child is apt to press too forward, a beggar woman, passing by, swept him away; and, after the coach was gone, the child was wanted. The servants ran out several ways to look for him, and one, by chance, found him in an alley leading towards Channel-row, in the hands of the beggar, who was taking off his clothes; so the

child was recovered, but the woman ran away and escaped punishment. *

"But now to bring the young man to á grammar school; he was placed at Bury, under Dr. Stephens; but made an indifferent scholar. He had too much spirit, which would not be suppressed by conning his book, but must be rather employed in perpetual action. With all that, his parts were so quick, that a little application went a great way with him; and, in the end, he came out a moderate school-scholar. But no thanks to his master; for had he been treated with discretion, the goodness of his nature was such, that he might have been brought down to such an assiduity as would have made him an incomparable scholar. But, though from what stars it proceeded I know not, it is certain that the master took a great aversion to him, and most brutally abused him; correcting him at all turns, with or without a fault, till he was driven within an ace of despair, and (as I have often heard him declare) making away with himself. Among other instances of his barbarity, one was that the youth had been more than once whipt for faulty verses, that he had stole out of printed books. This ill usage made an impression upon his spirits, that did not wear out in all his life, but, to his dying day, he resented it. And he often spake of it in a kind of passion, and declared that he wanted only the satisfaction of talking to this man, and showing where he used him ill, and had denied him common justice. Such a pleasure have folks, desperately offended, in venting their re

sentments.

"This gentleman was designed by his parents to be a merchant; but how early I know not, and rather think they had no positive determination, but according as natural tendency and reasonable opportunity invited. And this backwardness at school, and a sorry account that the master gave of his scholarship, might turn the scales towards an employment that needed less learning. But the young man himself had a strange bent to traffic, and, while he was at school, drove a subtle trade among the boys, by buying and selling. In short, it was considered that he had learning enough for a merchant, but not phlegm enough for any sedentary profession. Which judgment of him was made good by the event."

From this he passed to a writingschool-and made such progress as might be expected from an active idle boy of quick parts. He was a cockfighter, and if betting at cock-fighting be gambling, was a gambler.

"Another of his darling sports was swimming in the Thames. He used that so much, that he became quite a master of it. He could live in the water an afternoon with as much ease as others walk upon land. He shot the bridge divers times at low water, which showed him not only active but intrepid; for courage is required to bear the very sight of that tremendous cascade, which few can endure to pass in a boat. He told me that his method was to glide along while the current was smooth, which was like the motion of an arrow, and extremely delicious; and when he was through, and plunged in the disorders of the waters there, he used his swimming powers, that is, striking with legs and arms, applying all the force he had to prevent turning round, which, in those eddies, was hard to be done; and all this under water, till he got into some calm, where he might govern himself again. His greatest danger was flooks of anchors, broken piles, great stones, and such enemies as lay concealed under water, and, in the speed he went, could not be touched without destruction.

"He and his comrades usually hired a known porter to keep their clothes; and, when they were all naked, as I have often heard him say, he was not at all ashamed of his company; but, when their clothes were on, he cared not to be seen with them. He hath told me that, having lodged his clothes not far from the bridge at early ebb, he hath run naked upon the ooze up almost as high as Chelsea, for the pleasure of swimming down to his clothes before tide of flood. By these bold diversions, one may guess what the Roman youth were able to do, who made it their ordinary exercise to bear the extremes of heat and cold, and all sorts of fatigues; affecting to despise and slight all hazards and pain, till sufferings became habitual. But to wave reflections, though my subject proffers fair, and to dismiss this swimming entertainment, I must here, though a little too early, remember, that, when he resided at Constantinople, it had very nearly cost him his life; for, being grown corpulent and fat, he was not qualified for such frolics, but yet would needs go and swim in the Hellespont; and there the water came down from the Black Sea so rigidly cold, that it almost congealed the fat of his belly. He found himself not well, and came into his boat, where he perceived his belly look like tallow, and could scarce feel any touch upon it. The

rowers presently understood the case, and forthwith laid him down, and fell all to rubbing and chafing his belly, till they found it come red and warm; and so they left him out of danger; but he was not free from pains in that part for divers months; and, after this, he never went into the water more."

