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Now I was at liberty to go to any part of the world and take care of my money myself. The first thing that I resolved to do was to go directly to England, for there I thought, being among my countryfolks (for I esteemed myself an Englishwoman though I was born in France); but there, I say, I thought I could better manage things than in France, at least that I would be in less danger of being circumvented and deceived. But how to get away with such a treasure as I had with me was a difficult point, and what I was greatly at a loss about.
There was a Dutch merchant in Paris that was a person of great reputation for a man of substance and of honesty, but I had no manner of acquaintance with him, nor did I know how to get acquainted with him so as to discover my circumstances to him; but at last I employed my maid Amy (such I must be allowed to call her, notwithstanding what has been said of her, because she was in the place of a maidservant)--I say I employed my maid Amy to go to him, and she got a recommendation to him from somebody else, I knew not who, so that she got access to him well enough.