A new, cheap and delicate Fire of Cole-balles, wherein sea-coal is by the mixture of other combustible bodies, both sweetened and multiplied.  
Also a speedy way for the winning of any Breach: with some other new and serviceable Inventions answerable to the time.  Regium est cum feceris bene, audire male. S. Ha.  depiction of coal balls burning on the hearth 
Imprinted at London by PETER SHORT dwelling at the sign of the Star on Bredstreet-hill. 1603.   

TO THE CURTEOUS AND well disposed Reader.  
BEing every way willing, though no way able, out of my many and manifold travels to bring forth some substantial and commodious invention for the avoiding of idleness, and relieving the present misery, which the fortune of wars, together with the want of profitable labours hath brought upon us: I could not (on the sudden) bethink myself of a better discovery, then how to employ the poor and maimed persons of this land, who (having their hands only) might be sufficiently able to work up these sweet and profitable fire-balles, for the benefit and pleasure of the rich. And as I have already in my book of Remedies against famine, freely and plainly delivered, sundry new and cheap kinds both of meat and drink to be used in a dearth of victual; so if now in the scarcity of fuel I may also prove so happy, as to bring forth a cheap and saving fire to warm and cherish their cold and frozen limbs, with the recompense of their labours, I shall be greatly encouraged to devote and consecrate the fruits of some of my intermissive hours upon these and such like charitable and godly uses. But without all question if the rare and excellent spirits of this land, might have their best inventions by some act of Parliament privileged to themselves for some reasonable time, with some proportionable part of the gains reserved for the succour of the poor (a matter well moved of late, but crossed and swallowed up, I know not how in the bare and naked word of Monopolies) I would not doubt, but though privatum commodum be the first mover in every Artists intention (as it is in all manual and mechanical trades) yet that bonum publicum would also follow and flow abundantly in the execution and publication of such ingenious devices: out of which main root many large and plentiful branches of gainful employments, for idle and vagrant persons, were by all probable consequence likely to arise and spring.  
In the mean time whilst these long deserved favours do yet remain rather to be wished of all then hoped of any, I have thought good to kindle such a fire, as I hope ere long will blaze in his full brightness, both in the halls and chambers of divers Noble men and Gentlemen of this land, who finding the great difference between their former fires of sea-coal, and this new and sweet composition, both themselves, and by their example also many other persons of inferior quality, will be ready as well for their own good, as for the relief of their poor and distressed neighbours (which almost in every place of this land are ready even with tears & prayers to crave either charity, or employment toward the maintenance of themselves and their poor families) to give all the best furtherance which they may, and that with all speedy and diligent expedition.  
And so having satisfied your long and earnest expectation in this my new conceited fire, I hope you will afford me the recompense which I am to require at your hands, which is nothing else but veniam pro-munere posco.  
H. Plate Esquire.   


sea-coal sweetened and multiplied.  
BEfore I disclose the matter and manner in this new composition of Cole-balles, I think it very necessary, first (in the behalf of those poor and miserable wretches, for whose good I do principally intend this Treatise) to entreat all such Magistrates, unto whom the care and provision of fuel doth any way appertain, that they so far forth, as either their authority, skill, or travel may give any furtherance hereunto; would be very provident and careful not to suffer any seacoles to be sold or landed at any wharf or key, unless the same by good experience shall be found to be of the best mines: or at the least of such kind and quality as will cake and knit together, and so make a hot and durable fire. For the better performance whereof, I hold it the plainest and most evident trial of all other, first to cause a convenient fire to be made of some parcel of the coals of every ship, before the owner be suffered to unlade, with a special charge given, that if the whole bulk do not fall out to be of the self same and equal goodness with the sample, that the rest should either be returned or confiscated, if any law or custom of that place will bear it. For herein I myself have been a feelnig witness, who at the first (not having any skill in the choice of my coals) have sometimes bought such, as I have been forced even freely to give to those which could make any use of them, at which time no doubt many poor & unskilful men did likewise to their great hindrance, and some of them almost to their utter undoing, make a most miserable provision for themselves & their poor wines and children. And if happily the Magistrate shall either grow negligent, or deal corruptly herein, then do I advise every man to make the like trial for himself. And because I will no way be wanting in good will to the furtherance of so general a commodity as I have now in hand, I will here set downe some few examinations of mine own, which may happily serve for the instruction of all such buyers, as have no better experience than mine to direct them.  
