our good bishop, was received with great humanity, and foon found a large number of friends among the well-difpofed both of clergy and laity. "But (fays he) I had a much greater number of oppofers to combat with, who though they judged rightly of me in the main, were far from being candid in their account of the difcovery they pretended to make to my disadvantage; particularly doctors Halley, Mead, and Woodward. The too vifible eagerness of these gentlemen to oppofe me at any rate for a cheat, ferved only to make others think the better of me, and even to look upon me as a kind of confeffor; efpecially as those gentlemen were thought to be no great admirers of revelation, to which my patrons thought I had given fo ample a teftimony." His complexion, which happened to be very fair, was an unanswerable objection against his being of Formofa, which lies under the tropic: but he foon hatched a lucky diftinction between those whofe bufinefs exposes them to the fun, and those who keep at home, or under ground, without feeling the least degree of the reigning heat. On the other hand, his oppofers were as much at a lofs to find out his real country by his pronunciation of any of the languages he was master of. Dr. Mead took upon him to be very pofitive that he was of German or Dutch extraction: "But he might as well (fays Pfalmanazar) have affirmed me to have been an Ethiopian from my complexion." As to his moral character, fcandalous falfehoods were foon difperfed abroad, and crimes imputed to him that he was

naturally averfe to. On the other hand, the exact care he took of his behaviour and converfation, the plainnefs of his drefs and diet, the little trouble he gave himself about wealth and preferment, and his reservedness to the fair-fex ; the warmth he expreffed for religion, and the delight he was obferved to take in the public offices of it, were, to his friends, convincing proofs of his fincerity. A variety of judgments were formed, even among those who thought him a cheat. Thofe of the church of Rome believed he was bribed to the impofture by fome English minifters, in order to expofe their church the proteftants in Holland thought he was hired to explode predeftination, and to cry up the epifcopacy of England, in derogation of the prefbyterian government fome reprefented him as a Jefuit in disguise, others as a tool of the nonjurors, among whom he had been introduced by his old friend the chaplain, who, by way of advancing his own fortune, introduced him alfo to all the great men in church and state. Before he had been three months in London, he was fo cried up for a prodigy, that every body was defirous of feeing him; and to this the public prints, foreign as well as domeftic, contributed, by blazing forth things in his praise, for which there was not the least foundation. He was presently fent to tranflate the church catechism into the Formofan language; it was received by the bishop of London with candour, the author rewarded with generofity, and his catechifm laid up among the moft curious manufcripts. It was examined by

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the learned, who found it regular and grammatical, and gave it as their opinion, that it was a real language, and no counterfeit. After fuch fuccefs, our author was foon prevailed upon to write the well-known hiftory of Formofa, which foon after appeared. A task fo arduous and dangerous did not ftartle our young adventurer; though fcarce twenty years old, and an entire ftranger to thefe countries, he undertook it without hesitation. The bookfellers were so earnest with him to difpatch it, whilst the town was not in expectation of it, that he was fcarcely allowed two months to write the whole, notwithstanding the almoft conftant avocations from visitors at home, and invitations abroad. The first edition had not been long published before a fecond was called for. In the interim, he was fent by the good bishop to Oxford, to purfue fuch ftudies as he was most inclined to, whilft his oppofers and advocates in London were difputing about the merits and demerits of his book.--The learned at Oxford were not less divided in their opinions of our author. A convenient apartment was, however, affigned him in one of the colleges. He had all the advantages of learning the univerfity could afford him, and a learned tutor to affift him. Here, to make a fhew of retrieving the time wafted abroad in the day time in company, he used to light his candle, and let it burn the greateft part of the night in his ftudy, that his neighbours might believe he was plying his books; and fleeping in his eafy chair, would often leave the bed

for a whole week juft as he found it, to the great furprife of his bedmaker. He pretended foon to have fwelled legs, which his friends failed not to account for, kindly entreating him to submit to more regular hours of reft; but he continued to go limping about like a gouty old fellow, though no one enjoyed a better fhare of health, or flow of fpirits. Upon his return to London, he continued, for about ten years, to indulge a courfe of idleness and extravagance, with fome fort of gallantry with the ladies, among whom (fome of them perfons of fortune and character) he became a great favourite. During this time, a feheme was propofed to him, which he was to father, of getting money by a white fort of Japan, the art of which was fuppofed to be brought by him from Formofa. But this, and feveral others, ved of short duration. The behaviour of his friends, and the objections they now began to make, put our adventurer upon thinking that they had a lefs charitable opinion of him than formerly, and that it was time to think of getting into fome reputable employment, before the fubfcriptions, which the benevolent had long afforded him, fhould be withdrawn. Some abfurdities, however, obferved in his history of Formofa, in the end effectually difcredited the whole relation, and faved him the trou ble, and his friends the mortification of an open confeffion of his guilt. He feemed, through a long course of life, to abhor the impof ture, yet contented himself with owning it to his most intimate friends. Pfalmanazar's learning and

