ped; and immediately the dismal roar of Misericordia! resounded, as, is always usual during the earthquakes: of these there had been several uncounted by me, as the fire was now become the more threatening danger. Their exclamations led me to expect another shock; but not perceiving any trembling at all, I was the more surprized at this circumstance, and venturing to open my quilt, I saw every one kneeling down, and the great Square full of flames; for the people from the adjoining streets had by this time filled it with bundles, and, as the fire increased, had taken themselves only away; these were now all in flames, except just at our corner, and under the Palace-walls, where Mr. Graves's family had retired; but as the wind blew very fresh, and drove the flames in sheets of fire close slanting over our heads, expecting them every minute to seize upon us, I again lost all my spirits, and abandoning myself to despair, thought it still impossible, after so many escapes, to avoid the sort of death I so much dreaded. Passing away some time in these horrid apprehensions, the wind suddenly abated, and the fire burning upright, made no farther progress. This restoring hope to us again, hunger obliged those who had provisions to think of eating, when an Irish Roman Catholic gentlewoman, sitting near me, asked if my name was not Chase. She said, she knew my father many years, and gave me a large piece of water melon. Mr. Forg also soon after brought me some bread, and carrying me on his back to Mr. Graves's family, left me there; and presently after, going himself with his uncle and the old lady to the water-side (to which there was now a passage, the pent-house being burnt down), and not returning soon, I began to imagine they were gone. my face. At this crisis Mr. Waubbes, who I think was the gentleman that assisted in bringing me to the Square, partly confirmed my apprehensions, by saying he was surprized that Mr. Forg had left me at last; but, for my own part, I had far more reason to be surprized that he had not done it before, and to think myself very happy, that, after saving my life so many times, he had not descrted me till the most imminent dangers were almost over. So far, therefore, from making any complaint, I only wished him the utmost happiness which the warmest gratitude for my preservations could dictate. However, as he had been in a manner almost the sole person who had shewn me any attention, I could not but be very uneasy at my present situation, and determined to exert myself as much as possible, now that I had nobody left to depend upon for any assistance. I therefore immediately applied to Mr. Graves, to beg a place in the boat which he was endeavouring to procure for his family; to which he was pleased to reply, "that his own family was sufficient to fill any boat he was likely to get; that it was no time for ceremony; therefore he could not pretend to offer any such thing." Surprized at such an answer, more especially as the boats upon that river are so large, I asked him "if his black servants reckoned part of his family; or, if not, whether he would permit me to employ one of them to try to hire me a boat?" To which Mr. Waubbes, to whom it seems one of the blacks belonged, directly answered, "I was welcome to his servant, to go wherever I pleased." Mr. Graves also said, I might if I liked it; but that it was impossible to get a boat, even if I were to offer a hundred moedas for one. Knowing, however, that I could not be in a worse situation, I accepted their offer directly; and desiring one of the blacks to go immediately to the water-side, to wait there, and endeavour to secure me a place, I told him I would give him a thirty-six shilling piece, to get me conveyed up the river to the convent of Madre de Deos, or "Mother of God," and to carry me from thence to Mr. Hake's house, just by it, upon his back; to make the best bargain he could, and the remainder to be for himself. After this, if I remember right, Mr. Graves, having removed us more into the Square, nearer to the waterside again, took his own family into a great glass-coach which stood at a little distance, leaving only the maidservant with their bundles, upon which I was laid. There came to her at this time a poor boy, who seemed to have a crust burnt over his face, and begged earnestly for some water; of which there being but little left, he was refused: he therefore laid himself down, and roaring out in the most dreadful agonies, prevailed with her to give him all there was. Soon after, seeing the two women who had given me the water-melon going with a man toward the water-side, I desired the maid-servant to apply to them, and ask if they had any room for me in their boat. She was answered in the negative; when I begged of her also to call to the watermen, who began now to appear. At last one of them came up, and I offered him half a moeda, which he declined, saying, they were sent only for the servants of the Palace; however, that he would go and consult his companion upon it. About three