I got so much money by my first adventure, and such an insight into the
method of getting more, that had I been twenty years younger, I should
have been tempted to have stayed here, and sought no farther for making
my fortune; but what was all this to a man upwards of threescore, that
was rich enough, and came abroad more in obedience to a restless desire
of seeing the world than a covetous desire of gaining by it? A restless
desire it really was, for when I was at home I was restless to go abroad;
and when I was abroad I was restless to be at home. I say, what was this
gain to me? I was rich enough already, nor had I any uneasy desires
about getting more money; therefore the profit of the voyage to me was of
no great force for the prompting me forward to further undertakings.
Hence, I thought that by this voyage I had made no progress at all,
because I was come back, as I might call it, to the place from whence I
came, as to a home: whereas, my eye, like that which Solomon speaks of,
was never satisfied with seeing. I was come into a part of the world
which I was never in before, and that part, in particular, which I heard
much of, and was resolved to see as much of it as I could: and then I
thought I might say I had seen all the world that was worth seeing.
But my fellow-traveller and I had different notions: I acknowledge his
were the more suited to the end of a merchant's life: who, when he is
abroad upon adventures, is wise to stick to that, as the best thing for
him, which he is likely to get the most money by. On the other hand,
mine was the notion of a mad, rambling boy, that never cares to see a
thing twice over. But this was not all: I had a kind of impatience upon
me to be nearer home, and yet an unsettled resolution which way to go. In
the interval of these consultations, my friend, who was always upon the
search for business, proposed another voyage among the Spice Islands, to
bring home a loading of cloves from the Manillas, or thereabouts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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