Page:Early English adventurers in the East (1917).djvu/64

60 no secret that the majority of the party did not usually follow the profession of the sea. What were they then? The truth soon came out when they were questioned. They were very much what Michelborne and his men were, freebooters who picked up what they could on the ocean highway after "the good old rule, the simple plan" which has been followed by the swashbuckler in all ages. They had left Japan some months previously, had pillaged the coast of China and Cambodia and then crossed to Borneo, where they had discarded their ship in favour of another one they had picked up in the usual way. It was this vessel which they were now navigating back to Japan.

The story, told with an entire absence of mauvaise honté, was confirmed by the general appearance of the vessel and the absence of all regular discipline on board. Though one man appeared to have a little more authority than the rest the general rule was plainly one of equality. Michelborne became sufficiently interested in the stranger to set a party of his men to ransack her hold. The Japanese outwardly showed no resentment of the indignity offered to them. They fraternized with the English seamen, and a party of them sought and obtained permission to inspect the Tiger, which was now immediately alongside. Caution had suggested to Michelborne the desirability of disarming the visitors before they were admitted on board. As this measure was at that time always taken at Eastern ports in the case of the Japanese, owing to their notoriously desperate disposition, there would not have been anything remarkable in its introduction in this instance. But Davis, to whom the proposal was made, deceived by the appearance of total submission which the Japanese presented, would not be convinced that it was