o to hive a swarm of bees!

As this is the only excursion of the kind which I have made in all the
accounts I have given of my travels, so I shall make no more such. It is
none of my business, nor any part of my design; but to give an account of
my own adventures through a life of inimitable wanderings, and a long
variety of changes, which, perhaps, few that come after me will have
heard the like of: I shall, therefore, say very little of all the mighty
places, desert countries, and numerous people I have yet to pass through,
more than relates to my own story, and which my concern among them will
make necessary.

I was now, as near as I can compute, in the heart of China, about thirty
degrees north of the line, for we were returned from Nankin. I had
indeed a mind to see the city of Pekin, which I had heard so much of, and
Father Simon importuned me daily to do it. At length his time of going
away being set, and the other missionary who was to go with him being
arrived from Macao, it was necessary that we should resolve either to go
or not; so I referred it to my partner, and left it wholly to his choice,
who at length resolved it in the affirmative, and we prepared for our
journey. We set out with very good advantage as to finding the way; for
we got leave to travel in the retinue of one of their mandarins, a kind
of viceroy or principal magistrate in the province where they reside, and
who take great state upon them, travelling with great attendance, and
great homage from the people, who are sometimes greatly impoverished by
them, being obliged to furnish provisions for them and all their
attendants in their journeys. I particularly observed in our travelling
with his baggage, that though we received sufficient provisions both for
ourselves and our horses from the country, as belonging to the mandarin,
yet we were obliged to pay for everything we had, after the market price
of the country, and the mandarin's steward collected it duly from us.
Thus our travelling in the retinue of the mandarin, though it was a great
act of kindness, was not such a mighty favour to us, but was a great
advantage to him, considering there were above thirty other people
travelled in the same manner besides us, under the protection of his
retinue; for the country furnished all the provisions for nothing to him,
and yet he took our money for them.

We were twenty-five days travelling to Pekin, through a country exceeding
populous, but