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and ingenuity, during the remainder of his life, did not fail to procure him a comfortable fubfiftence from his pen. He was concerned in compiling and writing works of credit, and lived exemplarily for many years. His death happened in 1763. In his laft will and teftament, dated Jan. 1, 1762, he declares that he had long fince difclaimed, even publicly, all but the fhame and guilt of his vile impofition, and orders his body to be buried, wherever he happens to die, in the day-time, and in the loweft and cheapest manner. "It is my earneft requeft, fays he, that my body be not inclofed in any kind of coffin, but only decently laid in what is commonly called a fhell, of the loweft value, and without lid or other covering which may hinder the natural earth from covering it all around."

a very good family, and mafter of requests: he is a man of genius, a great enterprizer, a great calculator, and very devout, but immenfely avaricious. He never rendered himself remarkable by any extraordinary act of patriotism; but, on the other hand, he fo increafed his wealth, and turned his money to fo good an account, that he may be efteemed one of the richeft gentlemen in France. The marquis, his fon, is very captious, very brave, and very expensive, with very little judgment; his younger brothers are very fentible, very devout, and have great œconomy without any avarice. The. character of the marquis being fo very different from those of his father and brothers, it was faid (but I do not vouch it as a fact) the father declared publicly, that this child was changed at nurse, and the marquis confequently was not his fon, but that he perceived the deception too late to be able to prove it judicially; certain however it is, that the marquis was never loved as a fon.

The marquis having engaged in the army, was a captain of horfe at the peace of 1748, and then retired to Paris, to live according to his income ; but his debts, and the smallness of his pay, did not permit him to make any figure: his creditors and himself jointly addreffed his father to pay his debts, and fet him clear, but the old gentleman was long deaf upon that fubject, till at length, by dint of entreaties, he gave him a rent-charge of 3000 livres [about 1311. 5s. fterling] a year, and alfo the marquifate of Fratteaux,

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which might produce about 1000 livres (about 431. 15s. fterling) more; but not being able to pay all his debts with his income, he fold his commiffion and gave the produce to his creditors.

The father immediately purchafed the place of a mafter of requefts for his youngest fon, Bertin de Bourdeille; bought him a grand house in Paris, in the street called La Rue de Hazard, and furnished it magnificently; paid for his equipage and domeftics; and gave him 50,000 livres (28871. 10s.) a year for his table expences. Soon after this, he and his fon, the mafter of requefts, by their interefts procured the bishoprick of Vannes for the other brother, who was at that time vicargeneral to the bishop of Perigueux, built him an epifcopal palace, and paid all the expences of his bulls from the pope, &c. Thus the poor marquis, the eldest fon and heir apparent of the family, lodged in a ready furnished chamber, eat from a cook's fhop, and trudged on foot, while his younger brothers had their fuperb palaces, kept open tables, and fplashed their eldeft brother with their coaches as he walked the streets. This behaviour of the father foon turned the few brains of the marquis, who quitted Paris, and went and fhut himself up in his castle at Fratteaux.

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Bourdeille, where old M. Ber tin dwelt, was half way between Fratteaux and Perigueux, the capital of the province, where the father and the marquis often went; yet they never vifited nor fpoke to each other, but even fhunned meeting together. But the mar

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quis talked loudly of his father's ill treatment of him.

While things were in this situation, a regiment of horse came to garrifon the province, and part of them were fent to Perigueux; this caufed the marquis to go thither more frequently than before; and it is reported that the father had been told that the M. de Fratteaux had gained over fome cavaliers to fhoot him through the head, in a little foreft between Bourdeille and Perigueux; and that the marquis being advertised of a certain day when his father was to pafs that way, had fent his friends to way-lay him; but the father prevented the execution of their design by taking the road to Vannes, (to communicate this to his fon the bishop) in the room of his former route. Be that as it will, the father and the bishop went together to Paris, to the other fon, the mafter of requefts, to concert the proper methods to get hold of the marquis; and they obtained a letter de cachet to confine him in the nearest fort to that province, which order was foon put in execution.

The public foon learned the news of the marquis having been feized, and every one cried out againft the father, efpecially the nobility of that province, who are very numerous: they were ig norant of the marquis's attempt, if any attempt of the kind had ever been made on the life of his father, and only attributed the caufe to the indifcretions of the marquis towards his father, who, they thought, had carried his vengeance too far against his own child.

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