passage, (which had like to have proved Tragical) the Boat was recovered, and I the first person taken up and set on shore. _Multorum manibus grande levatur onus._ Many hands make light work. I ne’er staid to see what was become of my good Friend, (a Pox take him) but with what speed I could, attended with a great number of little _hooping Owlets_ (I mean the young fry of Scullars) I secured my self from this _Anthropopola_, or Man-seller: A charitable woman seeing me in this _pickle_, (for it was Salt water, which my _Sous’d guts_ may testifie if they please, in their grumbling manner of _speaking_) told me that she would entertain me till to morrow. This was the greatest _Cordial_ could be applied to this _cross_; and without many Complements, I thanked her for her great love. Now because she saw what condition I was in, she immediately put me to bed. CHAP. XVI. _How under the pretence of begging, he stole a Cloak, and with that went to a Gaming Ordinary; what a bold Adventure he made there, and the success thereof._ Parting from this good Woman, I began to think that the Art of stealing might be reckoned amongst the liberal Sciences; for though it may be called an _Handicraft_, yet it cannot be looked on as _Mechanick_. This is the _Art_, the right Practice whereof is the true _Philosopher’s stone_, the _Elixer_ of life; with which many turn _Poyson_ into _Medicine_, coarse cloath into cloath of Gold, hunger into fulness and satiety, convert rags into Sattins, and all this done by a quick wit, and slight of hand. The Antiquity and Dignity of this Profession, I shall relate elsewhere, and shall proceed on in my Adventures. The Evening or Twilight being come, I chanced to look in at a door, and perceiving none at hand, I went in boldly, resolving if I met any to beg an Almes of them, having before premeditated what I had to say, _viz._, that I was a poor distressed young Gentleman, my Father, Mother, nay, all my Relations I knew, being dead, and that not knowing what to do, was forced (under the Covert of the night) to beseech the assistance of charitable minded persons. But in my way found none that should occasion my using this form.