Chap. I. Captain John 
fix Dollars apiece being required for a Paffage in one of the 
Chinefe Boats thither, twenty of them agreed to it immedi- 
ately, in hopes of getting a Paffage from thence home to 
England ; and of this Number Mr. Taylor the Mate was 
one : But, before they came to fail, he had a Forefight of 
the Danger ; and therefore chofe to lofe his Money, and 
wait for another Conveniency •, and he had Reafon to look 
upon this Lofs as a Piece of Frugality, fmce the next News 
they heard was, that the Boat had been taken by a Pirate, 
and that mod: of the People had loft their Things. After 
a ftiort Stay at Macao , an Opportunity offered for Mr. 
Taylor’s getting fpeedily and lately to Canton , a Mandarin 
going thither in an armed Boat, for which he, and the reft 
of the Englijh Seamen that went with him, paid twenty 
Dollars an Head : And their Paffage taught them, that, in 
fome Cafes, there may be Frugality in Expence ; for, in 
their Paffage, they faw a Pirate take a Boat in Sight of the 
Mandarin’s; which plainly fhewed, that the Government 
winked at thofe things, and perhaps thought it good Policy 
to raife a confiderable Revenue, partly by Prefents from 
the Pirates, and partly by Sums paid by Merchants and Paf- 
fengers for their Protection ; which is one among a Num- 
ber of Fads that might be brought to prove, that the 
boafted Wifdom of the Cbinefe is nothing more, than the 
Science of dextroufly hiding their Robberies from the In- 
ipedion of the Law ; a fort of Pradice, in which, perhaps, 
they are as much exceeded by fome Northern Nations, as in 
the Ufe of the Compafs, of which, notwithftanding, the 
Cbinefe boaft that they were the firft Inventors ; and, per- 
haps, a better Title might be made to that Invention by 
them, than by any body elfe ; but, with refped to Im- 
provement, their Compafs, and their Manner of managing 
this political Trade of Pirating, are equally clumfy. 
25. On November 4. they arrived at the Englijh Fadory 
at Canton , where they were well received, and promifed all 
imaginable Aftiftance towards their getting home, which 
was what they now chiefly aimed at. There were, at this 
time, feveral Ships there ready to fail, firft for feveral Ports 
in India, and then for Europe. The Captains of thefe 
Veffels being folicited by the Fadory to take Captain Clip - 
pert on’s Men on board, they met, and agreed to carry them 
to Great Britain for five Pounds a Man, being a very great 
Favour ; and accordingly they all paid their Money. Mr. 
Taylor , and two or three more, went aboard the Maurice , 
Captain P eacock , at Wanapo , being the Place where the Eu- 
ropean Ships lay, about three Leagues down Canton River. 
'I he reft of their Company divided in feveral Ships. On the 
9th, they failed, in Company of the Macclesfield , an Englijh 
Eajt Indiaman , and an OJlender , called the Hcufe of Aufiria. 
Mr. Taylor arrived fafely at Batavia in the Month of De- 
cember, failed from thence to the Cape of Good Hope in Fe- 
bruary, came to St. Helena in March, and, in May 1722, 
arrived in London. The reft of the Ship’s Company return- 
ed, fome fooner, fome later, as Opportunities offered ; but, 
as for Captain Mitchell, who was fent to Brafil with a fmall 
Crew, he was never heard of, and moft probably was de- 
ftroyed on the Ifland of Velas, where he went afhore for the 
fake of getting frefh Provifions. This has been generally 
confidered as the greateft Blemifh of Captain Clipper ions 
Adminiftration, I muft confefs I think, without any juft 
Reafon. In the firft Place, I conceive, the great Strefs Cap- 
tain Rogers lays upon that Expedient might very well en- 
gage Captain Clipperton to try what might be done in this 
Way, efpecially fince the Owners had fo ftrongly recom- 
mended Captain Rogers’ s Account of his Voyage, as the 
Rule and Guide of that, which was to be made at their Ex- 
pence. In the next Place, I muft own, I think the Projetf: 
in itfelf fo very reafonable, that I do not wonder an Officer, 
wno had the Good of the Voyage at Heart, was defirous of 
ttymg the Experiment. They very well knew, that the 
Prizes they had taken would produce little or nothin^ in 
the South Seas, becaufe the Sums, demanded by the Go- 
vernors for Licences to trade, were fo extravagant, that no 
Piofits could remit from fuch a Commerce, either to Buy - 
ers or Sellers. They knew too, that carrying thofe Goods 
back again to Europe was doing little or nothing; and there- 
lore, if there was a Probability of fending them to a Place, 
where they might be fold to great Advantage, and the Pro- 
duce inverted 10, as to procure confiderable Profit on the 
- Kuj^e, 14, 
Clipperton. 197 
V ovage from Brafil to London , it appears to me in the Light 
of a very good Defign. As to the Veffel in which Captain 
Mitchell embarked, it was Very fit for his Purport, and 
every way well provided ; and his Crew, of thirteen EnJ- 
lifh, and ten Negroes, fufficient for the Navigation. Cap- 
tain Mitchell himfelf was a very good Officer, and, for any 
thing that appears, was very well fatified with the Com- 
mand to which he was appointed : Neither is there the leaft 
Intimation, that this Scheme of Captain Clippeftoti’ § was 
cenlured, even by his own mutinous Crew, till the Event 
fhewed, that it was unfuccefsful : So that, oh the Whole,, 
I think, the Captain was rather to be commended than con- 
demned for this A&ion, by which he could propofe no Ad- 
vantage to himfelf, but in common with the Owners, from 
tne Succefs of the V oyage. But it is time to quit thefe 
Refledtions, in order to come to the laft Scene of Captain 
Clipperton’ s Life. 
