now and then, with one who understood it. I must also acknowledge that I found the generality of them very charitable, and fome of them even generous, though it the more redounds to my fhame, feeing neither the meannefs of my garb, of which yet I was not a little ashamed, nor the mortifying accidents that had happened to me could prevail upon me to fave a fhilling towards buying any thing better. I had indeed fome hopes of doing so as I came nearer to my father; but here I was again justly disappointed; the two or three laft provinces I was to pass through, having been greatly impoverished, and even laid wafte by the late war, fo that I found the clergy here lefs rich and generous, and fo great poverty reigned among the laity, that I had much ado to get fufficient fubfiftence among them. I fhould likewife obferve here, that every town, or even village I came thro', had a number of Lutherans and Calvinifts, who were still in a worse condition, infomuch that their minifters were obliged to keep fome poor inn or alehouse for fubfiftance; fo that by that time I had reached my father I was quite pennylefs and threadbare. I prefently, however, made myself known to him, though to his great furprife, not only on that account, but as it was fuch an unexpected vifit, of which he had not had the least notice given him, nor did at all dream of. The city where I met him being about three or four miles from his house, he clapped a small piece in my hand, and directed me to a house where I might get fome refreshment, and towards night conducted me to his own home, which I was not a little furprised to find even meaner than our townsman had defcribed to my mother and me. Here he bid me a fresh and moft tender welcome, and expreffed fuch a vifible concern that he was not able to give me at least as good entertainment as I had been used to with my mother, that I was hardly able to make him a proper answer.

And indeed the difference I found between the two places, the forlorn condition I faw myself in, the mean figure I made in an obfcure kind of village, my being now not only out of the way of any improvement, but in danger of lofing what I had got, affording me fuch a difmal profpect, that I could not eafily conceal my uneafinefs, and, in a little time, a more than ordinary defire of returning to my old home, fince this new one was in every respect fo little inviting to me. He found it no lefs difficult to conceal his diflike of my returning to my mother, and tried all he could to diffuade me from it. He advised me to try my fortune at two or three neighbouring cities or universities, and I complied with his defire, but found much greater discouragements than I could expect: first, the Jefuits were the teachers in all of them, and I had studied with the Dominicans,

between

between whom and them there never was a right understanding, but rather quite the contrary. I was got into a new country, (Germany) where the pronunciation of the Latin differed fo much from that I had been used to, that though no one could fpeak it more fluently than I, I neither could understand them, nor make myself understood by them, without the greateft difficulty. The country had been fo ruined by the war, that thofe few mendicant fcholars that remained in thofe universities*. might be rather faid to ftarve than to fubfift. My youth and ignorance of the German tongue, as well as my foreign pronunciation of the Latin and Greek, would likewife have difqualified me for being a tutor in any family, had there been any in a condition to have maintained one; fo that after all my efforts, which I rather tried out of obedience to my father, than any likely hopes I could have of fuccefs, I returned to him re infecta, all which only ferved to revive my defires of returning to my mother. But he being ftill as averfe to it as ever, bethought himfelf of a new way to diffuade me from it, and with so much art at the fame time, that I could not discover his aim. He had feen the greatest part of Europe, and could give an extraordinary account of it; he understood feveral of its languages, particularly the Italian, French, Spanish and German, and expatiated much on the advantages he had gained by travelling; and expreffed, at fome distance, a defire that I fhould vifit feveral of those countries I had not yet seen, particularly those of Holland, Flanders, and Brabant, which he highly commended for their opulence, and the great number of learned men they produced, and expatiated much on their hofpitality, generosity, and fondnefs for men of parts and genius, and how greatly I might be admired and promoted there on account of my learning, knowledge in languages and fciences, and for having already travelled through fo many confiderable parts of the world, all which he faid was the more furprifing, as I was ftill fo very young, for

Most of the universities of Germany have a number of these mendicant ftudents, who, as foon as the fchool-hours are over, go along the streets from houfe to houfe, finging fome pious Latin verfes to excite people's charity, and, in fome opulent cities, get enough to live well and comfortably, and to buy all the books that are neceffary for them, by which means fome of them become very learned men, and get to good preferment; but as it was quite otherwife in thefe, and, indeed, every city along the Rhine, quite down below the great city of Cologn (where the French forces had caufed fuch dreadful dilapidations as could not be feen without horror); thefe univerfities had been long fince forfaken by all thofe mendicant ftudents, who could no longer find means of fubfifting them. And this I afterwards obferved to be the cafe in every place where the French troops had been, as I may have further occafion to fhew in the fequel. I was

I was then hardly full fixteen years old. He could not indeed have found a more effectual way than that of foothing my vanity, to make me give wholly into his views, and as to the objection of the want of money, confidering how well acquainted I was with the way of travelling at free-coft, he faid I could not but promife myfelf much better fuccefs through thofe countries, where the peoples generofity was equal to their known opulence.

