ht, and the pacquett-boat
not before eight the next morning; and when they come they did believe
that this vessel had been drowned, or at least behind, not thinking she
could have lived in that sea." He concludes, "I only affirm that the
perfection of sailing lies in my principle, find it out who can."

By his account we find that machines to perform the same service as
torpedoes were thought of in those days. He tells "Dr Allen," with
whom he had "some good discourse about physick and chymistry, what
Dribble, the German Doctor, do offer of an instrument to sink ships he
tells me that which is more strange, that something made of gold, which
they call in chymistry _aurum fulminans_, a grain, I think he said, of
it, put into a silver spoon and fired, will give a blow like a musquett,
and strike a hole through the silver spoon downward, without the least
force upward."

He gives an amusing account of a trial about the insurance of a ship,
before Lord Chief-Justice Hide. "It was pleasant to see what mad sort
of testimonys the seamen did give, and could not be got to speak in
order; and then their terms such as the judge could not understand; and
to hear how sillily the counsel and judge would speak as to the terms
necessary in the matter, would make one laugh; and, above all, a
Frenchman, that was forced to speak in French, and took an English oath
he did not understand, and had an interpreter sworn to tell us what he
said, which was the best testimony of all."

On the 3rd of December, 1663, he gives us the satisfactory intelligence
"that the navy (excepting what is due to the yards upon the quarter now
going on) is quite out of debt; which is extraordinary good news, and
upon the 'Change, to hear how our credit goes as good as any merchant's
upon the 'Change is a joyfull thing to consider, which God continue!"

The next day he remarks, "The King of France, they say, is hiring of 60
sail of ships of the Dutch, but it is not said for what design."

On the 22nd of January he went down to Deptford, "and there viewed Sir
William Petty's vessel; which hath an odd appearance, but not such as
people do make of it."

On the 4th of March he "saw several people trying a new-fashion gun,
brought by my Lord Peterborough this morning, to shoot off often, one
after another, without trouble or danger." This must have been
something of the fashion of a revolver of the present day.

One of the first entries regarding the Dutch w