CHAPTER XII.

[pg 156]CHAPTER XII.FIGHTING EPISODES.Returns to his ship—Capture of a French schooner—An episode with two American sloops of war—Return to Port Royal—Attacked a second time by yellow fever—Seize and burn a Spanish gunboat—Return to Port Royal—Wetting a midshipman’s commission—Ordered home with a convoy—Pathetic farewells with mulatto washerwomen.On going on board a boat provided for the purpose, I found with much joy the five men who had been taken when the unfortunate master lost his life, my own boat’s crew, and seven other seamen. This addition was cheering. Five hours later we were shaking hands with some of our mess and shipmates, who appeared delighted to see us. The ship being close in with the shore, we soon reached her, and received a hearty welcome from all on board. I acquainted the captain with every circumstance respecting our capture, and with the great kindness and liberality of the Governor and American Consul, and that I had pledged my word of honour as an officer that an equal number of officers and men should be exchanged for us.“For your satisfaction, and I hope for his,”replied the captain,“a cartel is on her passage with a superior Spanish officer and twenty men, for immediately our liberal-minded[pg 157]commander-in-chief, Lord H. Seymour, heard, by an American vessel, of our misfortunes, he ordered the cartel to be got ready, and desired me to proceed, before we had half refitted, to St. Jago to reclaim you, having written a handsome letter to acknowledge the humane manner in which the Governor treated the English prisoners”—which letter was given to the Spanish officer to present to him on his arrival.“Now,”continued the captain,“have you heard anything of theFancy? I am afraid she is lost, with all on board her. The morning after you went away,”resumed he,“we saw a vessel in the offing much resembling her. I stood towards her, and found she was an American. The sea-breeze became so strong that I could not fetch sufficiently to windward, and that accounts for your not seeing us. I was truly unfortunate, and the cruise was disastrous beyond credibility. You a prisoner, with a midshipman and nine seamen, the master and three men killed, and five others taken, and the second lieutenant, a midshipman and sixteen of the best seamen most likely drowned—for I think beyond a doubt she has upset.”This conjecture was a few days after unhappily confirmed by a Bermudian sloop, which informed us that she had passed a small vessel, as we described her, bottom up near the Island of Inagua. This intelligence threw a gloom over the whole of us.“This is too tender a subject,”said I,“to have any more tenders.”“No,”replied the captain;“all these unhappy circumstances[pg 158]combined are most deplorable. I do not think I will ever send the boats away again.”“Not till the next time,”thinks I to myself. We repaired to one of our old cruising grounds, the Isle de Vâche, and although our noble captain had some days before come to a kind of secondhand determination of not sending boats away from the ship, on a large schooner heaving in sight towards the evening, I volunteered with the purser, if he would allow us the two cutters, as the wind had died away, to go after her. He, after a brown study of about half an hour, granted our request.“But,”said he,“be cautious, and if you find her heavily armed, try to decoy her off shore, but by no means attempt boarding her. We have suffered too much already.”Having prepared the boats, away we started, and after a most fatiguing pull, came up with her as she was making for Jacmel. Fortunately for us, the land-breeze was blowing rather fresh, which obliged her to make several tacks, and we boarded her whilst in stays. The people on board appeared astonished to see so many armed men so suddenly on her deck, as she had in the obscure light taken us for fishing canoes. She proved a French schooner, laden with bags of coffee. We soon rejoined the ship, quite elated with our prize, and sent her to Jamaica in charge of the purser. In the course of this cruise we fell in with two American sloops of war, which we chased, and as they did not shorten sail nor answer the private signal, we fired at the nearest;[pg 159]the shot passed through her cutwater. This event roused the minds and, I presume, the Yankee blood of both Jonathans, for they bore up, and we could hear their drums beating to quarters. We shortened sail, and they soon bowled alongside of us, with their sails spread like the tail of a turkey-cock.“You have fired into me,”said the nearest.“Have I?”said our skipper, very coolly;“I intended the shot to go ahead of you. You must blame your superior sailing for the accident. You fore-reached so rapidly that the shot had not time to go ahead of you.”“I don’t know anything about that,”was the reply.“We are American cruisers, and no one has a right, I guess, to fire into the United States men-of-war.”“Then the United States men-of-war should have answered the private signal and hoisted their colours,”returned our captain,“as we did ours.”Here they hailed each other, and soon afterwards hoisted their colours. Another boat adventure and the capture of a beautiful small schooner without any accident was the wind up of this cruise.We anchored at Port Royal once more. About a week after our arrival I was again attacked with the yellow fever and removed to my lodgings, where I was nursed with unremitting attention by a quadroon female, who did not leave my bedside day or night. She was a most tender and attentive nurse. It was a month before I was sufficiently strong to go on board, and nearly another before I could resume my duty. I was so reduced that I[pg 160]was literally a walking skeleton, or, if my reader pleases, the shadow of a ghost, and, had a purser’s candle been placed within me, I might have made a tolerably good substitute for the flag-ship’s top light. We were, in consequence of several of the crew being seized with yellow fever, ordered by the recommendation of the surgeon to Bluefields for change of air, and I am happy to state that from this judicious arrangement we did not lose a man. During the three weeks we remained here we amused ourselves by fishing. The water in eight fathoms was as pellucid as glass, and we could see the large conger eels twisting about between the stones at the bottom, as well as other fish, of which we caught several. I was regaining my strength rapidly, and was frequently invited to spend the day at several of the estates.I enjoyed walking of an evening about an hour before sunset in the pimento groves, of which there were several, and when the land-breeze set in we were often regaled on board the ship by their balmy fragrance. Mr. S., at whose house I frequently dined, was particularly kind, and his hospitality will not easily be effaced from my recollection. He had an amiable daughter, and had my heart not been lost in six different places, I think I should have sent it to cruise in her snug little boudoir. The captain, as the people who were ill had nearly recovered, thought His Majesty’s ship should no longer lie idle. We bade adieu to our kind friends, and once more made the water fly[pg 161]before us. Three days more brought us off the Havannah, where we joined theTrentandAlarmfrigates. Nothing worth noticing occurred until theTrent, which was in chase of a vessel, ran on a coral reef off Matanzas. The wind was light and the sea smooth, and we soon got her afloat again. The vessel she had chased ran on a sand beach under the protection of a martello tower. Two boats armed were soon in motion from each ship, to get her off if possible. I had the direction of our boats. The enemy’s gun-boat, for such she was, under Spanish colours, hoisted her ensign and the red flag of defiance, and kept up a smart fire on our boats. Fortunately we escaped, but those from theAlarmhad the lieutenant and three men wounded. Our boats were the first alongside of her, when I hauled down the red flag and her colours, and threw them into one of our boats, but the senior lieutenant claimed the former. This I refused, because as I was first on board and hauled it down I considered myself entitled to keep it. He said he should refer it to his captain, who was the chief officer.