A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before

by Daniel Defoe

We assured them we had been the height of Lima, and that we had not heard of any men-of-war, but that we had passed for such ourselves, and perhaps were the ships they had heard of; for that we were three sail at first, and had sometimes carried French colours.

This made them very glad, for it was certainly so that we had passed for three French men-of-war, and they were so assured of it, that they went afterwards boldly up the coast, and made several very good prizes. We then found also that it was one of these ships that looked into the road, as above, when we were here before, and seeing us then with French colours, took us for the men-of-war they had heard of; and, they added, that, when we came in upon them again, they gave themselves up for lost men, but were resolved to have fought it out to the last, or rather to have sunk by our side, or blown themselves up, than be taken.

I was not at all sorry that we had made this discovery before we engaged; for the captains were two brave resolute fellows, and had two very good ships under them, one of thirty-six guns, but able to have carried forty-four; the other, which we called the frigate-built ship, carried twenty-eight guns, and they were both full of men. Now, though we should not have feared their force, yet my case differed from what it did at first, for we had that on board that makes all men cowards, I mean money, of which we had such a cargo as few British ships ever brought out of those seas, and I was one of those that had now no occasion to run needless hazards. So that, in short, I was as well pleased without fighting as they could be; besides, I had other projects now in my head, and those of no less consequence than of planting a new world, and settling new kingdoms, to the honour and advantage of my country; and many a time I wished heartily that all my rich cargo was safe at London; that my merchants were sharing the silver and gold, and the pearl among themselves; and, that I was but safe on shore, with a thousand good families, upon the south of Chili, and about fifteen hundred good soldiers, and arms for ten thousand more, of which by and by, and, with the two ships I had now with me, I would not fear all the power of the Spaniards; I mean, that they could bring against me in the South Seas.

I had all these things, I say, in my head already, though nothing like to what I had afterwards, when I saw farther into the matter myself; however, these things made me very glad that I had no occasion to engage those ships.

When we came thus to understand one another, we went all into the road together, and I invited the captains of the two privateers on board me, where I treated them with the best I had, though I had no great dainties now, having been so long out of England. They invited me and Captain Merlotte, and the captain of the Madagascar ship in return, and, indeed, treated us very nobly.

After this, we exchanged some presents of refreshments, and, particularly, they sent me a hogshead of rum, which, was very acceptable; and I sent them in return a runlet of arrack, excusing myself that I had no great store. I sent them also the quantity of one hundred weight of nutmegs and cloves; but the most agreeable present I sent them was twenty pieces of Madagascar dried beef, cured in the sun, the like of which they had never seen or tasted before; and without question, it is such an excellent way of curing beef, that if I were to be at Madagascar again, I would take in a sufficient quantity of beef so preserved to victual the whole ship for the voyage; and I leave it as a direction to all English seamen that have occasion to use East-India voyages.

I bought afterwards six hogsheads of rum of these privateers, for I found they were very well stored with liquors, whatever else they wanted.

We stayed here twelve or fourteen days, but took care, by agreement, that our men should never go on shore the same days that their men went on shore, or theirs when ours went, as well to avoid their caballing together, as to avoid quarrelling, though the latter was the pretence. We agreed, also, not to receive on board any of our ships respectively, any of the crews belonging to the other; and this was their advantage, for, if we would have given way to that, half their men would, for aught I know, have come over to us.

While we lay here, one of them went a-cruising, finding the wind fair to run in for the shore; and, in about five days, she came back with a Spanish prize, laden with meal, cocoa, and a large quantity of biscuit, ready baked; she was bound to Lima, from Baldivia, or some port nearer, I do not remember exactly which. They had some gold on board, but not much, and had bought their lading at St. Jago. As soon as we saw them coming in with a prize in tow, we put out our French colours, and gave notice to the privateers that it was for their advantage that we did so; and so indeed it was, for it would presently have alarmed all the country, if such a fleet of privateers had appeared on the coast. We prevailed with them to give us their Spanish prisoners, and to allow us to set them on shore, I having assured them I would not land them till I came to Baldivia, nor suffer them to have the least correspondence with anybody till they came thither; the said Spaniards also giving their parole of honour not to give any account of their being taken till fourteen days after they were on shore.