Fletcher had wished to be a Christian minister, and his parents had wished the same concerning him; but, soon after the occurrence just related, his plans of life were entirely altered. He writes: “I went through my studies with a design of entering into orders; but, afterwards, upon serious reflection, feeling I was unequal to so great a burden, and disgusted by the necessity I should be under to subscribe the doctrine of predestination, I yielded to the desire of my friends, who would have me go into the army.”[4] Footnote 4: _Arminian Magazine_, 1794, p. 219. The friends here mentioned did not include his parents, for they were strongly opposed to his turning soldier; but now, nearly at the age of twenty, his theological reading gave place to the studying of the works of Cohorn and Vauban, the great military engineers. At this time, Portugal was sending troops to Brazil, to defend its interests there. Against the remonstrances of his parents, Fletcher went to Lisbon, there gathered a company of his own countrymen, accepted a captain’s commission, and engaged to serve the Portuguese on board a man-of-war, which was preparing with all speed to sail to the Brazilian coasts. Meanwhile, he wrote to his parents for a considerable sum of money, by means of which he expected to make a small fortune in the country he was about to visit. “They refused him roughly: unmoved by this, he determined to go without the cash.” Whilst waiting, however, for the ship to sail, the maid, attending him at breakfast, let the tea-kettle fall upon his leg, and so scalded him, that he had to keep his bed. “During that time,” says Wesley, “the ship sailed for Brazil; but it was observed that the ship was heard of no more.” Wesley continues: “How is this reconcileable with the account which has been given of his piety when he was a child? Very easily: it only shows that his piety declined while he was at the university. And this is too often the case of other youths in our own universities.” Fletcher returned to Nyon, but his military ardour was not abated; and, being informed that his uncle, then a colonel in the Dutch service, had procured a commission for him, he joyfully set out for Flanders. Here, however, he was again defeated in his purpose to become a soldier. Peace was concluded; his uncle died; his hopes were blasted; and the military profession was abandoned. This, in substance, is all that is known of Fletcher, until he came to England, as Wesley says, in 1752. CHAPTER II. _FROM HIS COMING TO ENGLAND TO HIS ORDINATION._ 1752 to 1757.