“So be it,”I replied. On our boarding the enemy’s vessel we found the crew had abandoned her, and were firing at us with muskets from the bushes. They had scuttled her, and she was full of water. We turned her guns on them, which soon dislodged them, and they scampered off as fast as their legs would carry them. More than half of our boat’s crews had landed and were under my orders. We soon perceived about thirty horse[pg 162]soldiers in a full trot towards us. We formed in a body two deep, and when we were near enough gave them a sailor’s salute with our muskets and three cheers. We knocked one off his horse, and set the others on a full gallop back from whence they came. They discharged their carbines at us, but they were too much alarmed to take good aim, and we escaped unharmed.As it was impossible to get the gun-boat afloat, we tarred her sails and set fire to her. We should have blown her up had not her powder been under water. She mounted a long eighteen-pounder on a traverse, and six long six-pounders on her quarter-deck. She was of great length and a formidable vessel, and we much regretted our not being able to get her afloat, as she would have answered for the Service. She had also four brass swivels mounted on her gunwales, which we took in the boats. After waiting until she had nearly burnt down to the water’s edge, we returned to our ships, taking with us the wounded Spanish dragoon. Soon after we were on our oars the martello tower began blazing away at us. It had hitherto been silent, but we supposed that when the run-away dragoons perceived we were withdrawing, they returned and mounted the tower to give us a parting salute. They might have spared themselves the trouble, as it had only one gun, and that badly served. We were on board our own ships before they fired the fourth shot.“Well,”said the captain, on my reaching the quarter-deck,“you were not[pg 163]able to get the vessel off.”“No,”I replied;“she was scuttled, and sank before we boarded her.”“Were her guns brass or iron?”“Iron,”said I,“and not worth bringing on board; there were four brass one-pound swivels, but those were taken by the lieutenant of the commodore’s boat, and he ungenerously claimed the red flag I had hauled down, but I refused to give it up.”Whilst this conversation was going on, a boat from theAlarmcame alongside with a midshipman and a written order from the commodore for me to give up, no longer the flag of defiance but that of dispute.“I think,”said the captain,“you had better comply with the order.”On seeing my disinclination to do so, he said,“It is not worth contending about.”“I believe, sir,”I replied,“you are right. It is of too childish a nature to contend about, although I cannot help considering it arbitrary, and I am surprised that a man like Captain D. could ever give such an unjust order.”“There are many men of various minds,”said he. There the disagreeable conversation ended. The mid received the piece of red bunting, and I walked the deck as surly as a bear with the Caledonian rash. The captain, who was going to dine with Captain A., told me he would explain to him anything I wished respecting what had occurred. This I declined, but I mentioned the swivels, and told him that they were very handy to mount in the boats when going on service.“I will ask him for two of them,”said he;“by doing this I probably may get one. You know,”[pg 164]continued he, laughing,“he is from the Land of Cakes and bannocks, where the device is ‘To hold fast and not let go.’”In the evening the captain returned on board, bringing in the boat one of the swivels.“I have laid a point to windward of the Highlander,”said he to me;“but I was obliged to make use of all my best logic, for he chose to be distressingly deaf on the subject of giving. But when I mentioned that I had a canister of real Scotch which was of no use to me, as I had left off taking snuff, his ears became instantly opened.‘You said something about two swivels, I think,’said he; ‘I cannot spare you two, but I will give you one. Will you take it in your boat with you, or I will send it in our jolly boat, and as I am nearly out of snuff, you can spare me the canister you mentioned that you do not need.’”“This puts me in mind,”said I,“of an Irish pilot who asked the purser of a ship I formerly belonged to, to spare him an empty barrel to make his pig a hencoop, and he would give him a sack of praters for nothing at all, at all.”“The case is nearly in point,”replied the captain;“I am afraid I have not gained so much on his weather-beam as I first imagined.”The signal was now made to weigh, and we were soon under sail. Next morning we parted company with the frigates, swept the Bay of Mexico, ran through the Turks’ Island passage, and cruised between Capes Maize and François for three weeks; took a small French schooner with tobacco, and burnt a small[pg 165]sloop in ballast. Again our anchor found the bottom of Port Royal, and the crew their copper and jet-coloured ladies.One afternoon, taking a glass of sangaree at the tavern, I was accosted by one of our late mids who had come on shore with some others to what he called wet his commission.“Will you do me the favour to join us for a quarter of an hour. We have a room upstairs,”said he to me. I told him I would in about five minutes. On entering, I found a gallon bowl filled with strong punch, with his commission soaking in it, and eight jolly mids sitting at the table in full glee. They all rose as I approached, and one of them offered me a chair.“Come, sir,”said the donor of the entertainment, offering me a bumper from the contents of the bowl,“tell me if it will suit your taste.”“Not quite,”replied I,“you have spoilt it by putting your commission into it instead of your pocket, and it smacks too much of ink and parchment.”“I told you how it would be,”said he, addressing a sly, roguish-looking youngster, who had persuaded him to put it in.“I vote that he shall drink it himself, and we will have another.”“Not on any account,”said I,“without you will allow me to pay for it.”“That will never do,”cried all of them. Another of a smaller size was ordered, out of which I drank his success. I remained nearly half an hour, during which time the large bowl was drained to the last dregs in spite of its parchment flavour, and the[pg 166]parchment was, what the mids called, returned high and dry to the owner of it, with the writing on it nearly effaced. I remarked they ought certainly to have a patent for wetting commissions, and wished them a pleasant evening.On returning on board I found a note for me from the captain, to acquaint me that we were to sail in a few days for Black River, in order to collect a homeward-bound convoy, as we were ordered to England. I withdrew my heart from the different little snug rooms I had left it in, and placed it on the right hook. I was so much elated that my dinner went from table untouched. I kept conjuring up Paradises, Elysian fields, and a number of other places never heard of, inhabited by women more beautiful than Eastern imagery can possibly describe—so fair, so chaste, so lovely, and so domestic.