He used his inheritance to fund his gambling addiction.

...the poore ſaylers, who...commonly get forthwith into their beds (or hamackoes) reſting their tyred bodies...

On Long Bets […] there is an open bet between the British astrophysicist Martin Rees, a noted worrier over apocalyptic possibilities, and Harvard University’s Steven Pinker, famous for his vaulting optimism.

Sad to relate, however, some of the European delegates were probably insurgents rather than true fen. Probably none of them had ever been in a slanshack, and there were only a few completists among them.