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Mr. Edward Athawes

Corotomon Aug 25 1735

Sir,

The inclosed accot. [account] or estemate [estimate] against the owners of the Bayley. I have prepared by the secretary's order & in his absence, I think it is as particular as the nature of the case will admit of, unless it were possible to reduce to an exact calcualtion the value of an intentional service, which here aimed at no less than the recovery of a large ship, & the profits of her trade besides the loss that accured [occured] to the owners of the Little Betty Brigantine of which the least part was the delay of time, the expense of wages, & the very great damage of her rigging by straining against a ship of unequal strength & burden for in the consequences a delay was occasioned of at least three weeks after her arrival at liverpole where all the salt being just before brought up by the danes, she was under a necessity either to stay for the making of new or to depart without her loading. It must be owned indeed, that as these consequences was not only unforeseen but perhaps unusal the intention is notthereby affected at all; but where a loss is real it is no hard matter to determine who ought to bear it, he that disenterestedly design'd a great benefit or those that were to have receiv'd it. But cases of this sort admit the exercise of men's honor & reason, rather than of their skill in written lawes, or in numbers & acots. [account]. And therefor surely this estimate may pass without scruple, in which from the impossibility of the thing, nothing is inserted but real disbursement here; the merit of the intention.