“Oh!”said I aloud, to the astonishment of my messmates, who were much occupied with their knives and forks,“give me but one of those fair ones, and I will not eat my dinner for a month.”“Hulloa!”said the surgeon,“what’s the matter with you?”“Nothing,”replied I;“the illusion is vanished, and I will take a glass of wine with you. I cannot eat, my mind is too full of England, and my heart crowded with its delightful fair ones. What unfeeling sea monsters you are all of you,”continued I,“to be eating with such voracious appetites when you know we are going to glorious England—the land of freedom and genuine hospitality.”“Not so fast,”said he, interrupting me;[pg 167]“how long is it since you were there?”“Nearly eight years,”said I.“I fear,”resumed he,“you will not have your dreams—for dreams they are—verified. I was there eighteen months ago, and found freedom in the mouths of the lower classes, who evidently did not understand the meaning of it, and when they did they only used it as a cloak to do mischief, for demagoguing—if you will allow the term—was the order of the day at that time, and as for hospitality that has, as you may express yourself, made sail and gone to cruise into some other climate. I had letters to two families from their relations in India; they asked me to dinner in a stiff, formal manner, and thought, I suppose, they had performed wonders. There our acquaintance ended. I am an Irishman,”continued he,“and I assert without partiality that there is more real hospitality in my land of praters than in all Europe. Freedom we will not talk about; but as for the women, dear creatures, they are a mixture of roses and lilies, and such busts, like dairy maids, sure,”said he;“don’t say anything more about them, or I shall be what has never happened to an Irishman yet—out of spirits.”“Now,”said I,“doctor, we have found you out. You lost your heart when in England, and were not requited by the cruel fair one.”“Fair or foul,”answered he,“I would not give one Munster girl for a dozen English. To be sure,”added he to a young Irish midshipman, whose turn it was to dine in the gun-room,“they are rather thick about the trotters, and their heels are to be[pg 168]compared to their red potatoes, but the upper part of their figures—say no more. Come, messmate, let’s drink a speedy passage and soon, as a worthy alderman did at a Guildhall dinner.”“You mistake, doctor,”said the second lieutenant,“he gave for a toast, a speedy peace and soon.”“Never mind,”said the doctor,“it will be all the same a hundred years hence; an Irishman is always allowed to speak twice.”Our parting with our washerwomen and other friends was pathetic in the extreme; their precious tears were sufficient to fill several (but as I did not measure them I cannot say how many) monkeys.“Oh, Gramercy, my lob!”said my lady to me,“I neber shall see you no more; but I hope dat you member dat Julia lob you more den he can tell. No,”said she, turning aside,“nobody can lob like poor me one, Julia.”She appeared overwhelmed with grief, and I felt my situation awkward and pathetically silly, as she had followed me down to the boat, and the eyes of several boats’ crews with their young, laughing wicked mids, were on us. I shook hands for the last time and jumped into the boat with a tear rolling down my cheek from my starboard eye. Reader, I beg you will not pity me, for I was not in love. I was what an old maiden cousin would have called imprudent.[pg 169]CHAPTER XIII.HOME AGAIN.Ordered to the Black River—Meet the magistrate there, and“bow to his bishop”—Sail with a convoy of thirty ships—Arrive at Deal—A cruise on horseback on a baker’s nag, which conscientiously goes the bread round—The Author’s brother comes on board, but he fails to recognise him—Paid off at Deptford.At daylight next morning we catted the anchors, made all sail, and were the next day reposing like a swan in a lake at Black River. As notices from the merchants at Kingston had been sent to the different ports round the island that two men-of-war were going to take convoy to England, we were soon joined by several West Indiamen. This place can scarcely be called even a village, there being so few houses, and those straggling. The first time I went on shore I was called to by a stout man wearing a linen jacket and trousers, with an immense broad-brimmed straw hat on his head, and his address was abrupt and by no means polished.“What ship,”said he,“officer?”“TheVolage,”replied I, not in love with the person’s face, which was bluish-red, with a large nose.“Then,”said he,“you bloody dog, come and bow to my bishop,”pointing to the best house there. I stared with astonishment, and was turning away presuming he was a cloth in the wind or some[pg 170]madman escaped from his keeper.“Ho, ho! but you can’t go before you have bowed to my bishop,”he again called out;“come with me to my house, and we shall be better acquainted.”He took my arm; I thought him a character, which I afterwards found he was, and gave in to his whim. On entering the verandah of the house, which was shaded by close Venetian blinds and very cool, he stopped before an immense large jug in the shape of a bishop. It was placed on a bracket slab, so that to drink out of the corner of its hat, which was its beak or spout, you were obliged to stoop. This I found he called bowing to his bishop. It contained delicious sangaree, and I bowed to it without being entreated to do so a second time.“Now,”said he,“you bloody dog, you have complied like a good fellow with my first request. Your captain dines with me to-morrow; I must insist on your doing so too, and then I shall consider you an obedient officer and worthy to bow to my bishop whenever you are thirsty. My dinner-hour is five o’clock, and as I am the magistrate of this overgrown metropolis I admit of no excuse.”I could not help smiling at this rough urbanity. I accepted the invitation, and at the appointed hour repaired to his house with the captain and surgeon. He received us with great good humour, and insisted, as we were bloody dogs—I understood afterwards he was very partial to naval officers and always called them by that pet name—that we should bow to his bishop before dinner. We met at his table[pg 171]our kind acquaintance Mr. S., his daughter, another gentleman, his wife and two nieces, who were going to England in one of the ships of the convoy. The dining-room was entirely of cedar, and the floor like a mirror, very spacious, and it partly projected over the river. Above the dining-table was a large punkah, which was kept in constant motion during dinner by two young grinning black girls. The table groaned with good things, and we did ample justice to our host’s entertainment. He was evidently a great humourist, and amused us at dinner by relating anecdotes of Lord Rodney and Admiral Benbow’s time.“There are,”said he,“twelve tough old fellows, of which I am the chairman, who keep up the twelfth of April by an annual dinner, and as he never flinched from the enemy, we never flinch from the bottle, and keep it up till daylight, when we are so gloriously sober that we are carried home by our slaves.”