Page:The history of yachting.djvu/203

Rh "As for sailing against the wind she does it extremely well, she stops well at a tack; she makes way as she looks without sliding down the wind; and come within less than five points of the compass, some say very much less.

"And all this we have observed in this present fabric of the first trial in the build; and which the men that sail in her offer to go where any vessel of double their burden dare venture, she being a ton and three quarters.

"And they make another offer, that even in the winter, with a month's warning, they will give out twenty pieces (of gold) here to receive an hundred at their return from Holyland, and that no man may urge the scruple of venturing men's lives, Sir William saith that another vessel shall go out with them; and if by the way they at any time call to her for aid, the wager shall be acknowledged lost.

"My Lord:

"Since ours of the 5th instant, we have made the above mentioned experiment, and do attend the truth thereof.

"

"After reading this report Mr. Grant observed that he had received a letter of a further date than that, which contained the above mentioned report; and that in this letter Sir Wm. Petty mentions that he had so altered his vessel since, that it would now bear 720 square feet of sail, whereas it carried but 600 before."