Chapter XIV. Attacked by Tartars

by Daniel Defoe

　　It was the beginning of February, new style, when we set out fromPekin. My partner and the old pilot had gone express back to theport where we had first put in, to dispose of some goods which wehad left there; and I, with a Chinese merchant whom I had someknowledge of at Nankin, and who came to Pekin on his own affairs,went to Nankin, where I bought ninety pieces of fine damasks, withabout two hundred pieces of other very fine silk of several sorts,some mixed with gold, and had all these brought to Pekin against mypartner's return. Besides this, we bought a large quantity of rawsilk, and some other goods, our cargo amounting, in these goodsonly, to about three thousand five hundred pounds sterling; which,together with tea and some fine calicoes, and three camels' loadsof nutmegs and cloves, loaded in all eighteen camels for our share,besides those we rode upon; these, with two or three spare horses,and two horses loaded with provisions, made together twenty-sixcamels and horses in our retinue.The company was very great, and, as near as I can remember, madebetween three and four hundred horses, and upwards of one hundredand twenty men, very well armed and provided for all events; for asthe Eastern caravans are subject to be attacked by the Arabs, soare these by the Tartars. The company consisted of people ofseveral nations, but there were above sixty of them merchants orinhabitants of Moscow, though of them some were Livonians; and toour particular satisfaction, five of them were Scots, who appearedalso to be men of great experience in business, and of very goodsubstance.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.The road all on this side of the country is very populous, and isfull of potters and earth-makers - that is to say, people, thattemper the earth for the China ware. As I was coming along, ourPortuguese pilot, who had always something or other to say to makeus merry, told me he would show me the greatest rarity in all thecountry, and that I should have this to say of China, after all theill-humoured things that I had said of it, that I had seen onething which was not to be seen in all the world beside. I was veryimportunate to know what it was; at last he told me it was agentleman's house built with China ware. "Well," says I, "are notthe materials of their buildings the products of their own country,and so it is all China ware, is it not?" - "No, no," says he, "Imean it is a house all made of China ware, such as you call it inEngland, or as it is called in our country, porcelain." - "Well,"says I, "such a thing may be; how big is it? Can we carry it in abox upon a camel? If we can we will buy it." - "Upon a camel!"says the old pilot, holding up both his hands; "why, there is afamily of thirty people lives in it."I was then curious, indeed, to see it; and when I came to it, itwas nothing but this: it was a timber house, or a house built, aswe call it in England, with lath and plaster, but all thisplastering was really China ware - that is to say, it was plasteredwith the earth that makes China ware. The outside, which the sunshone hot upon, was glazed, and looked very well, perfectly white,and painted with blue figures, as the large China ware in Englandis painted, and hard as if it had been burnt. As to the inside,all the walls, instead of wainscot, were lined with hardened andpainted tiles, like the little square tiles we call galley-tiles inEngland, all made of the finest china, and the figures exceedingfine indeed, with extraordinary variety of colours, mixed withgold, many tiles making but one figure, but joined so artificially,the mortar being made of the same earth, that it was very hard tosee where the tiles met. The floors of the rooms were of the samecomposition, and as hard as the earthen floors we have in use inseveral parts of England; as hard as stone, and smooth, but notburnt and painted, except some smaller rooms, like closets, whichwere all, as it were, paved with the same tile; the ceiling and allthe plastering work in the whole house were of the same earth; and,after all, the roof was covered with tiles of the same, but of adeep shining black. This was a China warehouse indeed, truly andliterally to be called so, and had I not been upon the journey, Icould have stayed some days to see and examine the particulars ofit. They told me there were fountains and fishponds in the garden,all paved on the bottom and sides with the same; and fine statuesset up in rows on the walks, entirely formed of the porcelainearth, burnt whole.As this is one of the singularities of China, so they may beallowed to excel in it; but I am very sure they excel in theiraccounts of it; for they told me such incredible things of theirperformance in crockery-ware, for such it