o'clock, as I suppose, we began to hear a dreadful rumbling noise under ground, which to me seemed to procced from amongst the ruins of the Palace, as if the earth had opened there, and the river was rushing in and forcing great stones along with it. The cause of this, however, I could not learn; but it continued till my departure. Mr. Houston, a coffce-house man, with whom I had not the least acquaintance, seeing the miserable condition I was in, now came to me, and, offering any assistance in his power, I asked him directly, if he was endeavouring to quit the Square before night. To which he answered in the negative, because he wanted to carry away with him some pieces of Holland which he had saved, and for which he supposed he should be very unlikely to procure a conveyance before the next. day. 1 desired him then to bring them and sit down by me, which accórdingly he complied with, to my very great satisfaction, for I almost despaired of receiving any farther assistance from Mr. Graves's family; and, as the night was coming on, I knew not what must become of me without some friendly aid. Some time afterwards, when I had given over all hopes of their return, came the two watermen, and offered to carry me, provided they were paid before-hand. Mr. Houston said it was too much; which, however, would have been of little consideration to me at such a time, had not the the black also returned to tell me, he had agreed for a place for eighteen shillings, and that I must go directly. With the greatest joy imaginable I desired him to take me on his back; nor do I know why I did not ask Mr. Houston to go with me; or, indeed, why he did not offer it of himself. I took my leave of him, and of Mr. Graves's family, who were all just returned from the glass-coach; I could not learn the cause, but found them in tears, disputing amongst themselves. Mr. Forg's partner, Mr. Brockleman, was with them, and had come onshore in a ship's boat on purpose to carry them away; but, as I learnt afterwards, they would not accept of his offer, because the boat was not sufficiently large to carry all of them and their bundles together at one time; and therefore chose rather to remain in the Square again another night than divide their company. There, accordingly, they were once more put to great distress from the fire; and poor Mr. Houston, in the confusion, endeavouring to save their bundles, lost his own pieces of Holland: however, the next day they all got away safe. But, to return to myself: another black boy offering to attend me, I made no objection; and between the two was conveyed into a large boat, almost full of people, and there laid upon a board along the middle of it: a priest, who came in afterwards, happening to tread upon my lame leg, the increase of pain almost overcame me. The coolness of the water, however (for, the evening being fine, it was very smooth and pleasant) soon brought me to myself again, when, going a little way up the river, just beyond the fire, the boat stopped at the Rebeira, or Fish-market, a large place, from whence there was an open way along the river-side into the country. Here the passengers were all put on shore, and, to my great surprize, they were going to land me there likewise. Vexed to the last degree at my disappointment, I exerted all the spirits I had left, and told them that they might see, in my condition, it was to no purpose to set me ashore there if they would not comply with their agreement, I desired to be carried back to the place from whence they had brought me, and where the fire had almost spent itself, rather than to be placed there, exposed to meet it again. One of them said, he knew nothing of any such agreement; that his partner was wrong to make it, for that they belonged to a town on the other side of the river, and could not have tide sufficient: I then desired them to carry me as far as they could, and accordingly proceeding forwards, I saw Mr. Horne going ashore in a ship's boat, but did not speak to him. When we were come to the Horse-guards, at the end of the city, the waterman said, the tide was turning; and, muttering together, they called me a Heretick, and the blacks Devils! so that I was glad to get rid of them at any rate; and at length was but roughly put on shore, where, unwilling that they should know I had more money about me than the thirty-six shilling piece, for fear of the consequences, I chose rather to send the blacks, with one of the boat-men, to get change, and remained myself lying upon the ground close to the water. During this interval a Galician porter came, and offered to carry me where I pleased for eighteen shillings-a piece of gold of that value; but, as the night was coming on, I had not confidence sufficient to trust him. Upon the return of my conductors, which seemed a long time, the boatman asked me whether I did not think he had run away with the money then said it was not good, and talked in an odd sort of a manner; to which I made no reply: the blacks shewed no inclination to go any