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■vifited ; I accordingly put it in Execution. This I did as a private Memorandum 
for myfelf, as well as to fatisfy the Curiofity of fome particular Friends, which I 
have done without putting others to any Coft : The pricked Lines fhew the Voyages 
and Journeys I have made ; the Darts fliew the Courfe, and the Dates the Months 
and Years in which the Voyages were made. As our being informed of one Thing 
naturally leads us into Enquiries after others, I expedt it will be asked, what Bufinefs 
I had, or what I did in thefe Foreign Parts ? therefore to fatisfy the Curiofity of fuch 
as tliink it worth their While to read it, and to fave them the Trouble of asking me 
any Qi^ftions, I (hall inform every one, that it was meer Curiofity led me abroad, 
which is commonly termed no Bufinefs at all. But to proceed in a regular Courfe : 
My Peregrinations muft begin with my Being, which happened in the Parifh of 
WeJl-Ham\\\Effex, about the Year 1694, where for fome Years I pafied my Child- 
hood, and I think in the Beginning of the 17th Century I was placed as a Boarder 
in the Houfe of the Reverend Mr. Hmnt, then a Schoolmafter of fome Note, at 
Leighton-Stone in Effex, where I continued fome Time. I was afterwards fent to 
Brentwood in Effex, a little farther from Home, where I was under the Tuition of 
the Reverend Mr. Appool for fome Years, where having gone through the ordinary 
School Education, and becoming of a proper Age, I was defigned by my Parents for 
Bufinefs, and placed for a reafonable Time with a Mafter of Writing and Accounts, 
in order to fit me for a trading Life. 
In Trade there could not be found a Reverend Mailer to place me with ; but I 
was placed with the Son of a Levifey Mr. yohn Dod, of Fenchurch-Streety London, an 
exceeding flriift Chriftian of our eilabliflied Church, and a finifhed Scholar in the 
Greek and Latin Languages, tho’ a Man in Trade. From him and his Family I found 
very good and genteel Ufage for feven Years. I cannot help mentioning one Event 
which fell out about the Middle of the Time I was in Mr. DoL^ Houfe. ^ One Dr. Nicho- 
las, an eminent Phyfician, who lived in Covent Garden, happened to die, and he being 
a Relation of Mr. DoL$, his Books, which amounted to a great Bulk, were flowed 
in a fpare Room adjoining to my Bed-Chamber in Mr. DoL^ Houfe, and I being 
fond of looking into Books, and having a free Accefs to them, fpent my Evenings, 
and often the greatefl Part of my Nights, in turning over thefe Books, and reading fuch 
Parts of them as fuited befl with my Genius : This Practice I followed for two or 
three Years in the latter Part of my Time with Mr. Dod, which I believe gave me a 
very difadvantageous Turn of Mind, for I could not think of confining myfelf to Bu- 
finefs, which probably would have raifed my Fortune in the World. My Head was 
filled with a confufed Mixture of Voyages, Travels, Aflronomy, Experimental Phi- 
lofophy. Natural HiRory, Painting, Sculpture, and many other Things, which gave 
me an Inclination to vifit Foreign Parts, in order to convince my Senfes of fome 
^ Things, which yet had been only conceived by the Mind : So in the Year 1716, re- 
gardlefs of Gain, I laid afide all Thoughts of confining myfelf to Bufinefs 5 being now 
my own Mailer, I fet out on a Voyage for Holland, in Auguft of the above Year, 
and returned in September, (as the prick’d Line in the Map ihews) after 1 had vifited 
mod of the Towns of Note in Holland. At my Return I continued in London, and 
fometimes in Effex, being dill idle for about two Years j when a Friend of mine, a 
T - , Merchant 
