as they came nearer us, we were soon satisfied,
for the first vessel was that which William went in, who carried a flag
of truce; and in a few hours they all came to an anchor, and William
came on board us with a little boat, with the Chinese merchant in his
company, and two other merchants, who seemed to be a kind of brokers
for the rest.

{47} Here he gave us an account how civilly he had been used; how they
had treated him with all imaginable frankness and openness; that they
had not only given him the full value of his spices and other goods
which he carried, in gold, by good weight, but had loaded the vessel
again with such goods as he knew we were willing to trade for; and that
afterwards they had resolved to bring the great ship out of the
harbour, to lie where we were, that so we might make what bargain we
thought fit; only William said he had promised, in our name, that we
should use no violence with them, nor detain any of the vessels after
we had done trading with them. I told him we would strive to outdo
them in civility, and that we would make good every part of his
agreement; in token whereof, I caused a white flag likewise to be
spread at the poop of our great ship, which was the signal agreed on.

As to the third vessel which came with them, it was a kind of bark of
the country, who, having intelligence of our design to traffic, came
off to deal with us, bringing a good deal of gold and some provisions,
which at that time we were very glad of.

In short, we traded upon the high seas with these men, and indeed we
made a very good market, and yet sold thieves' pennyworths too. We
sold here about sixty ton of spice, chiefly cloves and nutmegs, and
above two hundred bales of European goods, such as linen and woollen
manufactures. We considered we should have occasion for some such
things ourselves, and so we kept a good quantity of English stuns,
cloth, baize, &c., for ourselves. I shall not take up any of the
little {48} room I have left here with the further particulars of our
trade; it is enough to mention, that, except a parcel of tea, and
twelve bales of fine China wrought silks, we took nothing in exchange
for our goods but gold; so that the sum we took here in that glittering
commodity amounted to above fifty thousand ounces good weight.

When we had finished our barter, we restored the hostages, and gave the
three merchants about the quantity of twelve hundredweight of nutmegs,
and as many o