is, that I care not torelate, as knowing it could not be true. They told me, inparticular, of one workman that made a ship with all its tackle andmasts and sails in earthenware, big enough to carry fifty men. Ifthey had told me he launched it, and made a voyage to Japan in it,I might have said something to it indeed; but as it was, I knew thewhole of the story, which was, in short, that the fellow lied: soI smiled, and said nothing to it. This odd sight kept me two hoursbehind the caravan, for which the leader of it for the day fined meabout the value of three shillings; and told me if it had beenthree days' journey without the wall, as it was three days' within,he must have fined me four times as much, and made me ask pardonthe next council-day. I promised to be more orderly; and, indeed,I found afterwards the orders made for keeping all together wereabsolutely necessary for our common safety.In two days more we passed the great China wall, made for afortification against the Tartars: and a very great work it is,going over hills and mountains in an endless track, where the rocksare impassable, and the precipices such as no enemy could possiblyenter, or indeed climb up, or where, if they did, no wall couldhinder them. They tell us its length is near a thousand Englishmiles, but that the country is five hundred in a straight measuredline, which the wall bounds without measuring the windings andturnings it takes; it is about four fathoms high, and as many thickin some places.I stood still an hour or thereabouts without trespassing on ourorders (for so long the caravan was in passing the gate), to lookat it on every side, near and far off; I mean what was within myview: and the guide, who had been extolling it for the wonder ofthe world, was mighty eager to hear my opinion of it. I told himit was a most excellent thing to keep out the Tartars; which hehappened not to understand as I meant it and so took it for acompliment; but the old pilot laughed! "Oh, Seignior Inglese,"says he, "you speak in colours." - "In colours!" said I; "what doyou mean by that?" - "Why, you speak what looks white this way andblack that way - gay one way and dull another. You tell him it isa good wall to keep out Tartars; you tell me by that it is good fornothing but to keep out Tartars. I understand you, SeigniorInglese, I understand you; but Seignior Chinese understood you hisown way." - "Well," says I, "do you think it would stand out anarmy of our country people, with a good train of artillery; or ourengineers, with two companies of miners? Would not they batter itdown in ten days, that an army might enter in battalia; or blow itup in the air, foundation and all, that there should be no sign ofit left?" - "Ay, ay," says he, "I know that." The Chinese wantedmightily to know what I said to the pilot, and I gave him leave totell him a few days after, for we were then almost out of theircountry, and he was to leave us a little time after this; but whenhe knew what I said, he was dumb all the rest of the way, and weheard no more of his fine story of the Chinese power and greatnesswhile he stayed.After we passed this mighty nothing, called a wall, something likethe Picts' walls so famous in Northumberland, built by the Romans,we began to find the country thinly inhabited, and the peoplerather confined to live in fortified towns, as being subject to theinroads and depredations of the Tartars, who rob in great armies,and therefore are not to be resisted by the naked inhabitants of anopen country. And here I began to find the necessity of keepingtogether in a caravan as we travelled, for we saw several troops ofTartars roving about; but when I came to see them distinctly, Iwondered more that the Chinese empire could be conquered by suchcontemptible fellows; for they are a mere horde of wild fellows,keeping no order and understanding no discipline or manner of it.Their horses are poor lean creatures, taught nothing, and fit fornothing; and this we found the first day we saw them, which wasafter we entered the wilder part of the country. Our leader forthe day gave leave for about sixteen of us to go a hunting as theycall it; and what was this but a hunting of sheep! - however, itmay be called hunting too, for these creatures are the wildest andswiftest of foot that ever I saw of their kind! only they will notrun a great way, and you are sure of sport when you begin thechase, for they appear generally thirty or forty in a flock, and,like true sheep, always keep together when they fly.In pursuit of this odd sort of game it was our hap to meet withabout forty Tartars: whether they were hunting mutton, as we were,or whether they looked for another kind of prey, we know not; butas soon as they saw us, one of them blew a hideous blast on a kindof horn. This was to call their