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Updated: June 8, 2025
Coventry tells me how matters are ordered in the fleet: my Lord Sandwich goes Admiral; under him Sir G. Ascue, and Sir T. Teddiman: Vice Admiral, Sir W. Pen; and under him Sir W. Barkeley, and Sir Jos Jordan: Rear-Admiral, Sir Thomas Allen; and under him Sir Christopher Mings, and Captain Harman.
Here I sat and talked with them a good while and then parted, only Sir Christopher Mings and I together by water to the Tower; and I find him a very witty well-spoken fellow, and mighty free to tell his parentage, being a shoemaker's son, to whom he is now going, and I to the 'Change, where I hear how the French have taken two and sunk one of our merchant-men in the Streights, and carried the ships to Toulon; so that there is no expectation but we must fall out with them.
One of the most eminent of these officers was Sir Christopher Mings, who entered the service as a cabin boy, who fell fighting bravely against the Dutch, and whom his crew, weeping and vowing vengeance, carried to the grave. From him sprang, by a singular kind of descent, a line of valiant and expert sailors.
"Sir Christopher Mings was a very stout man, and a man of great parts, and most excellent tongue among ordinary men; and would have been a most useful man at such a time as this." He gives a deplorable account of the state of the navy, the neglect of business by Charles and his brother, and the want of money.
He do confess with me that the hearts of our seamen are much saddened; and for that reason, among others, wishes Sir Christopher Mings was alive, who might inspire courage and spirit into them.
Those who come in sorrow, may that sorrow be doubled; in happiness, may that happiness be changed to misery; in hope, may they meet despair; in health, sickness; in the pride of life and strength, death! I, Ch'ung Chêng, the last of the Mings, curse it!" Without another word he retired, followed by his courtiers, proceeded at once to the palace, and went straight to the apartments of the Empress.
"Come, my lads," quoth he; "if Tressady be as dead as Mings, he can't walk, wherefore he must be carried. And wherefore carried, you'll ask? Says I, you shall take 'em along wi' you. You shall bring 'em aboard ship, you shall tell your mates as Captain Jo sends these dead men aboard to show 'em she's alive. So come and bring away Tressady first march it is for Roger, and lively, lads!"
Then, leaving Perak, in the Straits Settlements, he finally set foot upon a shore where men, without terror, may reach toward higher things." "And was he followed?" she whispered, comprehending. "He fled quietly. For long are the claws of the she-panther crouched on the throne of the Mings." Both fell silent. The Chinese went back to the stove, where the fire was dying.
The 'Change pretty full, and the town begins to be lively again, though the streets very empty, and most shops shut. So back again I and took boat and called for Sir Christopher Mings at St. Katharine's, who was followed with some ordinary friends, of which, he says, he is proud, and so down to Greenwich, the wind furious high, and we with our sail up till I made it be taken down.
From these last we learnt that the ships of Van Tromp and Ruyter had both been so disabled that they had been forced to fall out of battle, and had been towed away to port. They said that their Admirals Cornelius Evertz and Van der Hulst had both been killed, while on our side we learnt that Admiral Sir Christopher Mings had fallen." "Did the Dutch Fleet appear to be as much injured as our own?"
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