I was now (unknown to him) to think of fome more cunning, fafe, and effectual way of travelling than that I had followed in my two former journies; and fince I found that my paffing for an Irishman and a fufferer for religion, did not only expofe me to the danger of being difcovered, but came fhort of the merit and admiration I had expected from it, I refolved on a new project, which, though equally hazardous, I had not fenfe enough to forfee, and tho' ftill more difhoneft, I had not virtue enough to deter me from. I fay, unknown to my father, for I had carefully concealed all the vile indirect pretences I had already ufed, and much more was I now obliged to do so, knowing him to be fo upright and religious a man, that I should not only have incurred his utmost anger, but that he would likewife have taken all poffible means to have deterred me from, or disappointed me in it. I recollected, that whilft I was learning humanity, rhetoric and geography with the Jefuits, I had heard them fpeak of the Eaft-Indies, China, Japan, &c. and expatiate much in praife of thofe countries, and the ingenuity of the inhabitants. The idea they had given us of them was indeed too general and imperfect, at leaft what I remembered of it, was by far too fhort and confused, for a person of the leaft prudence or forecaft to have built fuch a wild project upon, because all the notion they had given us of it, was only from their maps and comments upon them, for they made ufe of geographical books. However, I was rath enough to think, that what I wanted of a right knowledge of them, I might make up by the ftrength of a pregnant invention, in which I flattered myself I might fucceed the more eafily, as I fuppofed they were fo little known by the generality of Europeans, that they were only looked upon, in the lump, to be Antipodes to them in almost every refpect, as religion, manners, drefs, &c. This was my crude notion of the matter, which I thought afforded a vaft fcope to a fertile fancy to work upon, and I had no mistrust of myself on that head. I had likewife heard that their way of writing differed very much from ours, but how, and in what, I was altogether ignorant, or had quite forgot it, and fo took it into my head, that like the Hebrew, and other oriental tongues I had heard of, they must write from the right to the 4 left,

left, and on this puerile fuppofition, I fet about excogitating of an alphabet that might answer my purpofe. Another thing that fhewed my inconfiderate folly was, that tho' I could not but know that the Greeks and Hebrews had particular names for their letters, 'it never came once into my head to imitate them in that, as I had in the figures, powers, &c. of some of the letters on a fuppofition, that as they might flow originally from the fame fountain, fo they might be reafonably imagined to retain ftill fome kind of refemblance. The truth is, my time was fhort, and knowlege in what I went about fo very small and confufed, and what I did was by stealth, and fear of being detected by my father; that I was foon after made fenfible of my want of forecast, when I came to converfe with proper judges, and found the neceffity not only of inventing names for the letters, but to make feveral amendments to my wild scheme, as I became better acquainted with thofe Eastern countries.

However, confidering my tender years, fmall experience, and other fuch difadvantages, I have had fince no small cause to wonder how I could excogitate not only fuch an alphabet, and names of letters, but likewife many other particulars equally difficult, such as a confiderable piece of a new language and grammar, a new divifion of the year into twenty months, a new religion, &c. and all out of my own head, in order to ftuff them into that most abominable romance which I published foon after my coming into England, and which occafioned fuch variety of opinions concerning it, and its fhameless author; fome thinking it above the capacity of fuch a young fellow to invent, and others believing it the refult of long thought and contrivance. Alas, for me, my fancy was but too fertile and ready for all fuch things, when I fet about them, and when any question has been started on a sudden, about matters I was ever fo unprepared for, I feldom found myself at a loss for a quick answer, which, if fatisfactory, I ftored up in my retentive memory. But to return to my alphabet, as foon as I had finished it to my mind, I began to inure my hand to write it with fome readiness, that it might upon occafion appear natural to me, which I found the more difficult, as I never was expert at my pen, and was quite unused to this backward way of writing; and this obliged me to alter the form of fome of them, for the more eafy tracing them with the pen, and to contrive fome abreviations and joining of letters, and other fuch improvements for expedition, which done, I thought myself fufficiently prepared for paffing for a Japanese converted to Chriftianity. The only difficulty was, how to reconcile this new and vile affumption with my Avignon certificate, which was not to be done but by copying it a new, and altering it where I faw fit, and clap

ping

1

ping the feal from the original one to the counterfeit; but though I was ready enough at wording it to my mind, I wrote fo indifferent a hand, that it could never pafs for that of a fecretary of a vice-legate, and to have had it done by a better penman was too difficult and hazardous for me to venture. At length I thought it fafeft to trust to my copying it as well as I could, with its flourishes and ornaments, though I did it in fuch a coarse and clumfy manner, that it would hardly have paffed for a tolerable counterfeit. There was likewife another danger of a difcovery from the different marks and make of the Ger man and Avignon paper, but that never came then in my head; fo that having made what alterations I thought proper in the tenor of the pafs, and clapping the old feal to it, I made no difficulty to truft the reft to fortune, and took a melancholy leave of my poor father, who shed abundance of tears over me, and wished me all poffible bleffings and fuccefs, not dreaming how little this new project of mine deserved of either; and when I was got at fome distance from him, I put on my old pilgrim's habit, and began my journey with a kind of heavy heart, according to the rout he had penned down for me, and which was quite oppofite to that which would have brought me to my own home. I had, indeed, taken care to write to my anxious mother, and to acquaint her with what had paffed between my father and me, and with my defire of taking a tour into the Low Countries before I returned to her, but I had afterwards reason to fear, that the melancholy style in which it was worded, did rather increase than mitigate her concern for her now really worthlefs fon; for, from that time, neither fhe, nor yet my father, ever heard of me more, nor I of them, and, in all likelihood, both of them have bewailed my loss at a much greater rate than I deferved, if it did not prove the means of Thortening their days.'

(To be continued in our next.)

G.

ALMENA: An English Opera. As it is performed at the TheatreRoyal in Drury-lane. Written by Mr. Rolt, Author of Eliza. The Mufic compofed by Mr. Arne and Mr. Battishall. 8vo. 1 s. Becket & De Hondt.

TH

HE prefent reigning tafte for mufical exhibitions on the ftage, hath been confidered by fome, as the tranfitory effect of mere novelty and caprice; which, having had its day, will foon be over, and give place to the more rational entertainments of the theatre. It appears to us, however, to be the very REV. Nov. 1764.

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