“Six officers, belonging to privateers that were taken by the enemy, made their escape last night. They inform me they were taken by the last fleet that came in. They had about six thousand foreign troops on board, one quarter of which had the black scurvy, and died very fast.”

— Nathanael Greene

Letter to George Washington (31 October 1776)

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Nathanael Greene 126

American general in the American Revolutionary War 1742–1786

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“It's an alethiometer. It's one of only six that were ever made. Lyra, I urge you again: keep it private.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

The Master and Lyra, in Ch. 4 : The Alethiometer
His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995)
Context: "Lyra, I'm going to give you something, and you must promise to keep it private. Will you swear to that?"
"Yes," Lyra said.
He crossed to the desk and took from a drawer a small package wrapped in black velvet. When he unfolded the cloth, Lyra saw something like a large watch or a small clock: a thick disk of gold and crystal. It might have been a compass or something of the sort.
"What is it?" she said.
"It's an alethiometer. It's one of only six that were ever made. Lyra, I urge you again: keep it private. It would be better if Mrs. Coulter didn't know about it. Your uncle — "
"But what does it do?"
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