“Is it true,”said he, addressing the captain,“that Sir Eyre Coote is to supersede the Earl of B. as Governor of our Islands? Do you know anything of him?”“Only from report,”was the reply;“I think he distinguished himself by a brilliant victory over Hyder Ali in the East Indies.”“Why, the devil,”said he,“I beg your pardon, ladies, for swearing, do they send us soldiers as governors? We want something in the shape of a statesman with a lawyer’s head, with his wig and litigation. I have no fault to find with the earl; he has governed us very fairly, and I hope his[pg 172]successor will do the same, although we prefer a civilian to a soldier.”After dinner we were amused by the feats of one of his household slaves named Paddy Whack, who threw somersaults round the drawing-room, walked on his hands, and afterwards threw himself several times from the highest part of the bridge, about twenty-four feet, into the river. After coffee we took leave of our eccentric but warm-hearted host, who, on shaking hands, insisted on our bloody dogships dining with him once more before we sailed. We promised to do so conditionally. Eighteen sail of merchant vessels had assembled, and we expected seven more. The surf had been high on the bar, and we had not had communication with the shore for the last two days. A canoe came off from Mr. C. with Paddy Whack, who delivered a note to the captain.“What is it about, boy?”said he.“Paper peak, massa,”was the reply;“Paddy only wait answer from Massa Captain.”The note was a pressing invitation to dine on shore the following day, and included the captain and officers. As I had dined with the worthy planter I persuaded the second lieutenant to go. The rest of the convoy having joined us, our sails were again swelling to a strong sea-breeze. The convoy of thirty sail of sugar-laden ships were hovering round us like chickens round the mother hen. Four others joined us at Bluefields, and off Negril Point we fell in with the S. frigate, with the former Governor of Jamaica on[pg 173]board and three other West Indiamen. The captain went on board the S. to pay his respects and to receive his orders.After his return on board the signal was made to make all sail, and away we bowled for the Gulf of Florida. We touched at the Caymans for turtle, and were cheated as usual. Nothing particular occurred during our passage but our nearly being run down by one of the ships of the convoy, and my having my left shoulder unshipped by being washed off one of the weather guns by a heavy sea, which obliged me to keep my cot for more than a fortnight. The eighth week brought us in sight of the Land’s End, when we repeated the signal for the convoy to separate for their respective ports. Those bound to London kept company with us as far as the Downs. I longed to be once more on my native shore, but I was doomed to be mortified for two days, as the surf on the beach was too high to admit a boat to land. On the third day I jumped on shore with a light heart and a thin pair of trousers, and repaired to the“Hoop and Griffin.”I had a desperate desire to have a cruise on horseback. I rang the bell, which was answered by one of the finest formed young women I ever beheld. I was taken aback, and my heart, which I had brought from the West Indies, went like the handle of the chain pumps up and down.“What do you please to want, sir,”said she, with a most musically toned voice. I blushed and modestly requested to have a horse as soon as he could be got ready.“I am really sorry,[pg 174]sir,”answered she,“that all our horses are post-horses, but”continued she, with the gentlest accent in this world and probably many more,“we will procure you one.”“Many thanks,”said I;“and will you oblige me by sending up some bread and butter with some oysters, but not those which are gathered from the mangrove trees,”for I had the West Indies in my mind.“Gathered from trees!—oysters from trees! I never heard of such a thing before,”said she, and she went laughing out of the room. The waiter soon appeared with what I had ordered, and a foaming tankard of ale which I had forgotten to order. During my repast I envied no one. I was as happy as a city alderman at a Lord Mayor’s feast; I could not contain myself or believe I was in England; I could not sit quietly in my chair; I paced the room, jumped, rubbed my hands and head, and in one of my ecstatic fits I rang the bell. My beautiful maid (not Braham’s) entered as I was cutting a caper extraordinary.“Did you ring, sir?”said she with a smile becoming an angel.“I believe I did,”I replied,“but I am not certain. I scarcely know what I am about. I have eaten my oysters, and now I wish for my horse.”“He is not quite ready yet, sir. You said something about oysters growing on trees, didn’t you, sir. I told it to my mother, and she thinks I did not understand what you said. Will you be good enough to tell me if they grow in orchards like our apples?”“I have seen thousands, and have eaten thousands that have[pg 175]grown on trees,”said I,“but not in orchards. The tree that bears them grows close to the water side; its lower branches dip into it, and are clustered by the shell-fish, which are very small, and you may swallow a dozen at a mouthful.”“Thank you, sir; my mother I am sure will believe me now. I will desire John to take away. Did you like our country oysters as well as those in foreign parts?”“They are,”said I,“like you, excellent.”“I will see if the horse is ready,”said she, as she dropped a curtsey and quitted the room.Shortly after up came John to announce my horse being at the door.“Will you have a pair of master’s spurs, sir?”said he.“No, I thank you, my good fellow,”returned I.“Lend me a whip, and I shall be able to manage without spurs.”Behold a sailor on horseback, gentle reader, to the admiration or astonishment of all the bystanders, of which there were as many as would man a king’s cutter. I kept under moderate sail until I reached Middle Deal, when my companion brought up all standing at the door of a decent-looking house, nor could I make him again break ground until a maidservant opened the door.“Lord,”said she,“I thought it was the baker, sir, for you are on his horse.”“That accounts,”I said,“for his halting at your door. I wish, Betty, you would get him once more into plain sailing.”She most kindly took hold of the bridle and led him into the middle of the street. I now thought myself in the fair way, and I gave him a stroke with the whip, which I nearly[pg 176]repented, for he kicked up with his hind legs, and had not I seized the after part of the saddle I should have gone over his forecastle. I held on until he righted. After this freak, which was nearly knocking up my cruise, we jogged on steadily until we came to a narrow street, down which he turned in spite of all my endeavours to prevent him, and again hove to at the door of another house.“This turning to windward,”thinks I,“will never do. It reminds me of Commodore Trunnion making a Tom Coxe’s traverse to fetch the church.”Whilst I was puzzling my wise noddle what I was to do next, a man passed me.“I wish you would get this horse under weigh,”said I,“for here have I been at single anchor for these five minutes at this door, and cannot cast him the right way.”“Why,”said he,“I knows that there horse; it be the baker’s.”“D——n the baker, and his horse too,”said I, not much pleased at his remark.“You are close to the Canterbury road, and mayhap if I leads him he may go on.”