First I do hold it an infallible rule to know a good coal by, viz. if the same being held over a candle, or rather over a flaming fire, do melt, & as it were drop or fry: for this is an argument of his fatty and sulphureous nature, which ministereth store of food for the fire; but if the same grow hard & dry over the flame, it is a sign of a lean and hungry coal, and such as will not cake or knit in the burning: of which kind are the Sunderland coals, whereof the poors wharf in London can give a sufficient testimony; which have lain one winter already without any great decrease, saving that some parcel thereof hath rather been translated to another place, to make the bulk seem less, then sold and distributed amongst the poor, for whom that charitable provision was first meant. Here xviii. pence or five groats in the price of a cauldron was ill saved.  
Secondly, the brightness and glistering of the coal both within & without, is some argument of his goodness (although I have heard that some kind of bad sea-coal newly digged out of the mine, and brought dry in summer time, will both show and break fair) but most commonly if it break in the colour and lustre of pitch, it proveth a good coal to the buyer: but without all question, if the same be of a dark, duskish, and dead earthly colour, it is utterly unprofitable for him that shall spend it.  
The last and most assured proof of all the rest (except the making of a fire with them, wherein no man of any sense can easily be deceived) is the lightness of the coals in weight. This weight, as in many other bodies, so especially in water, doth argue either his pureness, or his impurity: for the lighter & clearer water, is ever held the better & more wholesome, as least participating with earth or minerals. Now if you have but half a peck of the best & lightest coals, finely powdered always remaining by you, with this you may examine the goodness of any other coal, and by how many degrees it differeth from the same (the lightest coals being always the best) the nearer your coal cometh in lightness to the pattern (both being equally measured, & brought to fine powder) you may assure yourself that it is so much the better; and the more that the same measure of any other coals exceedeth the other in weight, so much the more earthy & worse burning coal you shall find it. And thus much concerning the goodness of the coal, wherein if the buyer happen to fail, then shall he labour in vain, either to sweeten, or multiply the same; the sea-coal itself being the basis & foundation of the whole work, which must give both strength and substance to the balls. And because it is not impertinent to the subject which we have in hand, to know the places of our best mines already discovered, etc. I have thought good here to name the principal places or mines, from whence the best sea-coal is brought, viz. Durrham, Blaidon, Stillow, Redhew, and Bourne; the rest being ten or eleven more, are of a worse kind, and the worst of all are those of Sunderland. I would the owners of these pits or mines, would deal simply & truly with us: for by the report of many, that are acquainted with their practices, there is such a medley made of these mines, as no man can tell which is the predominant coal in the whole bulk.  
I have here also a fit occasion offered me to move the right Honourable the Lord Mayor of the City of London, and the right worshipful the Aldermen his brethren, that if this new fire of mine prove a substantial and profitable invention, according to that show and countenance which (prima fancy) it seemeth to carry, that they would immediately upon good proof thereof, gather up all the idle and vagrant persons, & all the maimed & unpensioned soldiers, which (notwithstanding all our new taxations & contributions) do still pester the streets and suburbs of this city, and employ them in their profitable labours in that unprofitable pest house. And that which is here spoken for London, I hope will also serve for all the houses of correction within this realm, where there shall be found sufficient store of matter to work upon.  