farther, saying, they could not get back again to their masters in the night, unless the watermen would wait for them, as by their agreement at first they had promised to do. This the watermen said they would, perhaps, still comply with, if they made haste back again; upon which they set out, carrying me by turns upon their shoulders, and often setting me down to rest themselves, for they were so weakly, that I expected them every step to tumble: the distance, I think, could not be much above a mile; but to us it then seemed a long way indeed! and it was with great difficulty I prevailed to get them on as far as Mr. Hake's Quinta, or country-house. The road was 1 equally pleased, with eighteen shil- was pretty full of people, going si ing Mr. Hake, for his own security, to go directly on board ship; I expected every day that necessity would force him to a compliance; and should that happen, I knew not where to form another hope! With what gratitude then must my heart have overflowed -a gratitude, which no time can ever efface! to hear him, when earnestly intreated to embark on board the Tagus, Captain John Allen, a ship of which he was himself the owner, and where there was a place reserved for him, declare, "That he could not leave his family!" And being then told, that they would endeavour to make room for his sons, he said, he meant not his sons only, but myself also, whom he could not abandon in so distressful a condition: that, therefore, it would be in vain to mention it to him any more:-and, indeed, in every respect, he most fully discharged his kind promise to me, carrying me on board the ship aforementioned on Saturday the 29th of November, the day after which we sailed for England, with twenty-four passengers, being the second ship after the earthquake; the Expedition packet, Captain William Clies, having left Lisbon about ten days before, with seventeen passengers. It was constantly a most sensible increase of anxiety to me, to give Mr. Hake's family so much trouble, at such a time too of general coufusion and distress; and I must ever acknowledge myself infinitely indebted for my recovery, to the particular care and attention of Mr. Abraham Hake. (To be concluded in our next.) Mr. URBAN, Y Keston, Feb. 9. OU favoured us in October last with M. Da Costa's translation of three antient Jewish bonds, or obligatory securities; preserved, as we learn from your Correspondent J. H, in the Rolls office, Chancery-lane. They certainly are curious papers, and well entitled to a place in your Magazine, from the view they give of the nature and form of such kind of legal instruments as were in use during the thirteenth century. Da Costa, in his appended notes, has succeeded in explajuing most of the obscure passages, and shewn, in my opinion, an intimate acquaintance with the Jewish customs of that age, as well as no small share of critical sagacity. But there are two, viz. A Bond of Erugraphy, and the Jaku of Gold, which he candidly tells us have altogether eluded his researches. On the first of these I cannot furnish any thing satisfactory. On the last, I shall offer a few observations, which appear to me conclusive and explanatory, and as such must be my apology for the liberty I shall take in requesting their insertion in your columns. I have no doubt but that the Jaku of Gold, 'mentioned in the fourth bond, was a current coin of the realm, and nothing more nor less tha: the golden Denarius of King Henry III. struck in his 41st year. Observe, Mr. Urban, the date of the first bond is 1233, of the second 1254. in both of these the words Leitrins and Denarim repeatedly occur; and can only, for the reasons given in the notes, be translated by pounds and shillings. We may therefore conclude that such was the common mode of reckoning at the periods above-mentioned; but in the fourth bond, bearing date 1262, Leitrins and Denarim are entirely omitted, and we find another mode of reckoning in use, that by the Jaku of Gold. We have a debt mentioned of fourteen Jaku, of a penalty of two Jaku, of a deed of sale ratified for two Jaku of Gold, and of a fine to our Sovereign Lord the King of two Jaku of Gold. Be tween the dates of the second and the last bond there is an interval of eight years, and precisely within that period the first English gold money was coined. A Manuscript preserved in the Chamberlain's Office, Guildhall, informs us, that King Henry, in1257, caused golden pence to be struck, of the weight of two sterlings, and of the purest gold. By an ordinance of the same year, dated at Chester, 16th of August, and addressed to the Mayor and Sheriff's of London, the same is ordered to be proclaimed current throughout the realm for twenty sterlings, and to pass for all purposes of sale or purchase. Now Da Costa tells us, that the Hebrew word Jakuk is the root of Jaku, and signifies pure, or purified: thus, Jakuk Zaab, is translated most purified gold; Jakuk Keseph, most pure silver. The term Jaku then, might have been with great propriety applied by a Jew to the new coin, the same |