The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

At length we arrived at Pekin; I had nobody with me but the youth, whom my nephew the captain had given me to attend me as a servant, and who proved very trusty and diligent; and my partner had nobody with him but one servant, who was a kinsman. As for the Portuguese pilot, he being desirous to see the court, we gave him his passage, that is to say, bore his charges for his company; and to use him as an interpreter, for he understood the language of the country, and spoke good French and a little English; and, indeed, this old man was a most useful implement to us every where; for we had not been above a week at Pekin, when he came laughing: "Ah, Seignior Inglese," said he, "I have something to tell you, will make your heart glad." – "My heart glad," said I; "what can that be? I don't know any thing in this country can either give me joy or grief, to any great degree." – "Yes, yes," said the old man, in broken English, "make you glad, me sorrow;" sorry, he would have said. This made me more inquisitive. "Why," said I, "will it make you sorry?" – "Because," said he, "you have brought me here twenty-five days journey, and will leave me to go back alone; and which way shall I get to my port afterwards, without a ship, without a horse, without pecune?" so he called money; being his broken Latin, of which he had abundance to make us merry with.

In short, he told us there was a great caravan of Muscovy and Polish merchants in the city, and that they were preparing to set out on their journey, by land, to Muscovy, within four or five weeks, and he was sure we would take the opportunity to go with them, and leave him behind to go back alone. I confess I was surprised with this news: a secret joy spread itself over my whole soul, which I cannot describe, and never felt before or since; and I had no power, for a good while, to speak a word to the old man; but at last I turned to him: "How do you know this?" said I: "are you sure it is true?" – "Yes," he said, "I met this morning in the street an old acquaintance of mine, an Armenian, or one you call a Grecian, who is among them; he came last from Astracan, and was designing to go to Tonquin; where I formerly knew him, but has altered his mind, and is now resolved to go back with the caravan to Moscow, and so down the river of Wolga to Astracan." – "Well, Seignior," said I, "do not be uneasy about being left to go back alone; if this be a method for my return to England, it shall be your fault if you go back to Macao at all." We then went to consult together what was to be done, and I asked my partner what he thought of the pilot's news, and whether it would suit with his affairs: he told me he would do just as I would; for he had settled all his affairs so well at Bengal, and left his effects in such good hands, that as we made a good voyage here, if he could vest it in China silks, wrought and raw, such as might be worth the carriage, he would be content to go to England, and then make his voyage back to Bengal by the Company's ships.

Having resolved upon this, we agreed, that, if our Portuguese pilot would go with us, we would bear his charges to Moscow, or to England, if he pleased; nor, indeed, were we to be esteemed over-generous in that part neither, if we had not rewarded him farther; for the service he had done us was really worth all that, and more; for he had not only been a pilot to us at sea, but he had been also like a broker for us on shore; and his procuring for us the Japan merchant was some hundreds of pounds in our pockets. So we consulted together about it; and, being willing to gratify him, which was, indeed, but doing him justice, and very willing also to have him with us besides, for he was a most necessary man on all occasions, we agreed to give him a quantity of coined gold, which, as I compute it, came to about one hundred and seventy-five pounds sterling between us, and to bear his charges, both for himself and horse, except only a horse to carry his goods.

Having settled this among ourselves, we called him to let him know what we had resolved: I told him, he had complained of our being like to let him go back alone, and I was now to tell him we were resolved he should not go back at all: that as we had resolved to go to Europe with the caravan, we resolved also he should go with us, and that we called him to know his mind. He shook his head, 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.

The company consisted of people of several nations, such as Muscovites chiefly; for there were about sixty of them who were merchants or inhabitants of Moscow, though of them some were Livonians; and to our particular satisfaction, five of them were Scots, who appeared also to be men of great experience in business, and very good substance.

When we had travelled one day's journey, the guides, who were five in number, called all the gentlemen and merchants, that is to say, all the passengers, except the servants, to a great council, as they termed it. At this great council every one deposited a certain quantity of money to a common stock, for the necessary expense of buying forage on the way where it was not otherwise to be had, and for satisfying the guides, getting horses, and the like. And here they constituted the journey, as they called it, viz. they named captains and officers to draw us all up and give the command in case of an attack; and give every one their turn of command. Nor was this forming us into order any more than what we found needful upon the way, as shall be observed in its place.

