Pietas in patriam the life of His Excellency Sir William Phips, Knt. late Captain…

But the Spanish Wreck, where Sir William had made his first good Voyage, was not the only, nor the Richest Wreck, that he knew to be lying under the Water. He knew particularly that when the Ship, which had Governor Boadilla Aboard, was cast away, there was, as Peter Martyr says, an entire Table of Gold of Three Thousand, Three Hundred and ten Pound Weight.

But the Spanish Wreck, where Sir William had made his first good Voyage, was not the only, nor the Richest Wreck, that he knew to be lying under the Water. He knew particularly that when the Ship, which had Governour Boadilla Aboard, was cast away, there was, as Peter Martyr says, an entire Table of Gold of Three Thousand, Three Hundred and ten Pound Weight.

The Duke of Albemarle's Patent for all such Wrecks now expiring, Sir William thought on the Motto, which is upon the Gold Medal, bestowed by the late King, with his Knighthood upon him, Semper Tibi pendeat Hamus: And supposing himself to have gained sufficient Information of the right Way to such a Wreck, it was his purpose upon his Dismission from his Government, once more to have gone unto his old Fishing-Trade, upon a mighty Shelf of Rocks and Bank of Sands, that lie where he had informed himself.

The Duke of Albemarl's Patent for all such Wrecks now expiring, Sir William thought on the Motto, which is upon the Gold Medal, bestowed by the late King, with his Knighthood upon him, Semper Tibi pendeat Hamus: And supposing himself to have gained sufficient Information of the right Way to such a Wreck, it was his purpose upon his Dismission from his Government, once more to have gone unto his old Fishing-Trade, upon a mighty Shelf of Rocks and Bank of Sands, that ly where he had informed himself.

But as the Prophet Haggai and Zechariah, in their Psalm upon the Grants made unto their People by the Emperors of Persia, have that Reflection, Man's Breath goeth forth, he returns to his Earth; in that very Day his Thoughts perish. My Reader must now see what came of all these considerable Thoughts. About the middle of February 1694. Sir William found himself indisposed with a Cold, which obliged him to keep his Chamber; but under this Indisposition, he received the Honour of a Visit from a very