friends about them, and in lessthan ten minutes a troop of forty or fifty more appeared, at abouta mile distance; but our work was over first, as it happened.One of the Scots merchants of Moscow happened to be amongst us; andas soon as he heard the horn, he told us that we had nothing to dobut to charge them without loss of time; and drawing us up in aline, he asked if we were resolved. We told him we were ready tofollow him; so he rode directly towards them. They stood gazing atus like a mere crowd, drawn up in no sort of order at all; but assoon as they saw us advance, they let fly their arrows, whichmissed us, very happily. Not that they mistook their aim, buttheir distance; for their arrows all fell a little short of us, butwith so true an aim, that had we been about twenty yards nearer wemust have had several men wounded, if not killed.Immediately we halted, and though it was at a great distance, wefired, and sent them leaden bullets for wooden arrows, followingour shot full gallop, to fall in among them sword in hand - for soour bold Scot that led us directed. He was, indeed, but amerchant, but he behaved with such vigour and bravery on thisoccasion, and yet with such cool courage too, that I never saw anyman in action fitter for command. As soon as we came up to them wefired our pistols in their faces and then drew; but they fled inthe greatest confusion imaginable. The only stand any of them madewas on our right, where three of them stood, and, by signs, calledthe rest to come back to them, having a kind of scimitar in theirhands, and their bows hanging to their backs. Our brave commander,without asking anybody to follow him, gallops up close to them, andwith his fusee knocks one of them off his horse, killed the secondwith his pistol, and the third ran away. Thus ended our fight; butwe had this misfortune attending it, that all our mutton we had inchase got away. We had not a man killed or hurt; as for theTartars, there were about five of them killed - how many werewounded we knew not; but this we knew, that the other party were sofrightened with the noise of our guns that they fled, and nevermade any attempt upon us.We were all this while in the Chinese dominions, and therefore theTartars were not so bold as afterwards; but in about five days weentered a vast wild desert, which held us three days' and nights'march; and we were obliged to carry our water with us in greatleathern bottles, and to encamp all night, just as I have heardthey do in the desert of Arabia. I asked our guides whose dominionthis was in, and they told me this was a kind of border that mightbe called no man's land, being a part of Great Karakathy, or GrandTartary: that, however, it was all reckoned as belonging to China,but that there was no care taken here to preserve it from theinroads of thieves, and therefore it was reckoned the worst desertin the whole march, though we were to go over some much larger.In passing this frightful wilderness we saw, two or three times,little parties of the Tartars, but they seemed to be upon their ownaffairs, and to have no design upon us; and so, like the man whomet the devil, if they had nothing to say to us, we had nothing tosay to them: we let them go. Once, however, a party of them cameso near as to stand and gaze at us. Whether it was to consider ifthey should attack us or not, we knew not; but when we had passedat some distance by them, we made a rear-guard of forty men, andstood ready for them, letting the caravan pass half a mile orthereabouts before us. After a while they marched off, but theysaluted us with five arrows at their parting, which wounded a horseso that it disabled him, and we left him the next day, poorcreature, in great need of a good farrier. We saw no more arrowsor Tartars that time.We travelled near a month after this, the ways not being so good asat first, though still in the dominions of the Emperor of China,but lay for the most part in the villages, some of which werefortified, because of the incursions of the Tartars. When we werecome to one of these towns (about two days and a half's journeybefore we came to the city of Naum), I wanted to buy a camel, ofwhich there are plenty to be sold all the way upon that road, andhorses also, such as they are, because, so many caravans comingthat way, they are often wanted. The person that I spoke to to getme a camel would have gone and fetched one for me; but I, like afool, must be officious, and go myself along with him; the placewas about two miles out of the village, where it seems they keptthe camels and horses feeding under a guard.I walked it on foot, with my old pilot and a Chinese, being verydesirous of a little variety. When we came to the place it was alow, marshy ground, walled round with stones, piled up dry, withoutmortar or earth among