Now, if so be that the house which I called after my dear and honoured friend, and superior in rank tho' not in birth--for the Crafers have ever been gentlemen of repute and of good descent from an ancient family in Hampshire--be not burned down or falleth not down from age, and our line dieth not out, and the paper telling where these writings are be not doomed to be found by a stranger, then must a Crafer be the one to read them. And he will find strange matter in it who doth so read. For in the long winter evenings which are before me--since I have begun to write this narrative in the month of November, 1700, and trust to finish it with the incoming of the New Century--I do propose to tell you who may open the packet all that befel our voyages to find the contents of the Hispaniola Plate Ship, which was sunken off "The Boylers," a reef of shoals a few leagues off of the island of Aiitti, as the natives call it; but known generally by its Spanish name of San Domingo. And being but a poor penman I mean to divide my story into heads, thusly. First, I mean to tell you of my acquaintance with Phips at the time he approached The King, I mean Charles; then of how he sailed in the _Algier Rose_ for Hispaniola, and of two mutinies. Then, how after four years, we again sailed in the Duke's ship, or _Furie_, and what happened to us in the fishing up of the plate. But more than all this is to tell you of shameful villainies and thievings that took place, and of how the chief villain was frustrated so that not he but another was to be benefited. And who, think you, my descendant whom I know not, is that other? You may think Phips, you might imagine myself or the Duke, you might suppose some of the other adventurers. Yet 'tis not so. 'Tis no less an one than _you--you, yourself_. That is if you have a manly heart, or, being a woman, a man to help you. For as I have writ--and if I repeat myself you must forgive me, for we sailors who fought battles almost weekly had but little enough time to study the art of writing; and you will find your reward by reading this--it is you who are to benefit. You are to have the fortune which the thief was possessed of, tho' not what he stole. Therefore, having made this introduction, I proceed to tell my tale. And as I have, although a sailor, been ever a God-fearing man, I pray that it shall be a Crafer who receives this from where I have disposed of it. For it was I who gained it all from him, and tho' I shall never see you who come after me, you may well suppose that I would sooner, far sooner, that the fortune came to one of my own flesh and blood than to one no way allied to me. So I begin.