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

This was so just a request, and so easy for me to do, and, above all, was made with so much good manners and courtesy, that I told him, if I had been otherwise determined, the courteous and good-humoured way with which he required it, would constrain me to it; but that, however, I was very ready to do it, as he was intrusted with the cargo jointly with me, and that it was a piece of justice to the owners, that whom they thought fit to trust I should trust also; upon this I told him my scheme, which was as follows:

First, I said, that, as the Philippine Islands received all their European goods from Acapulco, in America, by the king of Spain's ships, they were obliged to give what price was imposed upon them by the merchants, who brought those goods by so many stages to Acapulco. For example, the European goods, or suppose English goods in particular, with which they were loaden, went first from England to Cadiz, from Cadiz by the galleons to Porto Bello, from Porto Bello, to Panama, from Panama to Acapulco; in all which places the merchants had their several commissions and other profits upon the sale; besides the extravagant charges of so many several ways of carriage, some by water, some by land, and besides the king's customs in all those places; and that, after all this, they were brought by sea from Acapulco to the Philippine Islands, which was a prodigious voyage, and were then generally sold in the Philippine Islands at three hundred per cent. advance.

That, in the room of all this, our cargo being well bought and well sorted, would come to the Philippine Islands at once, without any landing or re-landing, and without any of all the additions of charge to the first cost, as those by the way of New Spain had upon them; so that, if we were to sell them at the Philippine Islands a hundred per cent. cheaper than the Spaniards usually sold, yet we should get abundantly more than we could on the coast of Peru, though we had been allowed a free trade there.

That there were but two objections to this advantage, and these were, our liberty of trading, and whether the place would consume the quantity of goods we had; and to this I had much to answer. First, that it was well known at the Philippine Isles, that the kings of France and Spain were united firmly together; that the king of Spain had allowed the king of France's subjects a free trade in his American dominions, and consequently, that it would not be denied there; but, on the other hand, that, if it was denied by the governor, yet there would be room to find out a trade with the inhabitants, and especially with the Chinese and Japan merchants, who were always there, which trade the governor could not prevent; and thus we could not fear a market for all our cargo, if it was much greater than it was.

That as to the returns, we had the advantage either way: for, first, we should be sure to receive a great part of the price of our goods in Chinese or Japan gold and silver, or in pieces of eight; or, if we thought fit to trade another way, we might take on board such a quantity of China damasks, and other wrought silks, muslins and chintz, China ware, and Japan ware; all which, would be immediately sold in America; that we should carry a cargo of these goods to New Spain, infinitely to our advantage, being the same cargo which the four great Acapulco ships carry back with them every year: That when we had gone to the South Seas with this cargo, of which we knew we should make a good market, we had nothing to do but to come back, if we thought fit, to the East Indies again, where we might load for England or Flanders such goods as we thought proper; or, if we did not think fit to take so great a run, we might go away to the south, and round by Cape Horn into the Atlantic Ocean, and perfect those discoveries, which we made part of in the beginning of our voyage.

This was so clear a scheme of trade, that he seemed surprised with it, and fully satisfied in every part of it. But the captain then objected against the length of the voyage to the South Seas from the Philippines, and raised several scruples about the latitude which we should keep in such a voyage; that we should not be able to carry any provisions which we could take on board in those hot countries, that would keep for so long a run, and several other difficulties; to all which I made answer, that when we had sold our cargo at the Philippines, and found our advantages there to answer our desires, I would not oppose our returning from thence directly to England if they found it needful; or, if they thought a farther adventure would not answer the risks we were to expect in it, we would never have any dispute about that.

This satisfied them fully, and they went immediately with the news to the men, as what they thought would please them wonderfully, seeing they were mighty uneasy but two or three days before, about their being to go back again to the south of America, and the latitude of 64°, where we had not only been twice driven back, as if heaven had forbidden us to pass that way, but had been driven so far to the south, that we had met with a most severe cold, and which pinched our men exceedingly, who being come, as we might say, a hot-weather voyage, were but ill furnished for the state of the air usual in the latitudes of 64°.

But we had a harder task to go through than we expected, upon this occasion; and it may stand here upon record, as a buoy or beacon to warn officers and commanders of ships, supercargoes, and such as are trusted in the conduct of the voyage, never to have any disputes among themselves, (I say not among themselves), about the course they shall take, or whither they shall go; for it never fails to come among the men after them, and if the debate is but named on the outside of the great cabin door, it becomes immediately a dispute among the officers upon the quarter-deck, the lieutenants, mates, purser, &c.; from thence it gets afore the mast, and into the cook room, and the whole ship is immediately divided into factions and parties; every foremast man is a captain, or a director to the captain; every boatswain, gunner, carpenter, cockswain, nay, and even the cook, sets up for a leader of the men; and if two of them join parties, it is ten to one but it comes to a mutiny, and perhaps to one of the two last extremities of all mutinies, viz., running away from the ship, or, what is worse, running away with the ship.

Our case was exactly thus, and had issued accordingly, for aught I know, if we had not been in a port where, we got immediate assistance, and that by a more than ordinary vigour in the management too.

I have mentioned the first time when we called a council about our voyage at the Canaries, and how it was carried against my opinion not to go to the East Indies, but to go to the South Seas, about by Cape Horn. As the debate of this was not at all concealed, the officers of the ship, viz., the two lieutenants and two mates, the purser, and others, came in, and went out, and not only heard all we said, but talked of it at liberty on the quarter-deck, and where they pleased, till it went among the whole ship's crew. It is true, there came nothing of all this at that time, because almost all the votes being against my opinion, as I have said already, the ship's company seemed to join in naturally with it, and the men were so talked into the great prospects of gain to themselves, by a voyage to the South Seas, that they looked upon me, who ought to have had the chief direction in the business, to be nobody, and to have only made a ridiculous proposal, tending to hurt them; and I perceived clearly after this, that they looked upon me with an evil eye, as one that was against their interest; nay, and treated me with a sort of contempt too, as one that had no power to hurt them, but as one, that if things were left to me, would carry them on a wildgoosechase they knew not whither.