The road all on this side of the country is very populous, and is full of potters and earth makers; that is to say, people that tempered the earth for the China ware; and, as I was going along, our Portuguese pilot, who had always something or other to say to make us merry, came sneering to me, and told me, he would shew the greatest rarity in all the country; and that I should have this to say of China, after all the ill humoured things I had said of it, that I had seen one thing which was not to be seen in all the world beside. I was very importunate to know what it was; at last he told me, it was a gentleman's house, built all with China ware. "Well," said I, "are not the materials of their building the product of their own country; and so it is all China ware, is it not?" – "No, no," says he, "I mean, it is a house all made of China ware, such as you call so in England; or, as it is called in our country, porcelain." – "Well," said I, "such a thing may be: how big is it? can we carry it in a box upon a camel? If we can, we will buy it." – "Upon a camel!" said the old pilot, holding up both his hands; "why, there is a family of thirty people lives in it."

I was then curious, indeed, to see it; and when I came to see it, it was nothing but this: it was a timber house, or a house built, as we call it in England, with lath and plaster, but all the plastering was really China ware, that is to say, it was plastered with the earth that makes China ware.

The outside, which the sun shone hot upon, was glazed, and looked very well, perfectly white, and painted with blue figures, as the large China ware in England is painted, and hard, as if it had been burnt. As to the inside, all the walls, instead of wainscot, were lined with hardened and painted tiles, like the little square tiles we call gally tiles in England, all made of the finest china, and the figures exceeding fine indeed, with extraordinary variety of colours, mixed with gold, many tiles making but one figure, but joined so artificially with mortar, being made of the same earth, that it was very hard to see where the tiles met. The floors of the rooms were of the same composition, and as hard as the earthen floors we have in use in several parts of England, especially Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, &c. as hard as stone, and smooth, but not burnt and painted, except some smaller rooms, like closets, which were all, as it were, paved with the same tile: the ceilings, and, in a word, all the plastering work in the whole house, were of the same earth; and, after all, the roof was covered with tiles of the same, but of a deep shining black.

This was a china warehouse indeed, truly and lite rally to be called so; and had I not been upon the journey, I could have staid some days to see and examine the particulars of it. They told me there were fountains and fish-ponds in the garden, all paved at the bottom and sides with the same, and fine statues set up in rows on the walks, entirely formed of the porcelain earth, and burnt whole.

As this is one of the singularities of China, so they may be allowed to excel in it; but I am very sure they excel in their accounts of it; for they told me such incredible things of their performance in crockery-ware, for such it is, that I care not to relate, as knowing it could not be true. – One told me, in particular, of a workman that made a ship, with all its tackle, and masts, and sails, in earthenware, big enough to carry fifty men. If he had told me he launched it, and made a voyage to Japan in it, I might have said something to it indeed; but as it was, I knew the whole story, which was, in short, asking pardon for the word, that the fellow lied; so I smiled, and said nothing to it.

This odd sight kept me two hours behind the caravan, for which the leader of it for the day fined me about the value of three shillings; and told me, if it had been three days journey without the wall, as it was three days within, he must have fined me four times as much, and made me ask pardon the next council-day: so I promised to be more orderly; for, indeed, I found afterwards the orders made for keeping all together were absolutely necessary for our common safety.

In two days more we passed the great China wall, made for a fortification against the Tartars; and a very great work it is, going over hills and mountains in an endless track, where the rocks are impassable, and the precipices such as no enemy could possibly enter, or, indeed, climb up, or where, if they did, no wall could hinder them. They tell us, its length is near a thousand English miles, but that the country is five hundred, in a straight measured line, which the wall bounds, without measuring the windings and turnings it takes: 'tis about four fathom high, and as many thick in some places.

I stood still an hour, or thereabouts, without trespassing on our orders, for so long the caravan was in passing the gate; I say, I stood still an hour to look at it, on every side, near and far off; I mean, what was within my view; and the guide of our caravan, who had been extolling it for the wonder of the world, was mighty eager to hear my opinion of it. I told him it was a most excellent thing to keep off the Tartars, which he happened not to understand as I meant it, and so took it for a compliment; but the old pilot laughed: "O, Seignior Inglese," said he, "you speak in colours." – "In colours!" said I; "what do you mean by that?" – "Why, you speak what looks white this way, and black that way; gay one way, and dull another way: you tell him it is a good wall to keep out Tartars; you tell me, by that, it is good for nothing but to keep out Tartars; or, will keep out none but Tartars. I understand you, Seignior Inglese, I understand you," said he, joking; "but Seignior Chinese understand you his own way."

