rpreter that we were welcome to his
dominions, that he had been informed we were to come by the Emperor his
father, and that he condoled the hardships we had undergone at sea. He
desired us not to be under any concern at finding ourselves in a country
so distant from our own, for those dominions were ours, and he and the
Emperor his father would give us all the proofs we could desire of the
sincerest affection. We returned him thanks for this promise of his
favour, and after a short conversation went away. Immediately we were
teazed by those who brought us the mules, and demanded to be paid the
hire of them; and had advice given us at the same time that we should get
a present ready for the King. The Chec Furt, who was extremely ready to
undertake any commission of this kind, would needs direct us in the
affair, and told us that our gifts ought to be of greater value, because
we had neglected making any such offer at our first audience, contrary to
the custom of that country. By these pretences he obliged us to make a
present to the value of about twenty pounds, with which he seemed to be
pleased, and told us we had nothing to do but prepare to make our entry.

CHAPTER VI

The King refuses their present. The author's boldness. The present is
afterwards accepted. The people are forbidden to sell them provisions.
The author remonstrates against the usage. The King redresses it.

But such was either the hatred or avarice of this man, that instead of
doing us the good offices he pretended, he advised the King to refuse our
present, that he might draw from us something more valuable. When I
attended the King in order to deliver the presents, after I had excused
the smallness of them, as being, though unworthy his acceptance, the
largest that our profession of poverty, and distance from our country,
allowed us to make, he examined them one by one with a dissatisfied look,
and told me that however he might be pleased with our good attentions, he
thought our present such as could not be offered to a king without
affronting him; and made me a sign with his hand to withdraw, and take
back what I had brought. I obeyed, telling him that perhaps he might
send for it again without having so much. The Chec Furt, who had been
the occasion of all this, coming to us afterwards, blamed us exceedingly
for having offered so little, and being told by us that the present was
picked out by himself, that we had nothing better