My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five sons. He sent me to EmanucJ College in Cambridge, at fourteen yea.rs old, where I resided three years, and applied myself close to my studies; but the charge of maintaining me (although I had a very scanty allowance) being too great for a narrow fortune, I was bound a.pprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, with ,whom I continued four years; and my fa.ther now and then sending me small sums of money, I laid them out in learning navigation, and other parts of the mathematics, useful to those who intend to travel, as I always believed it would be some time or other my fortune to do. Vhen r left 11r. Bates, I went down to my father; where, by the assistance of him and my uncle John, and some other relations, I got forty pounds, and a promise of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden: there I A