“_All shall be well, and Jacke shall have Gill_,” quoth he. “I honour your resolution, sir, and shall take it extreme unkind in you if I ben’t asked to the wedding, always supposing that I am in England then.” “That wise saw of yours is mighty comforting, sir,” says I. “Say you so?” says he. “Then what do you think of this one, sir, _Age and wedlocke lames man and beast_?” I saw that he was jesting with me, but ’twas impossible for me to take offence, so kindly and sweet-tempered a person was he, and that friendship which was begun upon my landing at Surat hath continued ever since, to my much advantage. For although the Company hath made, and doth still make, many rules and advices for the better governing of the younger among its servants, yet rules are not always kept, and more than once hath Mr Martin brought me out of some trouble into which I was fallen, either through the natural heat of youth, or through the ill offices of Mr Spender. For our life at Surat, there was in it always an admirable good order. We all ate in company, saving only the snack taken on rising for to comfort the stomach. Many of the gentlemen for this lunch[39] drank burnt wine, made hot with cinnamons and other spice, but I always followed Mr Martin’s advice, who told me that so much wine-drinking was like to breed fevers and other disorders. For himself, he was wont to drink _thé_[40] (the which is now well known in England, but then only to those in our factories in the Indies), and I did likewise, seeing that this herb doth much benefit the health both of the mind and the body by the operation of a certain temperate heat that is particular[41] to’t, and hath been observed by many curious travellers. This life of ours in company, where so many persons of divers humours and originals were gathered together, made it necessary that all our behaviour should be civil and respectful, and this towards our chief and the chaplain in especial. The gentleman that occupied this last place was commonly a person of excellent parts and wise discourse, while his pay was higher than that even of the senior factors, and his precedence was fixed next after the Members of Council,--a station contrasting happily with the treatment accorded in these days to many parsons in England.