The last petition or request which I do here make in the behalf of the poor, is that at such time as by the slender provision of the Magistrate, and by an extreme hard, and frosty winter ensuing, whereby great store of feacole is spent (which doth oftentimes happen) that the Magistrates of all places would never suffer or permit the coal itself to be sold above the rate of three shillings gain upon the cauldron to any colemonger, which commonly falleth out (respecting the time of the forbearance of his money) to be at the least 20. or 30. in the hundred, & upward, if you add hereunto that five in the hundredth, which he gaineth by over measure, when he buyeth a whole ships lading in the pool together.  
And if usury be so dangerous a trade, as both the word of God and all the ministers thereof do daily publish and proclaim unto us, the same for the most part being drawn from men of good estate & credit (for the usurer will seldom trust any other) what shall we think of a double and triple usury, may of a doubling the principal itself (whereof there hath been a miserable & wretched experience of late memory within this honourable city of London) & that wrung out even from the backs and bellies of the poorest sort of people.  
I had thought also to have spoken somewhat for reformation of the coal sacks, which (by the opinion of divers men) do in dry and wet weather differ greatly from themselves, and by that means cannot produce so certain a measure to the buyer as the bushel or fat doth, which is always of one and the self same content: but I doubt not (if the allegation be sound) but that the wisdom of the Magistrate will soon reform this fault. But now to mine own part: wherein because no Author of any new invention (though having Lincius eyes, or enjoying the piercing spirit of Mercury himself) is able truly to foresee all the future effects & accidents that in time may happen to cross a matter of innovation or novelty: I do here (expecting nothing else but a thankful acceptation of my painful and costly labours at your hand, if the secret prove rich and beneficial to the poor, which is my hope and desire, or else your gentle pardon if it fall out otherwise, which is the least that I can deserve) freely offer and publish the greatest part of my knowledge in this kind, and so I proceed to the composition.  
In the winter season after some few frosts, gather so much lome as will serve your house for one whole years spending (for then it will crumble and dissolve more easily in water then at other times, although at all times with a little more labour in stirring the same it may be made serviceable enough for this purpose) half a peck, & happily a less proportion of this lome, dissolved in a little tub of water, is a sufficient quantity for the knitting up of a bushel of sea-coal into balls, and your water and lome incorporated and well laboured together must be like a very thin pap.  
Then take a bushel of the best sea-coal, which being strewed upon a stony or paved floor, you must break or bruise with a hammer, mallet, or some other apt tool or instrument, or otherwise you may sufficiently powder them under your feet, which I have found the readiest and cheapest way of all other. This is intended of the greater sort of coals; but if your coals be of the smaller kind, then are they sufficiently prepared for this work to your hand.  
Spread these coals abroad some handful thick, or thereabouts, equally upon the floor, then sprinkle some of your thin pap all over the heap: then turn them with a shovel or a spade, and spread them again as before, throwing more of your lomy liquor upon them. Continue this course till you have made the whole mass or lump of your coals soft enough to be wrought up into balls, between your hands, according to the manner and making of snowbals: then place them one by one, so as they touch not each other till they be through dry, which will be in a few days. Then may you pile or lay them up in heaps in any convenient place, where they may be defended from rain, which if it should fall in any great quantity upon them, they would be in danger to be dissolved again. And so you have seacoles wrought up into balls simply of themselves, according to the manner of Lukeland in Germany: which form of firing hath been in use with them for many years past, and doth as yet continue to this day, as I am credibly informed.  
