ng gone before he got down. So home, and busy till
night, and then to Sir W. Pen, with my wife, to sit and chat, and a
small supper, and home to bed. The death of Everson, and the report of
our success, beyond expectation, in the killing of so great a number of
men, hath raised the estimation of the late victory considerably; but it
is only among fools: for all that was but accidental. But this morning,
getting Sir.W. Pen to read over the Narrative with me, he did sparingly,
yet plainly, say that we might have intercepted their Zealand squadron
coming home, if we had done our parts; and more, that we might have
spooned before the wind as well as they, and have overtaken their ships
in the pursuite, in all the while.

[To spoom, or spoon, is to go right before the wind, without any
sail. Sea Dictionary. Dryden uses the word

"When virtue spooms before a prosperous gale,
My heaving wishes help to fill the sail."
Hind and Panther, iii. 96.]

4th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning, and, at noon
to dinner, and Mr. Cooke dined with us, who is lately come from
Hinchingbroke, [Lord Hinchingbrooke] who is also come to town: The
family all well. Then I to the office, where very busy to state to Mr.
Coventry the account of the victuals of the fleete, and late at it, and
then home to supper and to bed. This evening, Sir W. Pen come into the
garden, and walked with me, and told me that he had certain notice that
at Flushing they are in great distraction. De Ruyter dares not come on
shore for fear of the people; nor any body open their houses or shops
for fear of the tumult: which is a every good hearing.

5th. (Lord's day). Up, and down to the Old Swan, and there called Betty
Michell and her husband, and had two or three a long salutes from her
out of sight of 'su mari', which pleased me mightily, and so carried
them by water to West minster, and I to St. James's, and there had a
meeting before the Duke of Yorke, complaining of want of money, but
nothing done to any purpose, for want we shall, so that now our advices
to him signify nothing. Here Sir W. Coventry did acquaint the Duke of
Yorke how the world do discourse of the ill method of our books, and
that we would consider how to answer any enquiry which shall be made
after our practice therein, which will I think concern the Controller
most, but I shall make it a memento to myself. The