* 6 o HISTORY OF THE [book iii. 
Esq. a man, whose tragical end having excited the 
attention of Europe, and furnished a lesson for his¬ 
tory to perpetuate, I shall be excused for entering 
somewhat at large into his conduct and fortune. 
Mr. Park was a native of Virginia* and was dis¬ 
tinguished for his successes at a very early time of 
life. Having married a lady of fortune in America, 
his first exploit was to rob his wife of her money, 
and then desert her. With this money he came to 
England, and obtained a return to parliament 5 but 
gross bribery being proved against him, he was ex¬ 
pelled the house. His next adventure was to cle- 
bauch the wife of a friend, for which being prose¬ 
cuted, he quitted England, and made a campaign 
with the army in Flanders, where he had the for¬ 
tune to attract the notice, and acquire the patro¬ 
nage, of the duke of Marlborough.—In 1704, he 
attended the duke as one of his aides-de-camp, and 
as such, on the event of the battle of Hochstet, 
having been sent by his grace to England, with in¬ 
telligence of that important victory, he was re¬ 
warded by the Queen with a purse of a thousand 
guineas, and her picture richly set with diamonds. 
The year following, the government of the Lee¬ 
ward Islands becoming vacant, Mr. Park, through 
the interest of his noble patron, was appointed to 
succeed Sir William Mathews therein, and he ar¬ 
rived at Antigua in July 1700. 
As he was a native of America, and his inte¬ 
rest with the British administration was believed to 
