ΙΟ 15 Ordinary, or carry him with three friends to Westminster- In the midst of this pleasant progress which I made from place to place, I was arrested by a superstitious old woman, 5 who shut me up in a greazy purse, in pursuance of a foolish saying, That while she kept a Queen Elizabeth's Shilling about her, she should never be without Money. I continued here a close Prisoner for many months, till at last I was exchanged for eight and forty Farthings. I thus rambled from Pocket to Pocket till the beginning of the Civil Wars, when, to my shame be it spoken, I was employed in raising Soldiers against the King: For being of a very tempting breadth, a Serjeant made use of me to inveigle Country Fellows, and list them in the service of the Parliament. As soon as he had made one man sure, his way was to oblige him to take a Shilling of a more homely figure, and then practise the same trick upon another. Thus I continued doing great mischief to the Crown, till my Officer chancing 20 one morning to walk abroad earlier than ordinary, sacrificed me to his pleasures, and made use of me to seduce a Milkmaid. This wench bent me, and gave me to her Sweetheart, applying more properly than she intended the usual form of, To my Love and from my Love. This ungenerous Gallant 25 marrying her within few days after, pawned me for a dram of Brandy, and drinking me out next day, I was beaten flat with an hammer, and again set a running. 30 After many adventures which it would be tedious to relate, I was sent to a young Spendthrift, in company with the Will of his deceased Father. The young Fellow, who I found was very extravagant, gave great demonstrations of joy at the receiving of the Will: but opening it, he found himself disinherited and cut off from the possession of a fair Estate, by virtue of my being made a present to him. This put him into such a passion, that after having taken me in his hand, and cursed me, he squirred me away from him as far as he could fling me. I chanced to light in an unfrequented place under a dead wall, where I lay undiscovered and useless, during the Usurpation of Oliver Cromwell. About a year after the King's return, a poor Cavalier that was walking there about dinner-time fortunately cast his eye upon me, and, to the great joy of us both, carried me to a Cook's shop, where he dined upon me, and drank the King's health. When I came again into the world, I found that I had been happier in my retirement than I thought, having probably by that means escaped wearing a monstrous pair of Breeches. Being now of great credit and antiquity, I was rather looked upon as a Medal than an ordinary Coin; for which reason a Gamester laid hold of me, and converted me to a Counter, having got together some dozens of us for that use. We led a melancholy life in his possession, being busie at those hours wherein current coin is at rest, and partaking the fate of our Master, being in a few moments valued at a Crown, a Pound, or a Sixpence, according to the situation in which the fortune of the Cards placed us. I had at length the good luck to see my Master break, by which means I was again sent abroad under my primitive denomination of a Shilling. I shall pass over many other accidents of less moment, and hasten to that fatal Catastrophe when I fell into the hands of an Artist who conveyed me under ground, and with an unmerciful pair of Sheers cut off my Titles, clipped my Brims, retrenched my Shape, rubbed me to my inmost Ring, and, in short, so spoiled and pillaged me, that he did not leave me worth a Groat. You may think what a confusion I was in to see my self thus curtailed and disfigured. I should have been ashamed to have shown my head, had not all my old acquaintance been reduced to the same shameful figure, excepting some 50 few that were punched through the belly. In the midst of this general calamity, when every body thought our misfortune irretrievable, and our case desperate, we were thrown into the Furnace together, and (as it often happens with cities rising 5 out of a fire) appeared with greater beauty and lustre than we could ever boast of before. this change of Sex which you now see, I shall take some other What has happened to me since opportunity to relate. In the mean time I shall only repeat two Adventures, as being very extraordinary, and neither of them having ever happened to me above once in my Life. The first was, my being in a Poet's Pocket, who was so taken with the brightness and novelty of my appearance, that it gave occasion to the finest Burlesque Poem in the British Language, entituled from me, The splendid Shilling. The second Adven15 ture, which I must not omit, happened to me in the year 1703, when I was given away in charity to a blind man; but indeed this was by a mistake, the person who gave me having heedlessly thrown me into the Hat among a penyworth of Farthings. 10 N° 254. Thursday, November 23. 1710. Splendide mendax. Hor. From my own Apartment, November 22. There are no Books which I more delight in than in Travels, 20 especially those that describe remote Countries, and give the writer an opportunity of showing his parts without incurring any danger of being examined or contradicted. Among all the Authors of this kind, our renowned Country-man Sir John Mandeville has distinguished himself by the Copiousness 25 of his Invention, and Greatness of his Genius. The second to Sir John I take to have been Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, a person of infinite adventure, and unbounded imagination. One reads the Voyages of these two Great Wits with as much astonishment as the Travels of Ulysses in Homer, or of the Red-Cross Knight in Spenser. All is Enchanted Ground, and Fairy Land. I have got into my hands by great chance several Manuscripts of these two eminent Authors, which are filled with greater wonders than any of those they have communicated to the publick; and indeed, were they not so well attested, would appear altogether improbable. I am apt to think, the ingenious Authors did not publish them with the rest of their works, lest they should pass for fictions and fables: A caution not unnecessary, when the reputation of their veracity was not yet established in the world. But as this reason has now no further weight, I shall make the publick a present of these curious pieces at such times as I shall find my self unprovided with other subjects. The present Paper I intend to fill with an extract of Sir John's Journal, in which that learned and worthy Knight gives an account of the freezing and thawing of several short Speeches which he made in the Territories of Nova Zembla. I need not inform my Reader, that the Author of Hudibras alludes to this strange Quality in that cold Climate, when, speaking of abstracted Notions cloathed in a visible Shape, he adds that apt Simile, Like words congeal'd in Northern Air. Not to keep my Reader any longer in suspence, the relation put into modern Language is as follows: We were separated by a storm in the Latitude of 73, insomuch that only the ship which I was in, with a Dutch and a French vessel, got safe into a creek of Nova Zembla. We landed in order to refit our vessels, and store our selves with provisions. The Crew of each vessel made themselves a Cabin 5 ΙΟ 15 20 25 30 ΙΟ of Turf and Wood, at some distance from each other, to fence themselves against the Inclemencies of the weather, which was severe beyond imagination. We soon observed, that in talking to one another we lost several of our words, and could not 5 hear one another at above two yards distance, and that too when we sate very near the fire. After much perplexity, I found that our words froze in the air before they could reach the ears of the person to whom they were spoken. I was soon confirmed in this conjecture, when, upon the increase of the cold, the whole company grew dumb, or rather deaf; for every man was sensible, as we afterwards found, that he spoke as well as ever; but the sounds no sooner took air, than they were condensed and lost. It was now a miserable spectacle to see us nodding and gaping at one another, every man talk15 ing, and no man heard. One might observe a Seaman, that could hail a ship at a league distance, beckoning with his hands, straining his lungs, and tearing his throat, but all in vain. 20 Nec vox, nec verba, sequuntur. We continued here three weeks in this dismal plight. At length, upon a turn of wind, the air about us began to thaw. Our Cabin was immediately filled with a dry clattering sound, which I afterwards found to be the crackling of consonants that broke above our heads, and were often mixed with a 25 gentle hissing, which I imputed to the letter S, that occurs so frequently in the English Tongue. I soon after felt a breeze of whispers rushing by my ear; for those being of a soft and gentle substance, immediately liquefied in the warm wind that blew across our Cabin. These were soon followed by syllables 30 and short words, and at length by entire sentences, that melted sooner or later, as they were more or less congealed; so that we now heard every thing that had been spoken during the whole three weeks that we had been silent, if I may use that expression. It was now very early in the morning, and yet, |