“You are the best fellow I have met for a quarter of an hour. Do get him into open cruising ground as fast as you can, for I have been on his back more than an hour, and have not gained half a mile.”He gave me a broad grin, and good-naturedly led the horse until I got clear of the houses. He then let go the bridle, gave the animal a smart slap on the flank, which set him off at a hand-gallop, and nearly jerked me over the taffrail. I kept him to his speed, and in about half an hour he stopped[pg 177]suddenly near a small farmhouse, and I was again nearly going over his bows. A slovenly kind of woman hove in sight. I hailed her, and asked her to bring me a tumbler of milk, but I might as well have spoken to a Porto Rico donkey. She showed me her stern, and brought up in a piggery.“The devil take your hospitality,”said I. The weather was exceedingly warm, and I was very thirsty, which made me more hasty in my expressions to the Dulciana of the pigstye than I ought to have been. But show me the fair one who would not excuse a sailor thirsty and on the back of an animal as obstinate as a boat’s crew when cutting out. After a fruitless attempt to proceed further on my voyage of discovery, I hove about. The animal answered stays as well as any frigate, and was round sooner than the captain of the forecastle could clap the jib traveller over the end of the jib-boom. I was heartily tired of my horse cruise, and was glad when I hove to at the“Hoop and Griffin.”As soon as I had thrown myself on the sofa, my beautiful maid entered.“Will you favour me with your name?”said I, addressing her with quarter-deck modesty.“I am called Lucy,”said she.“That’s a very pretty name,”returned I.“Pray, Miss Lucy, may I ask where the horse came from I have been riding? I have had a worse cruise than a dismantled Dutch dogger on the Goodwin Sands. I have, into the bargain, lost out of my waistcoat-pocket two two-pound[pg 178]notes and five new gloves out of six which I very stupidly stuffed into my coat-pocket.”“I am very sorry, sir, indeed, for your misfortune,”answered she.“The horse came from the‘Royal Oak.’We desired them to send a quiet one, as it was for a gentleman who was not in the habit of riding.”“I wish they had sent me a donkey instead of the baker’s horse,”said I;“he took it into his head to stop at his master’s customers’ houses, nor could I make him leave them without assistance. No more cruising on horseback for me,”continued I.“Pray do let me have plenty of oysters and bread and butter, with a tankard of ale as smiling as yourself, as soon as the waiter can bring them up, for I am very hungry.”“We have a nice cold chicken in the house and some ham; shall I send them up too?”“That’s the stuff for trousers,”answered I.“Let all be handed up in the turn of a handspike, and if I do not do ample justice to the whole, you are not the prettiest girl I have seen. I suppose it would be treason to ask you to partake of the good things I have ordered?”“Oh, no, sir,”said she;“that is not the fashion in our house, for me to sit down with a strange gentleman.”Saying this, she left the room, and as I observed the smile which dimpled her blooming cheeks had vanished, I began to think I had said too much. Whilst I was in a blue study, up came chicken, ham, oysters, bread and butter, with the ale. I drew to the table and began with a keen West-country appetite, and for the first ten minutes forgot Lucy, baker’s horse,[pg 179]pound notes and gloves, and almost that it was growing dark, and that we were to sail by the next morning’s tide. Before I had finished moving my under jaw, which had been in constant motion for the last twenty minutes, in came the purser and one of the mids to report the boat being on shore.“You have saved me from a surfeit,”exclaimed I.“Come,”said I to the youngster,“sit down and finish the feast. As for you, Master Purser, I know you have been faring well elsewhere, therefore I shall not ask you to take anything.”Having paid the bill and shaken hands with Lucy, I jumped into the boat, and was soon on board. On seating myself in the gun-room,“Now, messmates,”said I, addressing the second lieutenant and surgeon,“you commissioned me to buy you each a pair of gloves. I fulfilled it to the letter, but I have left them on the Canterbury road.”I then related my adventure, which elicited a hearty laugh.“Now,”added I,“we will have a glass of grog, and drink to fair Lucy at the‘Hoop and Griffin,’for she is a very pretty girl, and I have lost half my heart.”“If we do not sail to-morrow,”replied they,“we will go on shore and see whether she deserves the appellation you have given her.”“Do,”said I,“and give my love to her.”At daylight our signal was made to remain at anchor until further orders. On sending the last boat on shore for the officers, I ordered the midshipman who had charge of her to acquaint my messmates[pg 180]not to bring off any strangers to dinner, as no boat would leave the ship after they returned. About 3p.m.the boat came on board, and, in contradiction to my order, brought off a stranger. The second lieutenant was first up the side, and the stranger followed. On his reaching the quarter-deck, he introduced him to me as a person sent off by the admiral as a broker to exchange English for foreign coin. He gave me his card, which I put into my pocket without looking at it. I began by telling him he had come on board at a very inconvenient time, and that, in consequence of the spring tide, the boat would not leave the ship until the morning.“It is of little consequence to me,”said he, very coolly;“I can remain where I am until that time.”“Respecting the errand you have come on,”I resumed,“I am afraid you will be disappointed, as two persons have already been before you.”“How came you,”said I to the youngster who had charge of the boat,“to disobey the order I gave you?”Before he could answer the surgeon came up and whispered to me,“It is your brother.”I examined his countenance more closely. He gave me one of his schoolboy grins and his hand, and then I was convinced. We had not seen each other for nearly nine years, and he had grown entirely out of my recollection. I did not give him the fraternal hug, but I shook him affectionately by the hand and told him I should not part with him until we reached Deptford, to which he willingly consented. He acquainted me with all family[pg 181]concerns, and that my mother was waiting in London, anxious to see me.The following day we received on board eighteen French prisoners for the prison-ships in the river. We wished them at Jericho, where the man fell among those who used him worse than a Turk would have done. The same afternoon we daylighted the anchor, mastheaded the sails, crested the briny wave like a Yankee sea-serpent, and on the second day let go no fool of a piece of crooked iron off dirty Deptford. As orders were received to pay us off, we were fully occupied for nearly a week dismantling the ship and returning stores, etc. On the second day I ran up to London and saw my mother. She did not, luckily for both parties, shed a flood of tears, but received me with maternal affection, though she said she scarcely knew me—I was grown, as my sister was pleased to say, such a black man. On the sixth day after our anchoring I ordered the ship to be put out of commission, and the cook hauled down the pendant. We had a parting dinner at the“Gun”Inn, shook hands and separated.