At
This Place, The Crew Of The Success Found Themselves Considerably At A
Loss, As The Portuguese Commander Declared Himself Entirely In Favour Of
Captain Clipperton.
Captain Cook, therefore, and another of the officers
of the Success, went up to Canton, to consult with Mr Winder, supercargo
of an English East Indiaman, and son to one of the principal owners, as
to what should be done with, the Success.
On their return, the ship was
surveyed, condemned, and sold for 4000 dollars, which was much less than
her worth. This was, however, no fault in Captain Clipperton, who, to
shew that he still adhered to his former opinion, that the ship was fit
to proceed to England, agreed with the persons who purchased her for a
passage to Batavia, a convincing proof that he did not believe her in
any danger of foundering at sea.
The ship being sold, the crew naturally considered themselves at liberty
to shift for themselves, and to use their best endeavours each to save
what little remained to him, after their unfortunate expedition. All
were satisfied that Captain Mitchell, with his crew and cargo, had
either gone to the bottom or fallen into the hands of the Spaniards, so
that they had no hopes of any farther dividend from that quarter; yet it
was some consolation that they were so near the English factory at
Canton, and as six dollars were required for a passage to that place in
one of the Chinese boats, twenty of them agreed to go there immediately,
in hopes of getting a passage from thence to England. Mr Taylor, one of
the mates of the Success, was of the number: But before the boat set
sail, he had some presentiment of danger, and chose rather to lose his
money, by waiting for another opportunity. He had reason to be satisfied
with himself for this conduct; as he soon learnt that the boat tad been
taken by a pirate, and the people stript of all their property. After a
short stay at Macao, Mr Taylor had an opportunity of going up to Canton
in an armed boat along with a mandarin, for which he and the rest of the
crew belonging to the Success, who went along with him, paid twenty
dollars each. In their passage up, they had satisfactory proof that in
some cases there may be frugality in expence, as they saw a pirate take
a boat in sight of that in which was the mandarin. This plainly shewed
that the government winks at these things, perhaps deeming it good
policy to raise thereby a considerable revenue, partly by presents from
the pirates, and partly by sums paid by merchants and passengers for
protection. From this, and many other circumstances which might be
adduced, the boasted wisdom of the Chinese is nothing more than the
science of dexterously hiding their robberies from the inspection of the
law: In which, perhaps, they are as much exceeded by some northern
nations as in the use of the compass, of which they pretend to be the
original inventors, and perhaps with justice; but both in the management
of the compass, and in this political trade of pirating, they are
equally clumsy.
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