CHAPTER XIX
My first visit to England was about the beginning of the present
king's reign. I had occasion to go down to Wapping, to see some goods
shipped, which I was sending to some friends at Hamburgh; after that
business was over, I took the Tower Wharf in my way back. Here I found
the sun very powerful, and I was so much fatigued that I stepped into
one of the cannon to compose me, where I fell fast asleep. This was
about noon: it was the fourth of June; exactly at one o'clock these
cannon were all discharged in memory of the day. They had been all
charged that morning, and having no suspicion of my situation, I was
shot over the houses on the opposite side of the river, into a
farmer's yard, between Bermondsey and Deptford, where I fell upon a
large hay-stack, without waking, and continued there in a sound sleep
till hay became so extravagantly dear (which was about three months
after), that the farmer found it his interest to send his whole stock
to market: the stack I was reposing upon was the largest in the yard,
containing above five hundred load; they began to cut that first. I
woke with the voices of the people who had ascended the ladders to
begin at the top, and got up, totally ignorant of my situation: in
attempting to run away I fell upon the farmer to whom the hay
belonged, and broke his neck, yet received no injury myself. I
afterwards found, to my great consolation, that this fellow was a most
detestable character, always keeping the produce of his grounds for
extravagant markets.