them, like a park, with a little guard ofChinese soldiers at the door. Having bought a camel, and agreedfor the price, I came away, and the Chinese that went with me ledthe camel, when on a sudden came up five Tartars on horseback. Twoof them seized the fellow and took the camel from him, while theother three stepped up to me and my old pilot, seeing us, as itwere, unarmed, for I had no weapon about me but my sword, whichcould but ill defend me against three horsemen. The first thatcame up stopped short upon my drawing my sword, for they are arrantcowards; but a second, coming upon my left, gave me a blow on thehead, which I never felt till afterwards, and wondered, when I cameto myself, what was the matter, and where I was, for he laid meflat on the ground; but my never-failing old pilot, the Portuguese,had a pistol in his pocket, which I knew nothing of, nor theTartars either: if they had, I suppose they would not haveattacked us, for cowards are always boldest when there is nodanger. The old man seeing me down, with a bold heart stepped upto the fellow that had struck me, and laying hold of his arm withone hand, and pulling him down by main force a little towards him,with the other shot him into the head, and laid him dead upon thespot. He then immediately stepped up to him who had stopped us, asI said, and before he could come forward again, made a blow at himwith a scimitar, which he always wore, but missing the man, struckhis horse in the side of his head, cut one of the ears off by theroot, and a great slice down by the side of his face. The poorbeast, enraged with the wound, was no more to be governed by hisrider, though the fellow sat well enough too, but away he flew, andcarried him quite out of the pilot's reach; and at some distance,rising upon his hind legs, threw down the Tartar, and fell uponhim.In this interval the poor Chinese came in who had lost the camel,but he had no weapon; however, seeing the Tartar down, and hishorse fallen upon him, away he runs to him, and seizing upon anugly weapon he had by his side, something like a pole-axe, hewrenched it from him, and made shift to knock his Tartarian brainsout with it. But my old man had the third Tartar to deal withstill; and seeing he did not fly, as he expected, nor come on tofight him, as he apprehended, but stood stock still, the old manstood still too, and fell to work with his tackle to charge hispistol again: but as soon as the Tartar saw the pistol away hescoured, and left my pilot, my champion I called him afterwards, acomplete victory.By this time I was a little recovered. I thought, when I firstbegan to wake, that I had been in a sweet sleep; but, as I saidabove, I wondered where I was, how I came upon the ground, and whatwas the matter. A few moments after, as sense returned, I feltpain, though I did not know where; so I clapped my hand to my head,and took it away bloody; then I felt my head ache: and in a momentmemory returned, and everything was present to me again. I jumpedupon my feet instantly, and got hold of my sword, but no enemieswere in view: I found a Tartar lying dead, and his horse standingvery quietly by him; and, looking further, I saw my deliverer, whohad been to see what the Chinese had done, coming back with hishanger in his hand. The old man, seeing me on my feet, camerunning to me, and joyfully embraced me, being afraid before that Ihad been killed. Seeing me bloody, he would see how I was hurt;but it was not much, only what we call a broken head; neither did Iafterwards find any great inconvenience from the blow, for it waswell again in two or three days.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.The city of Naum, which we were approaching, is a frontier of theChinese empire, and is fortified in their fashion. We wanted, as Ihave said, above two days' journey of this city when messengerswere sent express to every part of the road to tell all travellersand caravans to halt till they had a guard sent for them; for thatan unusual body of Tartars, making ten thousand in all, hadappeared in the way, about thirty miles beyond the city.This was very bad news to travellers: however, it was carefullydone of the governor, and we were very glad to hear we should havea guard. Accordingly, two days after, we had two hundred soldierssent us from a garrison of the Chinese on our left, and threehundred more from the city of Naum, and with these we advancedboldly. The three hundred soldiers from Naum marched in our front,the two hundred in our rear, and our men on each side of ourcamels, with our baggage and the whole caravan in the centre; inthis order, and well prepared for battle, we thought ourselves amatch for the whole ten thousand Mogul Tartars, if they hadappeared; but the next day, when they did appear, it was quiteanother thing.