Hear happily the workman may be taxed of a needles and unprofitable labour, in that a convenient fire may be made of seacoles only according to our usual manner without any further charge or labour, and it is an ancient and approved Maxim aswell amongst sound Lawyers as also amongst all good Politicians. Quod frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora. But to give some reasonable satisfaction herein, I do first presume that those frugal & thrifty Germans have found some good use of their labours, or else they would long since have discontinued the same. Secondly, I have found in mine own experience, that such fires as consist of balls be neither so offensive in smell, nor yet in soil, as the ordinary sea-coal fires are. And if experience the undoubted mother of truth will not serve to satisfy doubtful wits in this point, but that they will also call for reason at my hands (quia turpe est philosopho quidquam sine ratione proffer) I will give you my conceit freely either to be controlled or confirmed at your pleasures. And therefore my opinion is, that the smoke which in our usual fires doth immediately ascend from the seacoles unprepared, must needs according to the foul and gross matter of the coal, be also foul and smooty itself. But when the smoke doth pass, and become as it were searced through the lome (which is the band that knitteth the coals together) it is then so refined and subtilated before his penetration, as that it either consumeth and swalloweth up, or else leaveth behind it the gross residence of his own nature, whereby that black kind of pepperingor sea-coal dust (if I be not greatly deceived) is either wholly or for the most part avoided: being a matter of so great offence to all the pleasant gardens of Noblemen, Gentlemen, and Merchants of this most honourable City and the suburbs thereof, besides the discoloring and defacing of all the stately hangings and other rich furniture of their houses, as also of their costly and gorgeous apparel, as that I presume though these my charitable and well intended labours should only produce a remedy for this long and hitherto inavoideable mischief, that yet they would be received with a sufficient applause and liking of all men. Also the stirring up of common sea-coal fires after they are once caked and knit together doth make a hellish smoke and smoder, dispersing the smootie substance & subtle atomies abroad into the air, which in a fire of balls doth never happen, because after they are once piled in such artificial manner as is hereafter expressed, they continue a strong and lasting fire without any touch or removing of them. Besides the beauty of this fire doth greatly commend itself, whose form and shape in my opinion doth far surpass all other fires whatsoever; whose balls being round and all of one equal bigness, when they are all truly placed together, they do much resemble the piles of shot as they lie in a most beautiful manner within the tower of London.  
But now to come to our new and English fires, such as neither Germany nor any other foreign kingdom or country, did ever to my knowledge as yet either use or enjoy, being also more sweet by many degrees (as being wrought up with mixtures of less offence) yea some very pleasing and delicate, and fit for Lady's chamber, and also more profitable (their multiplication being of less price by a great deal then sea-coal itself) I will here first begin with the most profitable and lasting composition of all the rest that ever I could find, and secondly I will proceed to the sweetest fire, and after that to some other cheap and worse compositions, yet all being such as in the dearth and scarcity of other fuel may be commendably used and spent.  
1. The first and principal fire that I will commend unto you, is a composition of sea-coal, and small coal, or thorn coal either in equal proportion (which will make a reasonable good fire) or else taking only a third part of small coal to your sea-coal (which maketh the best and most durable fire of all the rest) working them into balls and knitting them with lome as is formerly set down in your sea-coal balls that have no other mixture: but if your thorn coals be of the biggest sort you must first bruise them a little under your feet, or else they will require some more pains in bawling them. These thorne-cole with careful provision may be had in the summer for three halfepense the bushel, far under the price of sea-coal, besides the addition of half a peck of lome which giveth some increase to the bulk. Now least small coals by this means should grow to a higher rate, all men may easily judge how suddenly by the planting or pricking in of small twigs of willow, sallow, alder and such other speedy growing plants, in all such places as may best be spared and are fittest to increase them, what great store and quantity of this fuel may be had yearly, without any fear of scarcity; so as unless we will be wanting unto ourselves, we shall not need to want this part of our new firing. Also to ease the charge of your small coals, you may take one part of earth, and one part of small-coal, and the rest sea-coal; but this maketh not altogether so bright a fire as the former.  
2. The second and sweetest fire of all the rest, but not so lasting as the first, is a mixture of the saw dust of deal or fir boards amongst your seacoles, either in a third, or a moiety, as you did in small coal: using still the first band of lome both in this and all the other compositions following. And the sawdust likewise of elm or oak may be mixed with sea-coal and made up into balls, and this maketh a very good and sweet fire.  
