hey were then called, and in the whale fishery. This
measure appears to have resembled the embargoes so commonly resorted
to in this country on similar occasions, rather than a total
prohibition of trade.--B.]

And they say it is very true, but very strange, for we use to believe
they cannot support themselves without trade. Thence home to dinner
and then to the office, where all the afternoon, and at night till
very late, and then home to supper and bed, having a great cold, got on
Sunday last, by sitting too long with my head bare, for Mercer to comb
my hair and wash my eares.

25th. Up, and busy all the morning, dined at home upon a hare pye, very
good meat, and so to my office again, and in the afternoon by coach to
attend the Council at White Hall, but come too late, so back with Mr.
Gifford, a merchant, and he and I to the Coffee-house, where I met Mr.
Hill, and there he tells me that he is to be Assistant to the Secretary
of the Prize Office (Sir Ellis Layton), which is to be held at Sir
Richard Ford's, which, methinks, is but something low, but perhaps may
bring him something considerable; but it makes me alter my opinion of
his being so rich as to make a fortune for Mrs. Pickering. Thence home
and visited Sir J. Minnes, who continues ill, but is something better;
there he told me what a mad freaking fellow Sir Ellis Layton hath been,
and is, and once at Antwerp was really mad. Thence to my office late,
my cold troubling me, and having by squeezing myself in a coach hurt my
testicles, but I hope will cease its pain without swelling. So home out
of order, to supper and to bed.

26th. Lay, being in some pain, but not much, with my last night's
bruise, but up and to my office, where busy all the morning, the like
after dinner till very late, then home to supper and to bed. My wife
mightily troubled with the tooth ake, and my cold not being gone yet,
but my bruise yesterday goes away again, and it chiefly occasioned I
think now from the sudden change of the weather from a frost to a great
rayne on a sudden.

27th. Called up by Mr. Creed to discourse about some Tangier business,
and he gone I made me ready and found Jane Welsh, Mr. Jervas his mayde,
come to tell me that she was gone from her master, and is resolved
to stick to this sweetheart of hers, one Harbing (a very sorry little
fellow, and poor), which I did in a word or two endeavour to dissuade
her from, but being unwilling to keep her lon