
knew the country better than I did, directed the captain to put into the
river of Cambodia; for I had made the English mate, one Mr. Thompson,
captain, not being willing to take the charge of the ship upon myself.
This river lies on the north side of the great bay or gulf which goes
up to Siam.

While we were here, and going often on shore for refreshment, there
comes to me one day an Englishman, and he was, it seems, a gunner's mate
on board an English East India ship, which rode in the same river, up at
or near the city of Cambodia: what brought him hither we kn