3. Many have thought my fire to consist of sea-coal and Cowdunge, and one among the rest hath so adventured to publish the same, as being assured of my composition: but now you may see that rash pens do soon run riot. Yet I do not utterly dislike this mixture, because it may also have a place amongst my colebals: but the matter thereof not being substantial enough to match with a sea-coal, cannot bring forth so lasting a fire as my first is, and the same having also some use already in the enriching of grounds, can hardly be spared in some places to be consumed into firebals. Yet (to speak truly of it) it maketh a sweet and pleasing fire: and if you bestow labour enough therein you may make colebals, with it and sea-coal, without any other band.  
4. Some would have my multiplication to consist of chopped straw and sea-coal, but that conceit I hold not to be worth a straw: for what doth sooner consume with fire then stubble and straw, which are apt to catch, but unapt to continue the flame which possesseth them.  
5. The Tanner's barks broken and incorporated with sea-coal, are very like to prove a good fire, but this secret will have no great extension for want of matter.  
6. The remainder of an old fire may be wrought up into new balls, or else piled in the midst of a new fire to kindle the balls the sooner, so that in this kind of firing there is no loss of coals at all.  
7. How turf in his own nature may be mixed with seacoles, I have made no experience: but if the same be first charcoled, no doubt it will make both a sweet and a lasting fire.  
8. What the oozes will do either for the multiplying or binding of our colebals, I can not certainly determine, only I have thought good to mention them, and so leave them to other men's labours.  
The last circumstance which we are to observe in this our new fire, is the manner of making the same; which though a man without direction might easily aim at, yet seeing I have been liberal in the matter, I will not be niggardly in the form thereof. And therefore for the better placing or piling of these balls, I do first lay bricks edge wise on my hearth one by one, each brick distant a full inch from the other, according to the breadth or compass of the fire which I intent to make (these bricks do both save the hearth from burning, as also are in steed of an iron grate to draw wind to the balls, to make them burn the better:) then do I place a row of falcon or saker shot for the nethermost rank (& they which have no iron bullets, may lay colebals in steed of them) and then an other row of these balls upon the neither most, and so I frame my fire to what height and compass I think best; but I have always used to place each rank in the form of a semicircle; but within toward the midst of my fire, I convey a few short cloven pieces of a faggot stick, and a few charcoles with them, or charcoles alone, and there I begin to kindle my fire. It may be this fire will bear an artificial core of stone, brick or iron, whereby the fewer balls may serve the turn: here every man will please himself with his own fancy, and so I leave him to his best conceit.  
These balls may also be mingled among billets and charcoal being wisely placed, and though the ashes be this way lost, yet I doubt not but they will easily be requited in the saving of the fire.  
And thus I have discovered the best part of my skill in this new fire of colebals; whose good entertainment may happily one day draw matters of greater worth from me, tending as well to the enriching as the strengthening of this little Island, whose Lady and virgin Queen the great and mighty jehovah long maintain and bless, with all his heavenly favours and glorious benedictions, to his honour, her delight and our comfort.  
