hospitality, for it was possible he might be disposed to send some corn to France. He entered into my plan very readily, the more so from having been engaged in trade in his youth. He had been to Spain as supercargo of a vessel on one occasion, so my project was quite in his way. He said he would willingly risk as much as £300 or £400 upon it, and he most generously offered to give me half the profit. I hesitated about the propriety of accepting it, because loss was possible, though profit was probable, and if it should be loss, how could I pay my share of it? Upon further consideration I made up my mind to accept his offer, but to provide against loss by effecting an insurance upon my half, for which I paid a premium of two and a half per cent, to insure me against loss both in going and returning.
The whole of my personal property consisted of twenty pistoles in gold, six silver spoons, one of them a very handsome silver gilt, with the initials I. D. L. F. engraved upon it. I had great value for that spoon, it having been used by my father when he was upon his travels before he was married, and my mother gave it to me in the same case he had carried it in. I had also a silver watch, and a rose diamond worth ten or twelve pistoles. My intended wife had a gold chain for the neck, a pearl necklace, an emerald, and a diamond worth five pistoles. If any loss occurred which was not covered by the insurance, I thought that we could pay for it by the sale of our possessions, enumerated above. You observe I have put your mother's articles in the list, for though not yet united by marriage, we felt our interests were one and the same from our mutual vows, our affection and our confidence.
Mr. Downe chartered a vessel of about 50 tons burthen,
