pply:
at the same time I sent my two sisters in the country, each of them an
hundred pounds, they being, though not in want, yet not in very good
circumstances; one having been married, and left a widow; and the other
having a husband not so kind to her as he should be.

But among all my relations, or acquaintances, I could not yet pitch upon
one, to whom I durst commit the gross of my stock, that I might go away
to the Brasils, and leave things safe behind me; and this greatly
perplexed me.

I had once a mind to have gone to the Brasils, and have settled my self
there; for I was, as it were, naturalized to the place; but I had some
little scruple in my mind about religion, which insensibly drew me back,
of which I shall say more presently. However, it was not religion that
kept me from going thither for the present; and as I had made no scruple
of being openly of the religion of the country, all the while I was
among them, so neither did I yet; only that now and then having of late
thought more of it than formerly, when I began to think of living and
dying among them, I began to regret my having professed myself a Papist,
and thought it might not be the best religion to die in.

But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that kept me from going
to the Brasils, but that really I did not know with whom to leave my
effects behind me; so I resolved at last to go to England with them,
where if I arrived, I concluded I should make some acquaintance, or find
some relations, that would be faithful to me; and accordingly I prepared
to go for England with all my wealth.

In order to prepare things for my going home, I first (the Brasil fleet
being just going away) resolved to give answers suitable to the just and
faithful account of things I had from thence; and first to the prior of
St. Augustine I wrote a letter full of thanks for his just dealings, and
the offer of the eight hundred and seventy-two moidores, which was
undisposed of, which I desired might be given, five hundred to the
monastery, and three hundred and seventy-two to the poor, as the prior
should direct, desiring the good Padre's prayers for me, and the like.

I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with all the
acknowledgment that so much justice and honesty called for; as for
sending them any present, they were far above having any occasion of it.

Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his industry in the
improving the plantation