26. He failed in the Succefs , after Ihe was fold, as a Part 
fenger, from Macao to Batavia ; from whence he procured 
a Paffage home in a Dutch Eafi 1 India Ship, and arrived, in 
the Beginning of June 1722, at Galway in Ireland , where 
he left his Family, in a very bad State of Health, occafioned 
partly by his great Fatigues, but chiefly through the Con- 
cern he was under for the Lofs the Owners had fuftained by 
this unfortunate Voyage. It may indeed be objected, that, , 
on his Arrival in Holland, he ought to have returned thence 
to London , and given the Proprietors the beft Account in 
his 1 ower of the Undertaking, and of his Management. 
But, when we refledt, firft, on his fending home their Moi- 
ety of the Profits in the Portuguefe Ship, which, by the 
way, very nearly reimburfed the Expence they had been at 
in fitting out the Succefs, the Purchafe-money of the Ship 
being taken in, and if we next advert to the weak Condi- 
tion he was in, when he went to Galway , where he did not 
live a Week, we may very well excufe him. He might 
very probably have hoped, that the Comfort of feeingliis 
Wife and Children might contribute to reftore his Health, 
and enable him to make a Voyage to London , when in 3 f 
Condition, to fettle his Accounts ; or, if he found himfelf 
fo very low, as ablblutely to defpair of recovering at all, 
it was very natural for him to defire the Satisfaction of fee- 
ing his Family in his laft Moments. But, above all, we 
ought to remember, that it was not in his Power to do more 
for the Pioprietors, than he had done ; and therefore he was 
at the. greater Liberty to take all the Care he could of his 
private Concerns. It is a very eafy matter to cenfure the 
Condudt, blacken the Memory, and mifreprefent the 
Addons, of a poor Man in his Grave ; but, from this plain 
and faithful Account of all his Tranfadtions, I dare fay, every 
impartial Reader will agree, that he was an Objedt of Pity, 
rather than Refentment, fince, after fo many long Voyages, 
in which he fuffered fo many and fo great Flardffiips, he 
died at laft of a broken Heart, with a broken Fortune. 
27. The Remarks that have been made on the laft 
Voyage, have fuch a Relation to this, that, if I was not, 
as I really am, pretty much ftreightened for Room, I ffiould 
not take up much of the Reader’s Time in Obfervations. 
A very few Remarks are neceffary, and I ffiall make but 
a few, and fuch as have a Tendency to explain the Nature 
of all Expeditions of this Kind. In the firft Place, I ffiall 
take notice, that the Expence of this Adventure, though 
much laigei than it need have been, by procuring his Im- 
pel ial Majefty s Commiffion, and the wafting fome Money 
in Flanders , was not exceffively great, or fuch as ought to 
difcourage all future Undertakings of this Nature. It was, 
as the Proprietors themfelves admit, no more than 14,000/. 
and, when it is confidered, that two large fine Ships were 
fitted out, capable, in all refpedts, if their Commanders 
had agreed, and done their Duty, of combating the whole 
Force of the Spaniards in the South Seas, if, I fay, we 
confider this, and fufter ourfelves at the fame time to re- 
member, that at leaft as much is fpent in a Seafon at Vaux- 
hall, or Ranelagh, we may juftly wonder, that the South 
Seas do not fwarm with Englijh Privateers. It is true, 
there are fome French Ships gone thither by Permiffion, 
which may be of tolerable Strength ; but, except thefe, 
there is no Reafon to fufpedf, that the Spaniards are 
ftronger, than at the 1 ime Captain Clipperton made his 
Voyage. Our Efforts, during this War, have been chiefly 
3 ^ made 