I hope though the principal scope of this discourse doth only consist in the bettering and altering of sea-coal, yet that I may also with good leave discover some profitable advise in charcoal and other fuel, and that no man will be offended though I teach him how to raise an extraordinary gain by planting of firewood, far exceeding the usurers reckoning both in commodity and lawfulness: yea I am fully persuaded, and that not by reason only, but by the uncontrollable M●stres of all truth, that every pound laid out in this manner, will by a natural kind of usury at the least triple itself within the compass of seven years; which in the second and third return (besides the yearly benefit after the first seven years far exceeding 10. or 20. in the hundredth) is able to give a good contentment to the most miserable peni-father of this land. The tree which I mean is a willow, whereof one plant in seven years commonly bringeth forth seven plants, besides other boughs and spray, that may be converted into faggots, charcoal and small-coal. This kind of husbandry proveth best in most unprofitable and surrounded grounds, which may best endure a dead rent for seven years, such as were of late plentifully to be found in the overflowed fens of Lincolnshire, whereof Captain Lovel by his skilful and industrious labours hath newly won 33000. acres, being a most memorable and ingenious work, and well deserving her majesties most gracious privilege conferred upon him. I would that Erith marshes had twenty years since met with such a workman. It may be they have been hitherto reserved for my Inning, whereat you shall see me aim unhappily in some of my last lines. But me thinks I am now so far entered into waterwork, that I have almost quenched the fire which I have in hand. To return therefore to our first discourse, I say, that although there shall not be found sufficient store of such moist ground, whereon to plant whole woods of willows, yet I doubt not but if the bare and naked banks about all the ditches in Rumney marsh, and all the rivers, brooks, ditches, pools, and marsh grounds of England beside, were well replenished with Willows, Sallowes, etc. but that in a few years space we might in some good measure supply the woodfals that have been committed in firewood, and so bring down the price both of billet, charcoal and small coal.  
And thus much as a cole-maker: I will now alter my trade, and play the Cooper another while.   

A wooden vessel being as serviceable for the boiling of liquors as any copper kettle, or other metalline vessel whatsoever.  
I Have thought good at this time also to touch my wooden vessel, long since mentioned in my jewell-house; not because I would sort it with a fire of mine own fancy (as though it could not endure the most usual and strongest fires that other metalline vessels and kettles are able to bear) but partly for that (being a matter of new invention) it doth well become this place; but principally, for that within a term or two, I purpose (God willing) to make a public show thereof to all comers, unto whom the secret it self shall also be revealed and made good: and therefore I do here labour to prepare their minds to a kind and probable conceit thereof, lest when it shall be offered to a public view, it may happily be taken for the second part of M. Venners Tragedy, lately acted at the Swan on the bank side, with better profit to himself then pleasure to the beholders.  
And because sevetal men have conceived several and strange opinions herein, some expecting a miraculous preparation of the wood, some doubting the durability thereof (of the which sort for the most part I find the Coppersmiths, who are unwilling to believe any thing that maketh against their trade and living) others charging the Author, as not having hitherto disclosed any matter of worth, any way answerable to the glorious titles of his books, and so (arguing, re ad personam) do utterly condemn this secret with the rest: & some imagining the same both to be possible and durable, but yet so curious, as that simple wits are never able to repair it, being once out of frame: all these, I say, are either in some measure to be satisfied, or else they may well conclude, that I have hitherto told but a tale of a tub. All which objections (although I have elsewhere sufficiently answered) yet once again I will cursorily run them over; that I may clear both myself and the invention of all unjust, malicious, and ignorant calumniations, And here (not only to rely upon the grave censure of the right honourable the Lord high Treasurer of England, my good Lord and master, who vouchsafed me his honourable presence at my house, when both my fire, tub, portable pump, and bolting hutch were made ready for his coming; whose good approbation only is able to counterpoise and overwey the shallow and light conceits of all my adversaries) to the first I answer, that my defence is merely natural, and not drawn from that chargeable and incombustible oil of Talcum, fit to be thinly laid upon the face of a Lady, then grossly spent or daubed upon the sides of a wooden vessel, nor yet from the hair of a Salamander, whose bodies are rare and hard to come by. Yea it is such, as upon the discovery will prove so easy and familiar, as that I fear the beholders will rather condemn their own weakness, then wonder at my invention, and yet the same both royally and really performed.  
And as for the durability thereof, I will make this warrant to all that shall have cause to use it, that how long soever any wooden vessel will last that is continually employed about cold water, the same shall endure as long, though in the like manner exercised in the heating or boiling of liquor. And so I dare boldly conclude, as sometimes heretofore I have done, that if my wooden Salamander were not more endangered by the element of water, than it is by the element of fire, we should not need new vessels but for new ages.  
