May the Glorious God our Saviour, grant you His continuall Direction, and Protection; and multiply His Blessings to Your honourable Family.

Tis the unceasing prayer of, Your Honors, Most sincere and humble servant.

SIR,

Tis just now, that I have had the Pleasure of hearing that you are safely arrived; the Captain of the Ship saies, at New-Castle; but private Letters say, at London.

I may truly say, you never had a Friend upon Earth, more sincerely, and assiduously concerned for your Prosperity; and more heartily sympathizing with you in every Article of Adversity; or that preserved a more inviolable Friendshipp under Circumstances that perhaps might have shock'd it in some other Person. When I have been diverse Times told, that you have spoken to my Disadvantage, my constant Answer has been, that Gentleman knowes me so well, I am sure he never spoke an ill Word of me! You might therefore justly wonder at it, if I should lett slip, an opportunity of expressing to you my Satisfaction in the good Providence, which has thus watched over you.

Our Governour desires me to do him all the good Offices, which my poor pen may serve him in. And you may be sure, that the fifth Chapter of Matthew will compel one of my Principles, to do all good Offices, for one to whom I am so obliged.

I know nothing that I am capable of doing; but only to entreat of you, that when a certain Point, the Revival whereof, you have been long since apprised of my Apprehensions and Expectations is accomplished, you do him what good may ly in your way.

He has powerful Enemies (as well as Friends,) and some that are gone from hence, no doubt, carried terrible Representations of him; And, I wish that he had given them less occasions.

But tho' Governor Eutropius had very much maligned Chrysostom, and loaded him with Indignities, yett, when Eutropius, likely to be overwhelmed with his Enemies fled unto Chrys: to defend him, the honest old Man spoke, as far as his Conscience would lett ̧ him, if no farther, on his Behalf.

That for which I am still more sollicitous, is, that a generous Disposition to do all the good that is possible unto my poor Countrey may alwayes inspire you, and that your Opportunities for it may be

multiplied, and that all Vanity and Vexation you have seen embittering this evil World may raise in your Mind those noble and holy Ideas of a better world, which may assure you of a Portion in it.

Think on these Things; and I shall be content, tho' you never employ one Tho't on, Your Honours, most sincere Friend and humble servant.

BOSTON N. E. 22 d. X m. [December.] 1714.

HONOURABLE SIR,So well acquainted have you been with our uncontroleable Maxim, that no man can at once acquire a great Esteem and enjoy a great Repose; as to render it no Surprise to you, if the great Esteem which you have in these American Colonies, procure you the Trouble of Addresses from them on many Occasions.

If one of the Things addressed unto you from this side of the Atlantic, be what you have here enclosed, it is not from one who cherishes any fond or vain Expectations from the Action, but it is because it might be thought some Gratification unto the Curiosity of so illustrious a Literator, to be inform'd, whether any good Letters are cultivated on the American Strand; whether any light ever shines in the American Regions; and what Studies are prosecuted in the Western Haemisphere, which Antiquity condemned unto perpetuall Darkness.

Nor had this Preesumption been committed, if it had not served as an Introduction to another Matter, wherein it is desired that I should give your honour the Trouble of reading a Petition on the Behalf of these Plantations.

It cannot but recommend my Country unto your Favour, when you consider the Churches, which illuminate it, as the nearest Counterpane upon Earth unto these primitive Churches, unto whose Constitution, you have made such exquisite and impartial Enquiries. But it will be a sufficient Recommendation, that it is a Country full of honest people, whose Distresses may bespeak your Concern for them; to be distressed is ever to deserve your favour!

New-England is now grown a populous Country; and by Consequence the Business therein carried on must be considerable. But for some well known Causes tis come to pass that it may say, Silver and Gold have I none.2

1 This is a copy of a letter, but not in Mather's writing, to Peter King (16691734), who had defended William Whiston.

2 An undated fragment in the American Antiquarian Society, written by Mather to Sir William Ashurst reads: "Our Countrey is now growing full of

The Main Subsistence for our Business these many Years has been, upon Bills of Credit, issued out from the publick Treasury of the Province, the Fund whereof has been in our immense Debts contracted by our grievous Wars; for the Payment of which the Faith of our General Assembly has been engaged, that certain heavy Taxes should be annually levyed on the People, untill the whole sum in the Bills of Credit thus emitted, should return into the Treasury. The Debts of the Province have thus been the Riches of it, and in the Circulation of these Bills, a Medium of Trade and a Method for our Conveyence of Credit unto one another has been kept in Motion.

But our extraordinary Debts are hastening, we hope to a period. Our Bills of Credit are apace going into the Treasury; where having done what they have to do, they expire, as the Theatre on which they have done their part, at length is to do, in Flames. What Number and Value of them we have now circulating, is, as our Gentlemen of Business express it, no more than a Spratt in a Whale Belly; and bear little Proportion to the Business of the Country, that our People are plunged into inexpressible Difficulties. The most uneasy of the four grand Jewish pains, Vacuitas Marsupis, is come upon us. The Blood in our Veins is much of it exhausted; and what little is left, is by some wealthy and hoarding People, stagnated. We find the Name of Truckland (which your Honour knows is that Name of Germany) will scarce do for New england; but throws us into inextricable Difficulty's. For the Releef of these Difficulties, not a few of our more ingenious Gentlemen, form'd a Projection of a BANK in Partnership among themselves the Bills whereof might somewhat answer the Necessities of the Country. The Persons concerned in it are many of them such as in all Ac'tts are in superior Circumstances. From all Parts of the Land they pray to come into the Partnership; their Interest is very potent, and very much carries the new Elections for our Generall Assembly.

