n earthly paradise, could nowhere furnish
themselves with a richer pattern.

We left this place about eleven in the morning, and were again conveyed,
with more sunshine than wind, aboard our ship.

Whence our captain had acquired his power of prophecy, when he promised
us and himself a prosperous wind, I will not determine; it is sufficient
to observe that he was a false prophet, and that the weathercocks
continued to point as before. He would not, however, so easily give up
his skill in prediction. He persevered in asserting that the wind was
changed, and, having weighed his anchor, fell down that afternoon to St.
Helen's, which was at about the distance of five miles; and whither
his friend the tide, in defiance of the wind, which was most manifestly
against him, softly wafted him in as many hours.

Here, about seven in the evening, before which time we could not procure
it, we sat down to regale ourselves with some roasted venison, which was
much better dressed than we imagined it would be, and an excellent cold
pasty which my wife had made at Ryde, and which we had reserved uncut
to eat on board our ship, whither we all cheerfully exulted in
being returned from the presence of Mrs. Francis, who, by the exact
resemblance she bore to a fury, seemed to have been with no great
propriety settled in paradise.

Friday, July 24.--As we passed by Spithead on the preceding evening we
saw the two regiments of soldiers who were just returned from Gibraltar
and Minorca; and this day a lieutenant belonging to one of them, who was
the captain's nephew, came to pay a visit to his uncle. He was what is
called by some a very pretty fellow; indeed, much too pretty a fellow
at his years; for he was turned of thirty-four, though his address and
conversation would have become him more before he had reached twenty. In
his conversation, it is true, there was something military enough, as it
consisted chiefly of oaths, and of the great actions and wise sayings
of Jack, and Will, and Tom of our regiment, a phrase eternally in his
mouth; and he seemed to conclude that it conveyed to all the officers
such a degree of public notoriety and importance that it entitled him
like the head of a profession, or a first minister, to be the subject
of conversation among those who had not the least personal acquaintance
with him. This did not much surprise me, as I have seen several examples
of the same; but the defects in his address, especially to th