From The New-England Courant, February 11, 1723:
p.s. Gentle Readers, we design never to let a Paper pass without a Latin Motto if we can possibly pick one up, which carries a Charm in it to the Vulgar, and the learned admire the pleasure of Construing. We should have obliged the World with a Greek scrap or two, but the Printer has no Types, and therefore we intreat the candid Reader not to impute the defect to our Ignorance, for our Doctor can say all the Greek Letters by heart.
What a perfect post. An old cutting that itself is a work of art, complete with someone’s calligraphy initials and the promise of a fabulous story, cut short by scissors. However the PS: supplies instead a charming and disingenuous apology for lack of a Latin motto (a mystery, why not just add one?) and for the printer’s not having Greek type founts, ending with the assurance that our Doctor can say all the Greek letters by heart. So many mysteries here, I find I can’t get past it, and my day is likely to be ruined unless I short-circuit speculation and ask you directly, did you invent any or all of this? Can BH be the same person as H? If the truly lovely woodcut ship and accompanying vignettes are armorial bearings, whose? What signifies that angel being towed away from a pursuing horseman with a hunting horn/telescope/firearm?
Was this a New England tall tale to rival Moby Dick, or the autobiography of an American Odysseus?