he never left us, nor soliciting us to
go with him, but we had something else before us at that time; for we
had all this while our ship and our merchandise to dispose of; and we
began to be very doubtful what we should do, for we were now in a place
of very little business; and once I was about to venture to sail for
the river of Kilam, and the city of Nanquin: but Providence seemed now
more visibly, as I thought, than ever, to concern itself in our affairs;
and I was encouraged from this very time to think I should, one way or
other, get out of this entangled circumstance, and be brought home to my
own country again, though I had not the least view of the manner; and
when I began sometimes to think of it, could not imagine by what method
it was to be done. Providence, I say, began here to clear up our way a
little; and the first thing that offered was, that our old Portuguese
pilot brought a Japan merchant to us, who began to inquire what goods we
had; and, in the first place, he bought all our opium, and gave us a
very good price for it, paying us in gold by weight, some in small
pieces of their own coin, and some in small wedges, of about ten or
eleven ounces each. While we were dealing with him for our opium, it
came into my head that he might, perhaps, deal with us for the ship too;
and I ordered the interpreter to propose it to him. He shrunk up his
shoulders at it, when it was first proposed to him; but in a few days
after he came to me, with one of the missionary priests for his
interpreter, and told me he had a proposal to make to me, and that was
this: he had bought a great quantity of goods of us when he had no
thoughts (or proposals made to him) of buying the ship, and that,
therefore, he had not money enough to pay for the ship; but if I would
let the same men who were in the ship navigate her, he would hire the
ship to go to Japan, and would send them from thence to the Philippine
islands with another loading, which he would pay the freight of before
they went from Japan; and that, at their return, he would buy the ship.
I began to listen to this proposal; and so eager did my head still run
upon rambling, that I could not but begin to entertain a notion myself
of going with him, and so to sail from the Philippine islands away to
the South Seas; and accordingly I asked the Japanese merchant if he
would not hire us to the Philippine islands, and discharge us there. He
said, no, he could not do that, for then