bour, people in fickness, infants juft born, prifoners and captives.

Goods and paffengers are conveyed by water in divers vehicles, the principal of which being a fhip, it fhall fuffice to mention that alone. Here the tyrant doth not derive his title, as the ftage-coachman doth, from the vehicle itself, in which he ftows his goods and paffengers, but he is called the captain; a word of fuch various use and uncertain fignification, that it feems very difficult to fix any pofitive idea to it: if indeed there be any general meaning which may comprehend all its different ufes, that of the head, or chief, of any body of men, feems to be moft capable of this comprehenfion; for whether they be a company of foldiers, a crew of failors, or a of gang rogues, he who is at the head of them is always ftiled the captain.

The captain, whofe fortune it was to flow us aboard, laid a farther claim to this appellation than the bare command of a vehicle of conveyance. He had been the captain of a privateer, which he looked upon as being in the king's fervice; and in this capacity he had gained great honour, having diftinguished his bravery in fome very warm engagements, for which he had juftly received public thanks; and from hence he derived a right of hoifting the military ornament of a cockade over the button of his hat, and of wearing a fword of no ordinary length.

Now, as I faw myself in danger from these unavoidable delays, and as the wind had been long nefted, as it were, in the fouth-west, where it conftantly blew hurricanes, I began with great reafon to apprehend that our voyage might be long, and that my belly, which began already

to be much extended, would require the water to be let out at a time when no atittance was at hand; though, indeed, the captain comforted me with affurances, that he had a pretty young fellow on board, who acted as his furgeon, as I found he likewife did as Reward, cook, butler, failor. In fhort, he had as many offices as Scrub in the play, and went through them all with great dexterity: this of furgeon, was, perhaps, the only one in which his skill was fome what deficient, at least that branch of tapping for the dropfy; for he very ingenuously and modeftly confelfed, he had never feen the operation performed, nor was poffeffed of that chirurgical inftrument with which it is performed.

Friday, June 28. By way of prevention, therefore, I this day fent for my friend Mr, Hunter, the great furgeon and anatomist of Covent-garden; and though my belly was not yet very full and tight, let out ten quarts of water, the young fea-furgeon attending the operation, not as a performer, but as a ftudent.

I was now eafed of the greatest apprehenfion which I had from the length of the paflage; and I told the captain, I was become indifferent as to the time of his failing. He expreffed much fatisfaction in this declaration, and at hearing from me, that I found myself, fince my tapping, much lighter and better. In this, I believe, he was fincere; for he was, as we thall have occafion to obferve more than once, a very goodnatured man; and as he was a very brave one too, I found that the heroic conftancy, with which I had born an operation that is attended with fcarce any degree of pain, had not a little raised mc in his esteem. That he might adhere

therefore, in the most religious and rigorous manner to his word, he ordered his fhip to fall down to Gravefend on Sunday morning, and there to wait his arrival.

Sunday, June 30. Nothing worth notice paffed till that morning, when my poor wife, after paffing a night in the utmoft torments of the tooth ach, refolved to have it drawn. I difpatched, therefore, a fervant into Wapping, to bring, in hatte, the best tooth-drawer he could find. He foon found out a female of great eminence in the art; but when he brought her to the boat, at the water fide, they were informed that the fhip was gone; for, indeed, fhe had fet out a few minutes after his quitting her; nor did the pilot, who well knew the errand on which I had sent my servant, think fit to wait a moment for his return, or to give me any notice of his fetting out.

But of all the petty bafhaws, or turbulent tyrants I ever beheld, this four-faced pilot was the worft tempered; for, during the time that he had the guidance of the fhip, which was till we arrived in the Downs, he complied with no one's defires, nor did he give a civil word, or, indeed, a civil look to any on board.

The tooth-drawer, who, as I faid before, was one of great eminence among her neighbours, refufed to follow the fhip; fo that my man made himself the best of his way, and, with fome difficulty, came up with us before we were got under full fail; for after that, as we had both wind and tide with us, he would have found it impoffible to overtake the fhip, till fhe was come to an anchor at Gravefend.

The morning was fair and bright, and we had

a paffage thither, I think, as pleasant as can be conceived; for, take it with all its advantages, particularly the number of fine fhips you are always fure of feeing by the way, there is nothing to equal it in all the rivers of the world. The yards of Deptford and of Woolwich are noble fights; and give us a juft idea of the great perfection to which we are arrived in building those floating caftles, and the figure which we may always make in Europe among the other maritime powers. That of Woolwich, at leaft, very frongly imprinted this idea on my mind; for, there was now on the ftocks there the Royal Anne, fuppofed to be the largest ship ever built, and which contains ten carriage gun's more than had ever yet equipped a firft rate.

It is true, perhaps, that there is more of of tentation than of real utility, in fhips of this vaft and unweildy burthen, which are rarely capable of acting against an enemy; but if the building fuch contributes to preferve, among other na tions, the notion of the British fuperiority in naval affairs, the expence, though very great, is wel incurred, and the oftentation is laudable and truly political. Indeed I fhould be forry to allow that Holland, France or Spain, poffeffed a veffel larger and more beautiful than the largest and most beautiful of ours; for this honour I would always adminifter to the pride of our failors, who should challenge it from all their neighbours with truth and fuccefs. And fure I am, that not our honeft tars alone, but every inhabitant of this Iland, may exult in the comparifon, when he confiders the king of Great Britain, as a maritime prince, in opposition to

other prince in Europe; but I am noɩ io ter

tain that the fame idea of fuperiority will refult from comparing our land forces with those of many other crowned heads. In numbers, they all far exceed us, and in the goodnefs and splendour of their troops, many nations, particularly the Germans and French, and perhaps the Dutch, caft us at a diftance; for however we may flatter ourselves with the Edwards and Henrys of former ages, the change of the whole art of war fince thofe days, by which the advantage of perfonal ftrength is, in a manner, entirely lost, hath produced a change in military affairs to the advantage of our enemies. As for our fucceffes in later days, if they were not entirely owing to the fuperior genius of our general, they were not a little due to the fuperior force of his money. Indeed, if we should arraign marthal Saxe of oftentation, when he fhewed his army, drawn up, to our captive general, the day after the battle of La Val, we cannot lay that the oftentation was entirely vain; fince he certainly shewed him an army, which had not been often equalled, either in the number or goodness of the troops, and which, in those refpects, fo far exceeded ours, that none can ever caft any reflection on the brave young prince who could nor reap the laurels of conqueit in that day but his retreat will be always mentioned as an addition to his glory

In our marine the cafe is entirely the reverse, and it must be our own fault if it doth not continue fo; for, continue fo it will, as long as the flourishing ftate of our trade fhall fupport it; and this fupport it can never want, till our legiflature shall ceale to give fufficient attention to the protection of our trade, and our magif