"Well," said I, "Seignior, do you think it would stand out an army of our country-people, with a good train of artillery; or our engineers, with two companies of miners? Would they not batter it down in ten days, that an army might enter in battalia, or blow it up in the air, foundation and all, that there should be no sign of it left?" – "Ay, ay," said he, "I know that." The Chinese wanted mightily to know what I said, and I gave him leave to tell him a few days after, for we were then almost out of their country, and he was to leave us in a little time afterwards; but when he knew what I had said, he was dumb all the rest of the way, and we heard no more of his fine story of the Chinese power and greatness while he staid.

After we had passed this mighty nothing, called a wall, something like the Picts wall, so famous in Northumberland, and built by the Romans, we began to find the country thinly inhabited, and the people rather confined to live in fortified towns and cities, as being subject to the inroads and depredations of the Tartars, who rob in great armies, and therefore are not to be resisted by the naked inhabitants of an open country.

And here I began to find the necessity of keeping together in a caravan, as we travelled; for we saw several troops of Tartars roving about; but when I came to see them distinctly, I wondered how that the Chinese empire could be conquered by such contemptible fellows; for they are a mere herd or crowd of wild fellows, keeping no order, and understanding no discipline, or manner of fight.

Their horses are poor, lean, starved creatures, taught nothing, and are fit for nothing; and this we found the first day we saw them, which was after we entered the wilder part of the country. Our leader for the day gave leave for about sixteen of us to go a hunting, as they call it; and what was this but hunting of sheep! However, it may be called hunting too; for the creatures are the wildest, and swiftest of foot, that ever I saw of their kind; only they will not run a great way, and you are sure of sport when you begin the chase; for they appear generally by thirty or forty in a flock, and, like true sheep, always keep together when they fly.

In pursuit of this odd sort of game, it was our hap to meet with about forty Tartars: whether they were hunting mutton as we were, or whether they looked for another kind of prey, I know not; but as soon as they saw us, one of them blew a kind of horn very loud, but with a barbarous sound that I had never heard before, and, by the way, never care to hear again. We all supposed this was to call their friends about them; and so it was; for in less than half a quarter of an hour, a troop of forty or fifty more appeared at about a mile distance; but our work was over first, as it happened.

One of the Scots merchants of Moscow happened to be amongst us; and as soon as he heard the horn, he told us, in short, that we had nothing to do but to charge them immediately, without loss of time; and, drawing us up in a line, he asked, if we were resolved? We told him, we were ready to follow him: so he rode directly up to them. They stood gazing at us, like a mere crowd, drawn up in no order, nor shewing the face of any order at all; but as soon as they saw us advance, they let fly their arrows; which, however, missed us very happily: it seems they mistook not their aim, but their distance; for their arrows all fell a little short of us, but with so true an aim, that had we been about twenty yards nearer, we must have had several men wounded, if not killed.

Immediately we halted; and though it was at a great distance, we fired, and sent them leaden bullets for wooden arrows, following our shot full gallop, resolving to fall in among them sword in hand; for so our bold Scot that led us, directed. He was, indeed, but a merchant, but he behaved with that vigour and bravery on this occasion, and yet with such a cool courage too, that I never saw any man in action fitter for command. As soon as we came up to them, we fired our pistols in their faces, and then drew; but they fled in the greatest confusion imaginable; the only stand any of them made was on our right, where three of them stood, and, by signs, called the rest to come back to them, having a kind of scimitar in their hands, and their bows hanging at their backs. Our brave commander, without asking any body to follow him, galloped up close to them, and with his fusil knocked one of them off his horse, killed the second with his pistol, and the third ran away; and thus ended our fight; but we had this misfortune attending it, viz. that all our mutton that we had in chase got away. We had not a man killed or hurt; but, as for the Tartars, there were about five of them killed; how many were wounded, we knew not; but this we knew, that the other party was so frighted with the noise of our guns, that they fled, and never made any attempt upon us.

We were all this while in the Chinese dominions, and therefore the Tartars were not so bold as afterwards; but in about five days we entered a vast great wild desert, which held us three days and nights march; and we were obliged to carry our water with us in great leather bottles, and to encamp all night, just as I have heard they do in the deserts of Arabia.

I asked our guides, whose dominion this was in? and they told me this was a kind of border that might be called No Man's Land; being part of the Great Karakathy, or Grand Tartary; but that, however, it was reckoned to China; that there was no care taken here to preserve it from the inroads of thieves; and therefore it was reckoned the worst desert in the whole march, though we were to go over some much larger.