The third sort of cavillers, because they show themselves to be only carping Sophisters, & no sound logicians, as arguing from the matter to the person, & syllogizing upon particulars, in hoc & in illo erravit, Ergo in omnibus. I hold them scarcely worth the answering: and yet because I will have no advantage taken of my silence, though I might answer them, as others have done before me to the like: Carpere vel noli nostra, vel ede tua. Yet lest that great and costly Mill in Iremonger lane, where the horses trampling upon a movable floor, did even with fear and trembling spend and waste their spirits: or that monstrous timber stote that should have blown up & dispersed the Spanish squadrons, but now lieth rotting in his own ruins not worth either the time or timber that was consumed in it, together with some other martial engines, whereof there hath been a great and long expectation without any good & serviceable use made of them, (so as hitherto they do nothing else but ludere hiantem coruum) I say, lest these & a few other of the like kind and quality, should in the gulf of disgrace drown all the credit & future hope of other Artists; that there are already, both by myself and other Englishmen, many new, excellent, & most profitable devices both by writing, and otherwise made known to the world: whereof some are not sufficiently as yet understood, most of them not regarded, and in a manner all of them, either not at all, or very slenderly rewarded: I mean not with pension, for that were chargeable, nor with favours, because they are not usual, but with thanks, which is the basest recompense that Art may look for. But you require some instances of particulars at my hands, what say you then to such a carriage for a cannon, whereby the piece with the help of two men only may be turned, mastered, and charged at pleasure in as good sort as ten men are able to do at sea with their usual carriages? What think you of a portable boat, which one man may carry with ease, and yet will hold eight persons? And of a light, strong & sudden bridge to be made by uniting these boats, and thereby suddenly to convey even a whole army over a large river? What if an invention be showed how a serviceable vessel may chase with ten or twelve great pieces of ordinance as readily, and as aptly, as now any ship doth with two or with four pieces only? What if such new kind of sails be devised, as shall very near double the way which any ship now maketh? Nay, what if such a Pinnace were warranted to be made, as should upon her own motion, without the help of any mariner to direct her, make a speedy way against all wind and weather upon the seas for one half mile at the least, and being laden with all kind of shot and firework, upon the first touch of any other vessel, shall presently give fire to a train, and so spend herself, and endanger such ships as are then next unto her? And what would you say to a piece of ordinance which one man may sufficiently manage, and yet twenty of them shall make five hundred muskeeteers to abandon the field? But to conclude these warlike inventions with a shot of the highest execution both for land & sea. What if a bullet be delivered that shall break into a thousand parts, each part carrying both his fire, powder & shot with it, so as no garrison under the walls of any warlike town or city, no band of soldiers lying in the safest trenches they can devise to make, can possibly be free from the fury of this bullet: which because it may be shot compass at any reasonable distance, must needs force them to forsake their ground.  

Some of these new inventions the Author hath already showed to divers of his honourable and private friends, and the rest upon reasonable reward shall be made good for any public service; I could wish that some profitable use of this Gentleman's wit were presently made whilst God doth spare him on earth amongst us; for I fear, when death hath deprived us of this worthy Engineer, he will scarcely leave any true successor of his skill behind him.  
In this military kind of knowledge, if I should not acknowledge mine own weakness, it would easily discover itself: & yet I dare boldly say, that omitting many other secrets of good use, faithfully & familiarly described for the benefit of the reader in my books already published, that my new & late discovery in Peter-works being the true foundation and ground work of the last letters patents granted for the same; as it bringeth in yearly & freely many 100 pounds to the Patentees (my self not having received one half years profit for the invention) so it, hath also eased the country of many carriages, wherewith (by the ignorance of some Petermen in former times and yet to this day by the wilfulness of others) it hath been and is now and then most grievously oppressed, whereof it may be ere long I will find some sufficient relief in a strange manner.  
