Thus, said our Scrivener, have I given you an account of my Masters way to get money, and I have not been without mine: he would many times permit me to cheat a little, because I assisted him and was privy to his concerns. I have one way that brings me in twenty or thirty pounds _per annum_; for all Deeds of Bargain and Sale are to be Enrolled in six moneths after the date, either in _Chancery_, if it be Land or Houses out of _London_, or in _Guild-Hall_, if within _London_ or the Liberties thereof; and I was once forced to trot to _Chancery-lane_ four or five times for one Deed before I could get it done, and when it was done, all that was to be seen on the Deed was, _Inrolled_ such a Day and Year in _Chancery_, _per me_ such a one. I seeing that, learned to write the Hand, they use in Endorsing, and for the future only writ it my self on the back side to shew our Clients, and that was sufficient; for not one in a thousand is search’d for, and this is only done in case the Deed be lost, so that I now have got the trick on't to write on the back-side my self, and put that money the Register should have into my own pocket, and that is a pretty quantity, for an indifferent Deed comes to twenty shillings, at so much _per_ Roll. Forty other wayes have I to get moneys, and indeed I need not invent wayes, for our Trade is so great for _Procuration_ and _Continuation_, and such like, that I get money enough more than I can well tell how to spend. I will now conclude, onely tell you a story or two, how I have initiated my self in this Art of _Knavery_, for my time being suddenly to expire, I thought it necessary to try some expedients how I might live hereafter when I came to be for my self; and knowing that my Master could not do any thing at first without a Confederate (some body to help and assist him) I procured the like: We had many indigent persons that came to borrow money, some Gentlemen, others decayed and decaying Citizens; amongst the rest a Master of a Ship, who had made so many broken voyages that he could make no more, for he had wearied all his Friends with holding parts of Ships with him to their great loss; but he holding to the Proverb, _That a Sea-man is never broken till his neck is broken_, was resolved to try his fortune one bout more, and had now with the help of Friends made a shift to buy an old Barque of near a hundred Tun, in which he was minded to go to Sea, partly as a Man of War, and withal to bring home prohibited Goods from _France_. This man was an earnest suiter to borrow an hundred pounds upon _Bottomry_, or any wayes, to victual and fit his Ship; I finding him ingenious, after some conference with him, and he being willing for any Undertaking, we concluded to go half snips in the profit of his Voyage, and I would furnish him with moneys to his content: I soon perswaded an easie friend of mine who had more money than wit, to lend our Captain an hundred pounds, promising