Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/26

 shilling came to bee 4s 6d. When I went to sea was 6d given (or rather paid) mee by Mother Dowling, who having been a sinner in her youth, was much relieved by my reading to her in the "Crums of Comfort," Mr. Andrews' "Silver Watchbell," and "Ye plain man's pathway to Heaven." The next 6d I got for an old Horace given (why do I say given) or delivered mee by Len: Green, for often construing to him in Ovid's Metamorphoses till my throat was soare, though to so little purpose that hee, coming to say his lesson, began, Protinus (signifying "soon after") King Protinus, &c. My next Booty was 18d, given me by my God-father for making 20 verses to congratulate his having been made a Doctor in Divinity by some good Luck. The other shilling was impressed by my Aunt, whom I repaid by a Bracelet bought in France for 4d but judged to be worth 16d. This 4s 6d was layd out in France upon pittiful brass things with cool'd glasse in them, instead of diamonds and rubies. These I sold at home to the young fellowes, whom I understood to have sweethearts, for treble what they cost. I also brought home 2 hair hatts (which within these 11 years might have been seen) by which I gayned little lesse. Having been ten months at sea, I broak my leg, and was turned ashore, strangely visited by many, by ye name of "le Petit Matelot Anglois qui parle Latin et Grec" neer my recovery; and, when I resolved to quit ye sea, as not being able to bear the envy of our crew against mee for being able to say my Compasse, shift my tides, keep reckoning with my plain scale, and for being better read in the "seaman's Kalender," the "safeguard of saylers," &c, than the seamen of our ship, I made verses to the Jesuits, expressing my desires of returning to the muses, and how I had been drawn from them by reading Legends of our countryman, Captn Drake, in these words:

'I must not omit that "La Grande Jane," ye farrier's wife, had an escu for setting my broken leg; the Potticary 10 sols, and 8 sols a payer of crotches, of which I was