I own I deserv’d all those Misfortunes, which I afterwards experienc’d. It had doubtless been more glorious, and more worthy of a Christian Monarch, to have guided a gross and barbarous People to the Knowledge of the true God, rather than to have proceeded from Conquest to Conquest, and to have shed such Torrents of innocent Blood. And, indeed, it had been easy for me to have converted the whole Empire; for there was a Time when all my Determinations were revered like Oracles. But unmindful of God, and of myself, I dream’d of nothing but the vain Splendor of a Court, and the Increase of my Power. Moreover, being now given up to a deprav’d and reprobate Mind, I chose to aggravate and inflame these Discontents, rather than remove them, as if the Offences of my Injustice were to be rectify’d by my Cruelty. To all the Remonstrances of my Friends I still urg’d, _Necessity, the Tyrant’s hellish Plea_. So that Misfortune on Misfortune came thick upon me, and I fell into such Disgrace and Wretchedness, that from my Example, all Mortals may learn what a Vicissitude there is in human Affairs, and how short is the Duration of arbitrary Power and Violence. My Subjects Aversion increas’d with the Severity of my Government, and when they perceiv’d that the Vices, to which I abandon’d myself, but ill agreed with that divine Original I boasted, and were utterly irreconcilable with my Character, as Embassador of the Sun, they began to examine every thing with more Attention, particularly the Circumstance of my Arrival into these Parts, and the Condition I was in when I landed upon their Coast. They now saw, that all the great Things I had done, were owing more to the Savageness of the _Quamites_, than to any extraordinary Abilities of my own, especially as they found, after that Mist of Ignorance was dispell’d, that I had actually committed many Errors in the Course of my Government. Above all my Conduct was highly censur’d by the _Kispucians_, a judicious and penetrating People. They had observ’d in my publick Edict a Multitude of Things so crude and indigested, as betray’d the grossest Ignorance in Politicks. Nor was the Censure unjust: For as my academical Tutors and Instructors never dream’d of Crowns and Scepters for me, they gave me an Education more adapted to a private Station, than that of a Sovereign; and my Studies, which extended no farther than to some little System of Divinity, and a few metaphysical Terms, were by no Means equal to my present Elevation, where I had the Charge of two Empires, and almost twenty Kingdoms upon my Hands. The _Martinians_ had also remark’d, that the Ships of War I had built, were so rude and clumsy, that in an Engagement they were of no manner of use against a regular and well appointed Fleet, and that all my naval Glory was to be ascrib’d solely to the Invention of Cannon. All these cutting Remarks they industriously dispers’d, and at the same Time call’d to