[pg 182]CHAPTER XIV.A HOLIDAY ASHORE.On shore—Tired of inactivity—Apply for a ship—Appointed to H.M.S.Minotaur(74)—Prisoners sent on board as part of crew—Go to Plymouth—Scarcity of seamen—Ruse to impress an Irish farm labourer—Ordered to join the Channel fleet off Ushant—Capture French thirty-six-gun ship—In danger off Ushant—Capture two small French ships and one Dutch one: author sent to Plymouth in charge of the latter—Placed in quarantine.After I had remained in noisy, bustling, crowded and disagreeable London a month, my mother wishing to go into Surrey, I was glad of the opportunity to accompany her and to breathe purer air, and left town without regret.I was now under my own orders, and was much puzzled to find out how I was to obey myself. For the last ten years I had been under the control of superiors. Now I had the whole of my crew within myself, and discipline I found was necessary. I knew no more of England than it knew of me. Men and manners were equally strange to me, except those on board the different men-of-war I had served in, and they were not the most polished. In the society of the fair sex I was exceedingly shy, and my feelings were sometimes painful when I had to run the gauntlet through rows of well-dressed women, some looking as demure as a noddy at the[pg 183]masthead. I was now in my twenty-third year, and an agreeable—nay, an old lady, whose word was considered sacred—declared I was a charming young man. My life passed as monotonously as that of a clock in an old maid’s sitting-room. My habits were too active to remain long in this state of listlessness. I was almost idle enough to make love, and nearly lost my heart seven times. Caring little for the society of the men, I generally strolled over two or three fields to read my books, or to scribble sonnets on a plough, for I began to be sentimental and plaintive. Whilst meditating one morning in bed, I started up with a determination to have an interview with Sir J. Colpoys, who was one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and ask him in person for employment, for I began to be apprehensive if I remained longer on shore I should think a ship was something to eat, and the bobstay the top-sail haulyards. Three weeks after my application I was appointed to theMinotaurof seventy-four guns lying at Blackstakes, and I found it black enough, for she not having her masts stepped, we were all obliged—that is the officers—to live at the“Tap”at Shurnasty, commonly called Sheerness, where we spent thirteen out of six shillings a day, and until the ship was ready to receive us, which was nearly a fortnight, we drank elevation to the noble Secretary of the Admiralty, for, owing to his ignorance, we had been obliged to spend seven shillings daily more than our pay.Two days after the ship was commissioned, and[pg 184]I had been carrying on the war, for I was the senior lieutenant, the gallant captain made his appearance. After touching his hat in return to my grand salaam, he said,“Hulloa, how is this? I expected to find the ship masted. I will thank you to desire the boatswain to turn the hands up to hear my commission read, and quartermaster,”addressing a dockyard matey,“go down and tell all the officers I am on board.”“That is not a quartermaster,”said I to him,“he is one of the dockyard men.”“Then where are the quartermasters?”“We have none,”replied I,“nor have we a seaman on board except some one-legged and one-armed old Greenwich pensioners that were sent on board yesterday.”At this satisfactory intelligence he turned his eyes up like a crow in a thunderstorm, and muttered, I fear, something in the shape of a prayer for the whole Board of Admiralty. Whilst we were looking at each other not knowing what to say next, a man came up the hatchway to report that one of the Greenwich men had broken his leg.“Where is the surgeon?”said the captain.“He has not yet joined,”replied I.“We must send him to the dockyard for surgical aid. Man the boat, and you, Mr. Brown, take him on shore,”said I. Mr. Brown made one of his best bows, and acquainted me that it was the carpenter who was wanted and not the surgeon, as the man had snapped his wooden leg in one of the holes of the grating, and the carpenter’s mate was fishing it. After a pause of some minutes,“So,”[pg 185]resumed the captain,“this is the manner King’s ships are to be fitted out. Why, it will take us a month of Sundays before the lower masts are rigged. What the devil did they send those old codgers with their wooden legs here for? I will go immediately to the Admiral, and point out the state we are in.”In the afternoon another lieutenant joined the ship, junior to me. I began to think I should be the first, when on the following day I was unshipped, for two others came on board by some years my seniors. The captain also sent four young mids on board and the Admiralty two oldsters, one of whom was a sprig of nobility. On the morning of the fourth day we were masted, and a lighter came alongside filled with riggers from London, and soon afterwards we received our complement of marines, with a captain and two lieutenants. We were now beginning to get animated and to make some show, when, as I was giving an order to the boatswain, Mr. Brown, whom I ought to have introduced before as the gunner, reported a barge coming alongside with prisoners.“That is surely a mistake,”replied I;“I hope they do not take us for the prison ship.”Bump she came, stern on.“Hulloa!”I called out;“do you wish to try what the bends are made of?”Before I could say anything more, up came and stood before me, cocked-up hat in hand, a consequential, dapper little stout man dressed in black, with his hair in powder.“Please you, sir, I have brought, by the order of the magistrates at Maidstone,[pg 186]fifteen men to belong to your ship. They be all of them tolerable good men, except five, who have been condemned to be transported, and two to be hung, but as they be contrabanders like, the Government have sent down orders for ’em to be sent on board your ship.”“I am sure,”said I,“I can in the name of His Majesty’s officers offer many thanks to His Majesty’s Government for their great consideration in sending men who deserve hanging to be made sailors on board His Majesty’s ships.”He then, with a flourish, presented me a paper with their names and the offences of which they had been guilty. Nine of these honest, worthy members of society were stout, robust fellows, and had only taken what did not belong to them. Two of the remaining six had been condemned for putting brave citizens in bodily fear on the King’s highway and borrowing their purses and watches. The other four were smugglers bold, who wished to oblige their friends with a few hundreds of yards of Brussels lace and gloves, as well as some tubs of brandy, but were unfortunately interrupted in the exercise of their profession by those useless sea-beach cruisers called the Coast Guard.“Pray, sir,”said I,“to whom may I be obliged to for the safe conveyance of these honest men?”“I be the under-sheriff’s officer, sir,”answered he,“and I have had mighty hard work to bring them along.”“You deserve to be rewarded, Mr. Deputy Sheriff”(for I like to give every man his title), said I;“you would probably[pg 187]like to have a glass of grog.”