After having resigned all my effects for the benefit of my creditors, I have been detained these nine years in prison, because one person refuses to sign my certificate.

I have long outlived all my friends from whom I could expect the least countenance or favour.

I am grown old in confinement, and lay my account with ending my days in jail, as the mercy of the legislature in favour of insolvent debtors is never extended to uncertified bankrupts taken in execution.

By dint of industry and the most rigid economy, I make shift to live independent in this retreat.

To this scene my faculty of subsisting, as well as my body, is peculiarly confined.