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upon as a great Curiofity, and which may ferve as an Exemplification to the foregoing Paffage, cited out of this moft excellent Prelate. It is faid to have been written in King Charles II's Reign by the Ambaffador of Bantam, a little af ter his Arrival in England.

Mafter,

THE People, where I now am, have Tongues further from their 'Hearts than from London to Bantam, ' and thou knoweft the Inhabitants of one of thefe Places does not know "what is done in the other. They call thee and thy Subjects Barbarians, be'cause we fpeak what we mean; and account themselves a civilized People, because they speak one thing and mean another: Truth they call Barbarity, and Falfhood Politenefs. Upon my 'firft landing, one who was fent from the King of this Place to meet me 'told me, That he was extreamly forry " for the Storm I had met with just before my Arrival. I was troubled to hear • him grieve and afflict himself upon my Account; but in less than a Quarter of an Hour he smiled, and was as merry as if nothing had happened.

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Another who came with him told me by my Interpreter, He fhould be glad to do me any Service that lay in his Power. Upon which I defir'd him C to carry one of my Portmantuas for me, but instead of ferving me according to his Promife, he laughed, and bid another do it. I lodged, the first "Week, at the House of one, who de"fired me to think my felf at home, and to confider his House as my own.

Accordingly, I the next Morning began to knock down one of the Walls of it, in order to let in the fresh Air, • and had packed up fome of the Hou'fhold-Goods, of which I intended to

have made thee a Prefent: But the • falfe Varlet no fooner faw me falling to work, but he fent word to defire 'me to give over, for that he would have no fuch Doings in his House. I ' had not been long in this Nation, before I was told by one, for whom I had asked a certain Favour from the • Chief of the King's Servants, whom they here call the Lord-Treasurer, • That I had eternally obliged him. I was fo furpriz'd at his Gratitude, that I could not forbear faying, What Service is there which one Man can do

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for another, that can oblige him to all Eternity! However I only asked him for my Reward, that he would lend me his eldest Daughter during my Stay in this Country; but I quickly found that he was as treacherous as the rest of his Countrymen.

AT my firft going to Court, one of the great Men almoft put me out ' of Countenance, by asking ten thou'fand Pardons of me for only treading by Accident upon my Toe. They call this kind of Lye a Compliments for when they are civil to a great Man, they tell him Untruths, for which thou wouldeft order any of thy Officers of State to receive a hundred Blows upon his Foot. I do not know how I fhall negociate any thing with this People, fince there is fo little Credit to be given to them. When I go to fee the King's Scribe, I am generally told that he is not at home, tho' perhaps I faw him go into his House almost the very Moment before. Thou wouldeft fancy that the whole Nation are Phyficians, for the first Question they always ask me, is, How I do: I have this Question put to me above a hundred times a-day. Nay,

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they are not only thus inquifitive after my Health, but with it in a more ' folemn manner, with a full Glass in 'their Hands, every time I fit with

them at Table, tho' at the fame time C they would perfuade me to drink their • Liquors in fuch Quantities as I have found by Experience will make me fick. They often pretend to pray for thy Health alfo in the fame manner; but I have more Reason to expect it from the Goodness of thy Conftitution, than the Sincerity of their Wishes. May thy Slave efcape in • Safety from this double-tongued Race ❝ of Men, and live to lay himself once · more at thy Feet in the Royal City • of Bantam.

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Qui fit, Macenas, ut nemo, quam fibi fortem
Sen ratio dederit, feu fors objecerit, illa
Contentus vivat: laudet diverfa fequentes?
0 Fortunati mercatores, gravis annis
Miles ait, multo jam fractus membra labore!
Contra mercator navim jactantibus auftris,
Militia eft potior. Quid enim? concurritur? hora
Momento cita mors venit, aut victoria læta.
Agricolam laudat juris legemque peritus,
Sub galli cantum consultur ubi oftia pulfat.
Ille, datis vadibus, qui rure extra&us in urbem est ̧
Solos felices viventes clamat in urbe.

Cætera de genere hoc (adeo funt multa) loquacem
Delaffare valent Fabium. Ne te morer, audi
Que rem deducam. Si quis Deus, en ego dicat,
Fam faciam quod vultis : eris tu, qui modo miles,
Mercator: tu confultus modo, rufticus. Hinc vos,
Vos hinc mutatis difcedite partibus. Eja,
Quid ftatis? Nolint. Atque licet effe beatis. Hor.

I

T is a celebrated Thought of Socrates, that if all the Misfortunes of Mankind were caft into a publick Stock, in order to be equal

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