“Why it’s thirsty weather, and I shall be obliged to you, sir.”I called the steward, desired he might have some refreshment, and he soon after quitted the ship, admonishing the live cargo he brought on board, who were still on the quarter-deck, to behave themselves like good men. A month had expired by the time the top-gallant masts were on end. We had received all our officers and two hundred men from Chatham and the river. At length, Greenwich pensioners, riggers, and dockyard mateys took their departure, to our great satisfaction, as it was impossible to bring the ship’s crew into discipline whilst they were on board. Our complement, including the officers, was six hundred and forty men. We had only three hundred and twenty when orders came down for us to proceed to Plymouth. The captain and first lieutenant looked very wise on this occasion, and were apprehensive that if the ship slipped the bridles she would be like an unruly horse, and run away with us, for there were only forty men on board who knew how to go aloft except a few of the marines. The pilot made his appearance, and soon afterwards down went the bridles, and we were fairly adrift. We reached the Nore, and let go the anchors in a hail squall, and it was with the greatest difficulty we got the top-sails furled. The admiral, having proof positive that we were as helpless as a cow in a jolly-boat, took compassion on us and sent fifty more men from the flag-ship, most of them able[pg 188]seamen. On the fourth day after quitting the Nore we anchored in Plymouth Sound.I now had the delightful opportunity of once more breathing my native air, viewing beautiful Mount Edgcumbe, revelling in clotted cream and potted pilchards, tickling my palate—as Quin used to do—with John-dories, conger eels, star-gazey and squab pies, cray-fish, and sometimes, but not very often—for my purse was only half-flood in consequence of my expenses whilst on shore at the“Tap”at Sheerness—I had a drive upon Dock. The flag-ship in Hamoaze was theSalvador del Mundo, a three-decker taken from the Spaniards in the memorable battle of the fourth of February. The day after anchoring I was ordered by the captain to go with him on board theSally-waiter-de-Modo. I reflected a short time, and not knowing there was such a ship on the Navy List, turned to the first lieutenant and asked him if he had heard of such a man-of-war.“No,”said he, smiling,“the captain chooses to call her so; he means the flag-ship.”On repairing on board her, my commander said to me,“You help me to look at those fellows’ phizes,”pointing to a number of men who were toeing the seam on her quarter-deck.“I am to take thirty of them; they are queer-looking chaps, and I do not much like the cut of their jib. But mind,”added he,“don’t take any one that has not a large quid of tobacco in his cheek.”I went up to the second man, who had a double[pg 189]allowance of Virginia or some other weed in his gill, the captain following me.“Well, my man,”said I,“how long have you been to sea?”“Four months,”was the reply.“Why, you d——d rascal,”said our skipper—for observe, reader, he never swore—“what the devil business have you with such a quantity of tobacco in your mouth? I thought you were an old sailor.”“No, sir,”answered the man,“my trade is a tailor, but I have chawed bacca from my infancy.”“Question another,”was my order. I interrogated the next, who was a short, slight, pale-faced man.“And pray,”said I,“what part of the play have you been performing; were you ever at sea?”“No, sir,”said he;“I am a hairdresser, and was pressed a week ago.”“D——n these fellows!”said my captain;“they are all tailors, barbers, or grass-combers. I want seamen.”“Then,”said Captain N., who was the flag-captain, and had just come on board,“I much fear you will be disappointed. These are the only disposable men, and it’s Hobson’s choice—those or none.”“The admiral promised me some good seamen,”returned my skipper, rather quickly.“Then I fear the admiral must find them,”was the answer,“as I have not more than twenty seamen on board besides the petty officers. The last were drafted a few days ago in theDefiance. Will you take any of these men, Captain W.?”“What do you think,”said my captain to me;“shall we take any of[pg 190]them?”“Suppose,”returned I,“we take twenty of them and the tailor; they will all fit in in time.”I then picked out twenty of the best, who were bad enough, as they were the worst set I ever saw grouped. Their appearance and dress were wretched in the extreme. I reached the ship before the hour of dinner with my live cargo.“What, more hard bargains,”said the firstlieutenant,“we have too many clodhoppers on board already. The captain told me we were to have seamen.”“Captain N.,”said I,“assured our noble captain that theDefiancehad taken all the A.B.’s.”“D——n theDefiance!”replied he;“IdefyCaptain N. or anybody else to match those gentlemanly ragamuffins.”The master’s mates were called, and they were given into their charge.One of them, a tall, large-boned man, requested to remain on deck a little longer as he had a palpitation of the heart.“What country man are you?”said I.“Shure,”answered he,“I’m all the way from dear ould Ireland, and I don’t think I shall be arter seeing the bogs again; but good luck to her, wherever she goes!”“What did you do there?”said I.“Och,”said he,“why do I give all this trouble and what business have I here? In Ireland, plase your honour, I planted praters and tended cows. In the hay season I came to England and was employed in stacking, when one day, as I was taking a walk in a field near Lunnen, I fell in with four men who asked me to join them as they were going to a public-house[pg 191]to have something to drink. I thought this was very civil to a stranger. After taking the first pot they told me they intended going in a boat on the river, and asked me if I could pull an oar.‘I’ll try,’said I.‘Well,’said they,‘on Saturday, at five o’clock in the evening, be down at Wapping Stairs and you will see a green painted boat with six men in her. I will be ready to meet you,’said one of the most good-natured,‘and we will have a pleasant trip.’I little thought, your honour, that these spalpeens, saving your presence, intended anything more than friendship. I was at the place pointed out, and stepped into the boat. I took the second oar, but I caught so many crabs that I was desired to sit in the stern. We pulled up the river, which I thought very pleasant. In returning, the man who steered said he had a message to deliver on board a dark-looking vessel we were close to. We got alongside of her.‘Won’t you go up, Pat?’said he;‘you never was on board so large a vessel; she is worth looking at.’I went up after him, when a man dressed in a blue coat with yellow buttons came up to me and told me to go below. Saying this, he called to another, who told me he would show me the way, which he soon did, and I was forced into a dark place where I found seven more half-ragged, half-starved looking animals. Two of them were countrymen.‘Who have we here?’said one of them.‘I am all the way from Ireland,’said I,‘and I have come to see this ship.’‘The devil you have, my honey; and what do you[pg 192]come here for?’‘Shure enough,’replied I,‘that’s true. I’ll go and see arter my frinds.’At this they all laughed. I went to the door, but found a sodjer there with a drawn sword.‘What do you want?’demanded he.‘To go, and plase you.’‘To-morrow, my lad,’replied he;‘to-night you stay where you are.’‘Why, what a bother you are making, Pat,’said one of my companions;‘you know you are going to serve the King.’‘And pray,’said I,‘who is the King? I never saw or heard of him before. How can I serve him?’‘That’s a good one,’said the one who first spoke.‘Where were you born and baptized?’