Sir,
I receive yours from on board the Revenge dated 16th inst, 1725. I am surprised that a youth of your education should not have better manners than to challenge me upon a lye. You confidently assert what I have already refused, that they are carpenters here. Your informer is certainly a rogue. What I meaned by your coming on shore with you carpenter you have taken in wrong sense. You desire James Laing to come on board, but if he would go I dare not give hostage to you; but I thought you had been such a man as a boy. I pray you seriously consider qt a thing it is to burn everlastingly: I pray you repent and amend, and by soe doeing you'll get a sight of your folly, and turn unto the Lord, for he will have mercie, and takes no delight in the death of a sinner. He is certainly a mad man that would nott wish for the longest life, and evite the severest torments, and if you and crew would take a serious prospect of the blessed state of those who expect forgiveness, which certainly you'll get, if you heartily and faithfully doe. You wrote my wife, and offered her a compliment, wch she did not want and returned. However, she condoles your condition and wishes you forever to doe well and repent. I am a well-wisher of all good men, and will be to you if you amend. This is the last you may expect from me.