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第7章 杭家

　　But I had no occasion to urge a winter journey of this kind. I wasbound to England, not to Moscow, and my route lay two ways: eitherI must go on as the caravan went, till I came to Jarislaw, and thengo off west for Narva and the Gulf of Finland, and so on toDantzic, where I might possibly sell my China cargo to goodadvantage; or I must leave the caravan at a little town on theDwina, from whence I had but six days by water to Archangel, andfrom thence might be sure of shipping either to England, Holland,or Hamburg.

　　When we had travelled one day's journey, the guides, who were fivein number, called all the passengers, except the servants, to agreat council, as they called it. At this council every onedeposited a certain quantity of money to a common stock, for thenecessary expense of buying forage on the way, where it was nototherwise to be had, and for satisfying the guides, getting horses,and the like. Here, too, they constituted the journey, as theycall it, viz. they named captains and officers to draw us all up,and give the word of command, in case of an attack, and give everyone their turn of command; nor was this forming us into order anymore than what we afterwards found needful on the way.

　　W.A. - That is true, He might strike me dead; and I ought to expectit, for I have been a wicked wretch, that is true; but God ismerciful, and does not deal with us as we deserve.

　　We made no great gain, however, by this victory, for we lost acamel and gained a horse. I paid for the lost camel, and sent foranother; but I did not go to fetch it myself: I had had enough ofthat.

　　They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all verycheerfully along with him: so we allotted them land andplantations, which three or four accepted of, but all the restchose to be employed as servants in the several families we hadsettled. Thus my colony was in a manner settled as follows: TheSpaniards possessed my original habitation, which was the capitalcity, and extended their plantations all along the side of thebrook, which made the creek that I have so often described, as faras my bower; and as they increased their culture, it went alwayseastward. The English lived in the north-east part, where WillAtkins and his comrades began, and came on southward and south-west, towards the back part of the Spaniards; and every plantationhad a great addition of land to take in, if they found occasion, sothat they need not jostle one another for want of room. All theeast end of the island was left uninhabited, that if any of thesavages should come on shore there only for their customarybarbarities, t

　　Upon this, after long debate, it was concluded that they would notremove their habitation; because that, some time or other, theythought they might hear from their governor again, meaning me; andif I should send any one to seek them, I should be sure to directthem to that side, where, if they should find the place demolished,they would conclude the savages had killed us all, and we weregone, and so our supply would go too. But as to their corn andcattle, they agreed to remove them into the valley where my cavewas, where the land was as proper for both, and where indeed therewas land enough. However, upon second thoughts they altered onepart of their resolution too, and resolved only to remove part oftheir cattle thither, and part of their corn there; so that if onepart was destroyed the other might be saved. And one part ofprudence they luckily used: they never trusted those three savageswhich they had taken prisoners with knowing anything of theplantation they had made in that valley, or of any cattle

　　The most wonderful thing of all was, that it should be possible tomeet with good company here, in a country so barbarous as this -one of the most northerly parts of Europe. But this being thecountry where the state criminals of Muscovy, as I observed before,are all banished, the city was full of Russian noblemen, gentlemen,soldiers, and courtiers. Here was the famous Prince Galitzin, theold German Robostiski, and several other persons of note, and someladies. By means of my Scotch merchant, whom, nevertheless, Iparted with here, I made an acquaintance with several of thesegentlemen; and from these, in the long winter nights in which Istayed here, I received several very agreeable visits.

to make themall easy at last. "For," said they, "we are not so many of us;here is room enough for us all, and it is a great pity that weshould not be all good friends." At length they did consent, andwaited for the issue of the thing, living for some days with theSpaniards; for their own habitation was destroyed.

　　As we went on shore upon the tide of flood, near high water, werowed directly into the creek; and the first man I fixed my eyeupon was the Spaniard whose life I had saved, and whom I knew byhis face perfectly well: as to his habit, I shall describe itafterwards. I ordered nobody to go on shore at first but myself;but there was no keeping Friday in the boat, for the affectionatecreature had spied his father at a distance, a good way off theSpaniards, where, indeed, I saw nothing of him; and if they had notlet him go ashore, he would have jumped into the sea. He was nosooner on shore, but he flew away to his father like an arrow outof a bow. It would have made any man shed tears, in spite of thefirmest resolution, to have seen the first transports of this poorfellow's joy when he came to his father: how he embraced him,kissed him, stroked his face, took him up in his arms, set him downupon a tree, and lay down by him; then stood and looked at him, asany one would look at a strange picture, for a quarter