siderable Loss. It had been well if Vanity and Lying had been his only Crimes; his Covetousness had like to have been my utter Ruin, though since it hath proved the Occasion of eternizing my Name I verily believe to all Posterity, and to the unspeakable Benefit of all Mortals for ever hereafter, at least if it please Heaven that I return home safe to my Country, and give perfect Instructions how those almost incredible and impossible Acquirements may be imparted to the World. You shall then see Men flying in the Air, from one Place to another, you shall then be able to send Messages many hundred Miles in an Instant, and receive Answers immediately, without the Help of any Creature upon Earth; you shall then presently impart your Mind to your Friend, though in the most remote and obscure Place of a populous City, and a Multitude of other notable Experiments; but what exceeds all, you shall then have the Discovery of a New World, and Abundance of rare and incredible Secrets of Nature, which the Philosophers of former Ages never so much as dreamt of; but I must be cautious in publishing these wonderful Mysteries, till our Statesmen have considered how they may consist with the Policy and good Government of our Country, and whether the Fathers of the Church may not judge the divulging them prejudicial to the Catholic Faith, which (by those Wonders I have seen above any mortal Man before me) I am instructed to advance without Respect to any temporal Advantage whatsoever.
But to proceed: This huffing Captain pretended much Discontent for the Death of Delgades, who was indeed some Kin to him; however, he was willing to be quiet if I would give him a thousand Ducats: I had now, besides a Wife, two Sons, whom I was not willing to beggar, only to satisfy
