In this encouragement and prospect I have little faith, knowing how much more people care about What they eat than what they read. Nevertheless I will hope for the best, especially as my evenings now are very long and wearisome and I was counted a hopeful scholar, fifty years agone perhaps, in our vil lage school here — not to mention the Royal Navy; and most of all, because a very wealthy gentleman, whose name Will appear in this story, has promised to pay all expenses, and £50 down (if I do it well), and to leave me the profit, if any. Notwithstanding this, the work of writing must be very dull to me, after all the change of scene, and the open air and sea, and the many sprees ashore, and the noble fights with Frenchmen, and the power of oaths that made me jump So in his Majesty's navy. God save the King, and Queen, and members of the Royal Family, be they as many as they will — and they seem, in faith, to be manifold. But His power is equal to it all, if they will but try to meet Him.