ead, and said it was a long journey, and
he had no pecune to carry him thither, nor to subsist himself when he
came thither. We told him, we believed it was so, and therefore we had
resolved to do something for him, that would let him see how sensible we
were of the service he had done us; and also how agreeable he was to us;
and then I told him what we had resolved to give him here, which he
might lay out as we would do our own; and that as for his charges, if he
would go with us, we would set him safe ashore (life and casualties
excepted), either in Muscovy or in England, which he would, at our own
charge, except only the carriage of his goods.

He received the proposal like a man transported, and told us, he would
go with us over the whole world; and so, in short, we all prepared
ourselves for the journey. However, as it was with us, so it was with
the other merchants, they had many things to do; and instead of being
ready in five weeks, it was four months and some odd days before all
things were got together.

It was the beginning of February, our style, when we set out from Pekin.
My partner and the old pilot had gone express back to the port where we
had first put in, to dispose of some goods which he had left there; and
I, with a Chinese merchant, whom I had some knowledge of at Nanquin, and
who came to Pekin on his own affairs, went to Nanquin, where I bought
ninety pieces of fine damasks, with about two hundred pieces of other
very fine silks, of several sorts, some mixed with gold, and had all
these brought to Pekin against my partner's return: besides this, we
bought a very large quantity of raw silk, and some other goods; our
cargo amounting, in these goods only, to about three thousand five
hundred pounds sterling, which, together with tea, and some fine
calicoes, and three camel-loads of nutmegs and cloves, loaded in all
eighteen camels for our share, besides those we rode upon; which, with
two or three spare horses, and two horses loaded with provisions, made
us, in short, twenty-six camels and horses in our retinue.

The company was very great, and, as near as I can remember, made between
three and four hundred horses and camels, and upward of a hundred and
twenty men, very well armed, and provided for all events. For, as the
eastern caravans are subject to be attacked by the Arabs, so are these
by the Tartars; but they are not altogether so dangerous as the Arabs,
nor so barbarous when they prevail.