Section 4

SECT. 4.

BUT he was hitherto, no more than beginning to make Scaffolds for further and higher Actions! He would frequently tell the Gentlewoman his Wife, That he should yet be Captain of a King's Ship; That he should come to have the Command of better Men than he was now accounted himself; And, That he should be Owner of a Fair Brick-House in the Green-Lane of North-Boston; and, That it may be, this would not be all that the Providence of God would bring him to. She entertained these Passages with a sufficient Incredulity; but he had so serious and positive an Expectation of them, that it is not casie to say, what was the Original thereof. He was of an Enterprising Genius, and naturally disdained Littleness: But his Disposition for Business was of the Dutch Mould, where, with a little show of Wit, there is as much Wisdom demonstrated, as can be shown by any Nation. His Talent lay not in the Airs, that serve chiefly for ⟨p. 7⟩the pleasant and sudden Turns of Conversation; but, he might say, as Themistocles, Though he could not play upon a Fiddle, yet he knew how to make a little City become a Great One. He would prudently contrive a weighty Undertaking, and then patiently pursue it unto the End. He was of an Inclination, cutting rather like a Hatchet, than like a Razor; he would propose very Considerable Matters to himself, and then so cut through them, that no Difficulties could put by the Edge of his Resolutions. Being thus of the True Temper, for doing of Great Things, he betakes himself to the Sea, the Right Scene for such Things; and upon Advice of a Spanish Wreck about the Bahama's, he took a Voyage thither; but with little more success, than what just served him a little to furnish him for a Voyage to England; whither he went in a Vessel, not much unlike that, which the Dutchmen stamped on their First Coin, with these Words about it, Incertum quo Fata ferant. Having first informed himself, that there was another Spanish Wreck, wherein was lost a mighty Treasure, hitherto undiscovered, he had a strong Impression upon his Mind, that He must be the Discoverer; and he made such Representations of his Design at White-Hall, that by the Year 1683, he became the Captain of a King's Ship, and arrived at New-England, Commander of the Algiers-Rose, a Frigate of Eighteen Guns, and Ninety five Men.