I forbear to give your Honour the severale Articles of the Pro

People and by consequence full of Business. But a Medium of Trade almost wholly failing among us, we find ourselves plunged into inexpressible Difficulties. For the Releef of these Difficulties a great Number of our best Gentlemen, began to form a Projection of a Bank, which your Honour finds in the Packett that now waits upon you. The Projection meeting with Opposition from some who can do what they will in our Government, the Gentlemen prostrate themselves before the King, for His Royal Favour to it. It is now humbly desired by the Gentlemen concerned in this Affair, that our Honourable and most Valuable Friend, Sir William Ashurst, will please to bestow a few Thoughts on their projection; and that, if a Person [ ]" See also Sewall, Diary, III. 27.

jection because it will be laid before you by certain Gentlemen who will wait upon you with it. What I have to relate is, that some gentlemen (for some Reasons which in the Monarchia Solipsorum are very passing ones,) have appeared violently against this Projection; and partly by their Share in the Government, and partly their way of gaining their Points upon it, they have drawn upon it a Discountenance from the Government. At the same time the Government has been drawn into an Action which many think to be not advisedly, and hardly justifiable. Even to order the making more Bills of Credit like our former, and letting fifty thousand pounds of them out upon Interest unto such as will borrow them; the Principall with the Interest to be paid in five Years, or the Mortgaged Lands are seiz'd by the Government. However many who dash hard and with much noise against the projected Bank, do it really from a publick Spirit, and from a real Perswasion that the Public will be best served in the way whereof the Government is now making an Experiment. In this [torn] [experience the Gentleman Bank humbly] prostrate themselves before the Throne for the Favour; And what I have to request of your Honour, is, that if in your deep Penetration, you see their Proposals to be wise, and just, and allowable, you will please to cast a benign Aspect upon them. Your excellent Character assures us, that if you see what is proposed, will be for the service of the Crown, and for the Encouragement, and Consolation of a welldisposed People, willing in all Things to live honestly, it will be made Partaker of your favourable Influences.

I shall not make the Trouble of my long Letter an endless one; but with hearty Prayers, that you may long shine, which you have hitherto done, as One of the bright Glories of our Nation; and that when you retire, your precious Memory may be celebrated in more Languages, [than] the Obsequies of the renowned Counsellour Peireskius;1 I take leave, and subscribe, Your Honour's Most sincere, and Humble Servant.2

1 Perhaps the French scholar and antiquary, Nicholas Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1583-1637), is intended.

2 “December 23. Dr. C. Mather preaches excellently from Ps. 37. Trust in the Lord etc., only spake of the Sun being in the centre of our System. I think it inconvenient to assert such Problems." Sewall, Diary, III. 31.

ren,

“26'd. 10 m. 1714. Also [admitted], Isaac Pearse, one of the fourteen Brethdismissed unto the new Church, returned unto it."

“9 d. 11 m. 1714-15. Dismissed unto the New Church in our Neighborhood, Lydia Alexander." Cotton Mather's MS. Records of the Second Church, II.

HONOURED SIR, The constant Kindness you express to my Father's Family, makes me fly to you, with some hopes that you will also be my Father.

Tis too well known, that my Inclination is more for Business than for Learning.

And being inclined unto the Business of the Sea, my Friends have a prospect of my arriving sooner to some figure on that Element, than on the Long wharf or the Dock.

I have pretty well perfected myself in the Theory of Navigation. And it is now Necessary that I take a few Voyages for the practick part. I must go aboard some ship, as a school for my Education; and some very good Commanders who have been advised withal, think it is not absolutely necessary, nor perhaps convenient, that I should enter at the Cook-room door.

I confess my desire, that the ship whereof your son is the Commander, may be my School.

Here, I would most heartily submitt unto my Father's Expectation, that I apply my Hand unto Every Action aboard, whereof the Master and Mate shall judge me capable, and yeeld an exact obedience to all their orders.

And that when I come to London, I should stay aboard, stick to the ship, and attend both the unlading and Loading of it, and only ask one Fortnights Leave to visit my Uncle; I hope, I am every way so disposed, that there will be no Difficulty in my obedience to the Commands, of those aboard whom I shall acknowledge as my Superiours.

My Father is willing to have me under all the Government of a sailor, and to do all possible Duty and service aboard; and yett to pay for me, as a passenger.

Sir, I cast myself upon you, in this matter, and pray to be considered, as your younger Son; who, by consequence, must pay obedience to the Elder.

But, I do it with submission, that, if you think any better Advice can be given to prepare me to do some Good in the world, I shall be sensible that it ought to be complied withal.

So I take Leave; Sir, Your most obedient Servt,2

1 A letter written by Mather, but intended for the signature of his son Increase Mather, now destined for a commercial life.

2" 16 d. 1 m. [March], 1714-15. At a Church Meeting. The Church desired