His habits led him into extravagance, his allowance from home was narrow; and Roger tells of his devices to obtain money all of them mean tricks enough; and, Roger says, except among unexperienced boys, utterly inexcusable. The younger boys were fleeced out of their money-and false statements of his necessary expenses sent to his parents. That actual ruin, and utter demoralization did not fol low from this conduct, is, to the biographer, certain proof that in spite of these base falsehoods, our merchant had the gift of singular good sense and honour. Of the inconveniences, however, which were the result of this conduct, there followed this good effect: His after life was prudent; he was now of an age for serious and steady employment, and in being bound, as he was immediately after leaving school, to a Turkey merchant, he appears to have at once applied himself diligently to the pursuits connected with his future calling. His master's business was not sufficient to employ his entire time, and he learned the trade of the person at whose house he lodged, which was that of a packer.

"This was not any loss of time; for that is one of the chief trades which the

Levant merchants are concerned with, for the skilful packing their cloths sent into Turkey. The young gentleman took also a fancy to the binding of books; and, having procured a stitching-board, press, and cutter, fell to work, and bound up books of account for himself, and divers for his friends, in a very decent manner. He had a distinguishing genius towards all sorts of mechanic exercises; as I shall have occasion to observe afterwards.

"I do not remember any thing farther remarkable of this young gentleman during his serving as a merchant's man in London, until his master thought fit to send him out; and that he did upon a voyage, than which there could not have been contrived one more desperate and discouraging; it was first as supercargo, with an adventure to Archangel, and there to negociate the cargo, and to ship another; and then to sail with that, by the back of Shetland and Ireland, round about through the Streights, and so to

Italy and Smyrna, where he was to reside as factor in the Turkey trade. It was a hard case for a raw youth to embark in such a voyage, without company, or so much as a face in the ship that he ever saw before, and bound almost as far northward as Zembla, and to reside amongst, and traffic with, barbarous peobad weather the skies can afford. But ple, and then to return through all the he went, not only willingly, but ambitiously, and formalized upon nothing that led towards the end he most carnestly desired, which was to be settled as a factor in Turkey. His resolution was inexpugnable; and, not only in this, but in many other instances of his life, he considered well what was best for him to do; and after that point once determined, he had no thought of difficulties; he was not master of his fortunes, and resolved, at all adventures, to advance them; and therein to use the utmost of his industry and understanding, leaving the rest to Providence."

From the letters of the young supercargo to his brother Francis, considerable extracts are given. An interesting account is given of Archangel. Leghorn-Pisa-and Florence are well described-at least in such a manner as shews that nothing which it could be useful for him to observe, passed before our merchant's eyes unnoticed. The buildings-the manners of the people, and the courts-the amusements, more or less solemn, of both classes-and, above all, the state of trade appears to have been carefully noted down.Dudley's Latin, of which he had learned but little, now stood him in stead, for he relieved the tedium of a voyage by learning Italian, which was thus rendered a task of no great difficulty.

"After these troublesome voyages well over, our young factor found himself, what he infinitely desired to be, an agent for his master, and factor settled at Smyrna. His chief dependence was upon the benefit of his commissions; for his own capital was inconsiderable: he had from his parents but one single hundred pounds advanced for him to trade with. But his mother, out of a hoard she had made of small legacies given him, and some old gold of her own, and other matters she had scraped together, made up about sixty pounds more, and his best brother lent him what money he had, which was about two hundred pounds, his whole inventory scarce amounted to four hundred pounds; and this was all the beginning this famous merchant had. It doth not appear, that he was entertained a partner in any house, or ragion