hard Hill and others
were sitting by his bed-side. After conversing as much as he well could in
his weak state, he held out his hand to me, and wished me success. When I
left him, I felt much dejected. It appeared to me as if it would be in this
case, as it is often in that of other earthly things, that we scarcely
possess what we repute a treasure, when it is taken from us.

I determined to take this journey on horseback, not only on account of the
relaxed state in which I found myself, after such close and constant
application, but because I wished to have all my time to myself upon the
road, in order the better to reflect upon the proper means of promoting
this great cause. The first place I resolved to visit was Bristol.
Accordingly I directed my course thither. On turning a corner, within about
a mile of that city, at about eight in the evening, I came within sight of
it. The weather was rather hazy, which occasioned it to look of unusual
dimensions. The bells of some of the churches, were then ringing; the sound
of them did not strike me, till I had turned the corner before mentioned,
when it came upon me at once. It filled me, almost directly, with a
melancholy for which I could not account. I began now to tremble, for the
first time, at the arduous task I had undertaken, of attempting to subvert
one of the branches of the commerce of the great place which was then
before me. I began to think of the host of people I should have to
encounter in it. I anticipated much persecution in it also; and I
questioned whether I should even get out of it alive. But in journeying on,
I became more calm and composed. My spirits began to return. In these
latter moments I considered my first feelings as useful, inasmuch as they
impressed upon me the necessity of extraordinary courage, and activity, and
perseverance, and of watchfulness, also, over my own conduct, that I might
not throw any stain upon the cause I had undertaken. When, therefore, I
entered the city, I entered it with an undaunted spirit, determining that
no labour should make me shrink, nor danger, nor even persecution, deter me
from my pursuit.

My first introduction was by means of a letter to Harry-Gandy, who had then
become one of the religious society of the Quakers. This introduction to
him was particularly useful to me, for he had been a seafaring man. In his
early youth he had been of a roving disposition; and, in order to see the
world, had been two voyage