But if the new (though natural) grounds of husbandry were first well understood, and after truly and painfully practised according to my printed directions; (leaving the conceit of digging and setting in a gentle slumber for a while) I would not doubt but that both for plenty of grass and corn this last age of ours would far surpass the days of all our ancestors (excepting the golden age of Saturn only) & yield sufficient store of corn both for ourselves & some of our neighbour countries. And this can two English Gentlemen of my knowledge yet alive sufficiently prove by their own experience to be true, who have assured me that for divers of these latter years, they have in a manner doubled the usual yield of an acre, and that by ploughing and sowing only; all the enriching thereof not exceeding the charge of three shillings upon an acre, toward which they have also yearly saved the third part of their seed corn, every corn for the most part branching itself into 10.15. & 20. stalks and ears both large & full of grain: yea the colour and greatness of the stalk and ear hath been such, as in harvest time their corn (though one of their parts lay altogether in a common field) was easily discerned from all other men's that environed the same. And where grass without excessive charge would never exceed twelve inchesin height before, with the charge of four shillings bestowed upon an acre, for four years together there hath grass grown knee deep and very plentiful.   

I had almost forgotten the winning of Earith marshes, whereby also the breach made by a Cannon in the time of my siege though of five or six yards in height and of twenty or thirty in breadth, is presently repaired and made sufficiently defensible against the enemy. And had the counsel of some men that I could name taken place in that infortunate voyage of Lisbon, whereby they had carried but the outside of this secret with them, they might have found lining enough to have raised a fort even upon the sands, and suddenly have planted the cannon that should have commanded the town itself. For so was the Golletto won by the Turk: a fort otherwise impregnable, whereby that honourable and glorious victory of don john de Austria obtained against the Turk by sea, was mightily eclipsed by a miserable overthrow at the same time given to the Christians by land. Hear we shall neither have need of nails or timber, stones or mortar, but linen cloth & needles to make our strong defence either against the fury of the cannon or the surges of the sea, the whole art whereof consisteth in bags or sacks of linen to be filled upon any present occasion either with sand or earth; and these to be suddenly laid or sunk upon any cause of service or irruption of waters. And though all the dutch marshmen have hitherto puzzled themselves about the inning and winning of the foresaid breach, and have given it over as impossible to be won at the Thames mouth (because they find it in some part to be nine or ten foot in depth underneath the low watermarke, before they come to any firm ground) yet I doubt not but by sinking of sacks of earth the workman shall soon find or make a foundation sufficient to bear a strong marsh-wal, which may also consist of sacks of earth workmanly placed, and after well backed; which before the sacks be throughlie rotten will closely couch and knit together, and likewise be so fronted and filled up with ooze, as that in a short time you shall have a firm and substantial marsh-wal against all wind and weather whatsoever. There are also some other new and warlike uses of linen cloth, which may be reserved for some better occasions then (thanks be to God) these times do as yet require out of which and some others which I have partly seen, and partly heard of, I dare boldly conclude, that the most valiant army of the best approved soldiers, (yea though consisting of lovers themselves, and that giving battle in the presence of their Ladies and Mistresses) may easily even with a small band of ingenious scholars and Artists be utterly over thrown & vanquished. And therefore O happy and thrice happy are those wits, (but most infinitely happy are those kingdoms and countries which enjoy them) who have drawn and derived their knowledge from the great God of nature, from the firmament, from the four elements, from the great Anatomy and from the little world, and the rest of those unwritten books, whereof Paracelsus in his Labyrinth maketh a large and learned discourse.  
The last and least objection, will be sufficiently refelled upon the bare sight and view of the vessel, and I make no question but that all the Cooper's in England will be my sureties in this behalf, unto whom I do freely resign the gains of my wooden tub for their general counterband, & so I do leave both them and the rest of my countrymen in a wooden expectation for a while.    Nec omnes, nec omnia mihi placuere, cur ego omnibus. H. P. 
FINIS.