ou'll credit me, if three Year's absence has
not made you forget _Hazard_.

_Friend._ _Hazard_, my Friend! come to my Arms and Heart.

_Haz._ This unexpected Happiness o'erjoys me. Who could have imagin'd to
have found thee in _Virginia_? I thought thou hadst been in _Spain_ with
thy Brother.

_Friend._ I was so till ten Months since, when my Uncle Colonel
_Friendly_ dying here, left me a considerable Plantation; and, faith,
I find Diversions not altogether to be despis'd; the God of Love reigns
here with as much power as in Courts or popular Cities. But prithee what
Chance (fortunate to me) drove thee to this part of the new World.

_Haz._ Why, faith, ill Company, and that common Vice of the Town,
Gaming, soon run out my younger Brother's Fortune: for imagining, like
some of the luckier Gamesters, to improve my Stock at the Groom
Porter's, I ventur'd on, and lost all. My elder Brother, an errant Jew,
had neither Friendship nor Honour enough to support me; but at last
being mollified by Persuasions, and the hopes of being for ever rid of
me, sent me hither with a small Cargo to seek my Fortune--

_Friend._ And begin the World withal.

_Haz._ I thought this a better Venture than to turn sharping Bully,
Cully in Prentices and Country Squires, with my Pocket full of false
Dice, your high and low Flats and Bars; or turn Broker to young Heirs;
take up Goods to pay tenfold at the Death of their Fathers, and take
Fees on both sides; or set up all night at the Groom-Porter's, begging
his Honour to go a Guinea the better of the lay. No, _Friendly_, I had
rather starve abroad, than live pity'd and despis'd at home.

_Friend._ Thou art in the right, and art come just in the nick of time
to make thy Fortune.--Wilt thou follow my Advice?

_Haz._ Thou art too honest to command any thing that I shall refuse.

_Friend._ You must know then, there is about a Mile from _James-Town_ a
young Gentlewoman--no matter for her Birth, her Breeding's the best this
World affords, she is married to one of the richest Merchants here; he
is old and sick, and now gone into _England_ for the recovery of his
Health, where he'll e'en give up the Ghost: he has writ her word he
finds no Amendment, and resolves to stay another Year. The letter I
accidentally took up, and have about me; 'tis easily counterfeited, and
will be of great use to us.

_Haz._ Now do I fancy I conceive thee.

_Friend._ Well, hear me first, you shall get another Letter wri