In passing this wilderness, which, I confess, was at the first view very frightful to me, we saw two or three times little parties of the Tartars, but they seemed to be upon their own affairs, and to have no design upon us; and so, like the man who met the devil, if they had nothing to say to us, we had nothing to say to them; we let them go.

Once, however, a party of them came so near as to stand and gaze at us; whether it was to consider what they should do, viz. to attack us, or not attack us, we knew not; but when we were passed at some distance by them, we made a rear guard of forty men, and stood ready for them, letting the caravan pass half a mile, or thereabouts, before us. After a while they marched off, only we found they assaulted us with five arrows at their parting; one of which wounded a horse, so that it disabled him; and we left him the next day, poor creature, in great need of a good farrier. We suppose they might shoot more arrows, which might fall short of us; but we saw no more arrows, or Tartars, at that time.

We travelled near a month after this, the ways being not so good as at first, though still in the dominions of the emperor of China; but lay, for the most part, in villages, some of which were fortified, because of the incursions of the Tartars. When we came to one of these towns, (it was about two days and a half's journey before we were to come to the city of Naum) I wanted to buy a camel, of which there are plenty to be sold all the way upon that road, and of horses also, such as they are, because so many caravans coming that way, they are very often wanted. The person that I spoke to to get me a camel, would have gone and fetched it for me; but I, like a fool, must be officious, and go myself along with him. The place was about two miles out of the village, where, it seems, they kept the camels and horses feeding under a guard.

I walked it on foot, with my old pilot in company, and a Chinese, being desirous, forsooth, of a little variety. When we came to this place, it was a low marshy ground, walled round with a stone wall, piled up dry, without mortar or earth among it, like a park, with a little guard of Chinese soldiers at the doors. Having bought a camel, and agreed for the price, I came away; and the Chinese man, that went with me, led the camel, when on a sudden came up five Tartars on horseback: two of them seized the fellow, and took the camel from him, while the other three stepped up to me and my old pilot; seeing us, as it were, unarmed, for I had no weapon about me but my sword, which could but ill defend me against three horsemen. The first that came up stopped short upon my drawing my sword; (for they are arrant cowards) but a second coming upon my left, gave me a blow on the head, which I never felt till afterwards, and wondered, when I came to myself, what was the matter with me, and where I was, for he laid me flat on the ground; but my never-failing old pilot, the Portuguese (so Providence, unlooked for, directs deliverances from dangers, which to us are unforeseen,) had a pistol in his pocket, which I knew nothing of nor the Tartars neither; if they had, I suppose they would not have attacked us; but cowards are always boldest when there is no danger.

The old man, seeing me down, with a bold heart stepped up to the fellow that had struck me, and laying hold of his arm with one hand, and pulling him down by main force a little towards him with the other, he shot him into the head, and laid him dead on the spot; he then immediately stepped up to him who had stopped us, as I said, and before he could come forward again (for it was all done as it were in a moment) made a blow at him with a scimitar, which he always wore, but, missing the man, cut his horse into the side of his head, cut one of his ears off by the root, and a great slice down the side of his face. The poor beast, enraged with the wounds, was no more to be governed by his rider, though the fellow sat well enough too; but away he flew, and carried him quite out of the pilot's reach; and, at some distance, rising upon his hind legs, threw down the Tartar, and fell upon him.

In this interval the poor Chinese came in, who had lost the camel, but he had no weapon; however, seeing the Tartar down, and his horse fallen upon him, he runs to him, and seizing upon an ugly ill-favoured weapon he had by his side, something like a pole-axe, but not a pole-axe either, he wrenched it from him, and made shift to knock his Tartarian brains out with it. But my old man had the third Tartar to deal with still; and, seeing he did not fly as he expected, nor come on to fight him, as he apprehended, but stood stock still, the old man stood still too, and falls to work with his tackle to charge his pistol again: but as soon as the Tartar saw the pistol, whether he supposed it to be the same or another, I know not; but away he scoured, and left my pilot, my champion I called him afterwards, a complete victory.

By this time I was a little awake; for I thought, when I first began to awake, that I had been in a sweet sleep; but as I said above, I wondered where I was, how I came upon the ground, and what was the matter: in a word, a few minutes after, as sense returned, I felt pain, though I did not know where; I clapped my hand to my head, and took it away bloody; then I felt my head ache, and then, in another moment, memory returned, and every thing was present to me again.