her another letter of attorney for an hundred a-year to be paid by you-that is a farther hundred; in all, two hundred. I shall take care, God willing, to appropriate all arising from the estate to the service of the children; but at the same time I must make it pay all funeral charges of the late possessors of it, my honoured mother, and dear wife: therefore, I entreat you to have your thoughts upon supplying those proper charges with the greatest expedition - that may be proper. I have ordered all the tradesmen to bring in their bills, and shall transmit the sums to you, and desire thereupon that you may tell me what they are to trust to as to time of payment. I am, dear Sandy,

Your faithful friend and humble servant,

RICH. STEELE.

425. TO DEAR BETTY STEELE.

DEAR CHILD,

MAY 21, 1719..

I HAVE your pretty letter, and have sent to know whether I can have any tickets * or not, or whether there will be room; but have not yet an answer. Be grateful, obedient, and respectful to Mrs. Keck; and you will oblige your most affectionate father, RICH. STEELE,

Service to Molly.

*This probably was to a splendid Ball, which was given to the young Princesses, in the Greenhouse at Kensington Gardens, on the King's birth-day, May 28, the day on which their houshold-establishment was first formed.

426. FROM

426. FROM MR. CUTTEFORD.

HONOURED SIR,

POOLE, MAY 28, 1719. YOURS of the 12th instant received; and I shall, according to your orders, endeavour (I hope with success) to be laden with a cargo of live cod. Answerable to your desire, I shall receive judgment particularly; but according to the advice I shall receive from persons of more experience. However, your Honour may be assured, I will not omit any opportunity to shew your Honour and Mr. Gilmore, my patrons, how much I am

Yours, &c.

HEN. CUTTEFORD.

1719, Monday, May 4, about noon got under sail, the wind at E. and E. N. E. small breezes; at four past noon came to an anchor, a little below Woolwich, in six fathom water, being quite calm.

Tuesday the 4th, this morning proving very foggy durst not move. At twelve weighed anchor with a stiff gale. At one the wind blew very hard; then opened all the sluices, and the pilot and all the ship's crew thought she sailed something faster then than when closed. The wind being at E. and E. N. E. she heeled half gunnel to; in that position, from one tack to another, we found her neither too crank nor too stiff, and never once missed her steering, either on the larboard or starboard tacks. We took exact notice that during this hard wind the water in the hold was not disturbed: - only the motion of the current through the hold

throws

throws some parts of it into eddies, which caused the top of the water in the well, by changing the water, to move in small ripplings, perceivable by chips on the top of the water; and those chips to move faster or slower, as the sluices were wider or closer, or the sloop went faster or slower. At four anchored at Gravesend against the Castle, in six fathom water.

Wednesday, at one in the morning, got under sail, had very little wind, and variable with calms. At nine got down about three miles to the Eastward of the buoy on the Nore, the wind W. N. W.; then let go our trawl net, and got a dish of fish, and put fastened into the well, then made the best of our flood back again; being becalmed, came to an anchor seven miles below Gravesend.

Thursday, at two in the morning, the wind W. S. W. and very small breeze and calms; so could only fall up with the flood. At eight or nine got to Gravesend, took the fish out of her hold as alive as ever, dined on them, and set sail for our voyage at five in the afternoon for Mont's-bay or Ireland. Remarked by me, HENRY CUTTEFORD, Master; and several others.

P. S. Honoured Sir, the pilot is just going on shore; so have only time to inform of our safe arrival in the Downs. We anchored here at nine this night. The pilot is hasty to be on shore.

427. TO

427. TO MR. LAWS*, AT PARIS.

SIR,

AUG. 12, 1719.

I BELIEVE you may have heard my name men

tioned since I had the honour to converse with

you,

* John Law, esq. (one of the early friends and companions of Captain Steele) was memorable for a fatal duel, in 1694, with Beau Wilson; for which he was tried at the Old Bailey; and, being convicted, received a pardon from the Crown; but was 'detained in prison by the relations of Mr. Wilson under an appeal. He found means, however, to escape; and going to France, became the founder of the famous Missisippi scheme.~ In 1721 (having pacified the surviving relations of Mr. Wilson with 100,000l.) he returned to England, where he continued to reside till he received the mortifying intelligence of the confiscation of his whole property in France; but, being conscious of the rectitude of his conduct in the management of the finances, and that the balance would, upon examination, be found considerably in his favour, he had good reason to flatter himself with the hopes of receiving a large sum, especially as the Regent always professed a more than ordinary regard for him, and continued punctually to remit his official salary of 20,000 livres a year. But the death of his Royal Highness, Dec. 2, 1723, was a fatal blow to the hopes of Mr. Law; who, in a memorial to the Duke of Bourbon, dated Oct. 15, 1724, states himself as bankrupt, not only in France, but also in other countries;" and "his children, courted by the most considerable families in France, as destitute of fortune and establishment.” “1 had in my power," he says, "to have settled my daughter in marriage in the first houses in Italy, Germany and England; but I refused all offers of that nature, thinking it inconsistent with my duty to, and my affection for, the state in whose service I had the honour to be engaged." He bad a final adieu to Britain in 1725; and fixed his residence at Venice; where he concluded the chequered course of his life, in a state but little removed from indigence, March 21, 1729, in his 58th year.

and

and therefore will not suppose you have wholly forgot me. With this hope I enter upon the business of this letter with the less preface; and at once inform you, that the King has given me his Letters — Patent for the sole use of an invention for bringing Fish alive and in good health, wherever taken, to any other part however distant. It is well known how ill Paris and other parts of France are supplied with that commodity; and it will soon occur to you what great advantage may be made of such a privilege, given by the King of France for his do

minions.

You have enclosed an exemplar of the Letters Patent in print; and you shall join your own, that of your Brother, or any other name, in Partnership with me, in such a Patent.

The thing pretended is done to all intents and purposes; and I have, under a great deal of ridicule and contempt of the greater, the unthinking part of the world, worked it up to an undoubted experiment in a sloop of sixty-one tons. Further I am not able to carry it of myself; but, now the truth of the design is evident, I doubt not but I shall find means to carry it on from a partnership in the profits that may very visibly arise from it. The thing itself is a service to the world in general, and a merit to the whole species of men, and not only to this, or any other Nation; and therefore I presume it a request grounded upon the Law of Nature, that every Country should distinguish those from whom they receive benefit, without regard to the places of abode or nativity, or the soil to which they are born subjects. You have too enlarged a

view,