‘About the bogs of Ireland,’replied I,‘and I was baptized over a bowl of buttermilk and praters by Father Murphy in a stable among a parcel of cows.’‘You’ll do,’said another;‘have you any dibbs?’‘Yes,’answered I,‘I have got two shillings andfourpence.’‘That will do. Send for a pot of the right sort, and we’ll drink a long life to Ireland.’I gave the one who spoke some money. We had our pot, drew ourselves up like pigs in a trough, and went to sleep. Next morning at daylight we were put on board a tender—not very tenderly, your honour, for I lost my waistcoat and my money, and when I complained I was forced over the ship’s side. They said the boat could not wait, as the tender was under weigh. We arrived at Plymouth about a fortnight ago, and here I am, your honour.”“Well,”said I,“if you behave yourself well and endeavour to do your duty, you will be happy[pg 193]enough; and as I brought you on board, I will, if you deserve it, keep sight of you, and in time you may become a good seaman, and perhaps a petty officer.”“Long life to your honour! I’ll be shure and take your advice.”And so he did, and in a few months after was made captain of the waist.We were now tolerably in order, and soon after joined the Channel fleet off Ushant. The second day after leaving Plymouth Sound we fell in with theFranchise, a large French frigate of thirty-six guns and three hundred and forty men, who, after exchanging a few shot without doing us any mischief, struck her colours. She was from St. Domingo, with General F. on board, bound to Brest. Her second captain appeared a very delicate young person, and during the four days he was on board he never slept in the cot provided for him in the captain’s cabin, but always threw himself down on the sofa in his clothes. We all conjectured that, as a son of Erin might say, he was a woman, which idea after the prisoners left us, was confirmed by the captain’s steward, who had been bribed to secrecy during the passage to Plymouth. The lady was the daughter of the captain of the captured frigate in disguise.Having seen our prize into Hamoaze, and taken our officers and men out of her, we left her in charge of the prize agent, and repaired to our station off Ushant. We joined the fleet, consisting of thirteen sail of the line and two frigates. We looked into Brest roads, and could discover only eight sail of the enemy’s line of battle ships, with[pg 194]their top-gallant yards crossed; nine others were coming forward. Four more sail of the line having joined our fleet, we were directed to part company and cruise off Vigo Bay. Soon after we fell in with theVenerable. Having the watch on deck, the captain desired the signalman to hoist the dog-a-tory pendant over the dinner signal. The man scratched his head and made wide eyes at one of the midshipmen, requesting him to tell him what the captain meant.“By Jove!”said the mid,“if you do not bear a hand and get the signal ready, he will make you a dog-of-a-wig instead of a Tory.”Seeing the man at a pause, I asked him if he had the signal ready.“Yes, sir,”replied he;“I have the telegraph dinner flags ready, but I do not know what the dog-a-tory pennant is; it must be in the boatswain’s store-room, for I have never had charge of it.”I could not forbear laughing at the man’s explanation.“What’s the signalman about?”inquired the captain;“why does he not hoist the signal?”“He did not know where to find the pendant you mentioned,”replied I.“I have told him you meant the interrogatory pendant.”“To be sure; I said so as plain as I could speak. The fellow must be stupid not to understand me,”continued our deeply-read skipper. A worthier, better or braver seaman than our noble commander never had the honour of commanding a King’s ship. His zeal and loyalty were unimpeachable. To hear him read the Articles of War to us once a month was, if[pg 195]not improving, most amusing. He dogrogated God’s honour with emphasis, and accused the ministers of the Church of being lethargic. Some of my messmates declared, although it was perfectly without intention on his part, that the captain in the last expression was right, for although the word was liturgy, he was justified in reading it lethargy. Respecting the other word,“dogrogation,”they had all turned over the leaves of Bailey’s ancient dictionary in vain; but they presumed the captain meant to read“derogation,”as it respected God’s honour, and they considered it as alapsus linguæ. Two of the officers’ names were Bateman and Slateman. For months after they had been on board our worthy captain did not appear to know one from the other, and we were sometimes much diverted, and they were much annoyed, by his sending for one when he meant the other. Although our cruising ground appeared a profitable one, and we were considered fortunate in being sent there, for six weeks we only made prizes of hundreds of the finny tribe by trawling off Quimper and L’Orient. This amusement, exercising guns, sails and lead, gave us full employment, and kept us out of mischief.For nearly two months we had only seen four of our cruisers, and a few of the enemy’s small craft going along shore, and although we frequently volunteered for boat service, our commander always closed his ears to our requests. He was no friend to boating, he said; it very seldom turned out[pg 196]successful, and it only answered, if it did at all, when courage was doubtful.“And if you are not men of courage,”he used to add,“you are not the men I took you for.”At length a cutter brought us orders to rejoin the Channel fleet under Lord Gardner, as the French fleet had increased to nineteen sail of the line, besides frigates. After joining, we were stationed off the Black Rocks, with four other ships, to watch Brest and the movements of the enemy’s fleet. At this time we were seventeen sail of the line and three frigates, and were very sanguine that the ships at Brest would favour us with their company, as they had been practising their firing and sailing in Brest water. We strained our eyes and imaginations in vain. There they stuck, as the seamen used to say, like theMerrydun, of Dover, which took seven years in veering, and when she did so the fly of her ensign swept two flocks of sheep off Beachy Head, while her jib-boom knocked down the steeple of Calais church and killed the sexton. Cruising on this Siberian ground was horribly monotonous work. We sincerely wished the French fleet alongside of us, or in a warmer place. On one dark night we were caught in a heavy gale from the westward. We were under close-reefed main and foretop-sails and mizzen. The ship was settling down on Ushant rapidly, and we expected to strike every moment. The rebound of the water from the rocks caused the spray to fly half-way over the decks from to leeward.[pg 197]A rock called La Jument was on our lee bow. Luckily we saw the sea breaking over it.“Port the helm!”called out one of the pilots,“or the ship’s lost. She must bear the main-sail, captain,”added he,“or we shall not weather the island, and she will strike in less than half an hour.”The main-sail was cast loose, and after a severe contest, its unwilling tack and sheet were belayed. The ship was literally buried in the foam, and I expected to see the main-mast go by the board every instant. Orders had been given, in case of such an event, to have all the axes ready. Providentially the wind veered two points to the southward, which saved the ship and her crew. Had she struck, she must instantly have gone to pieces. The rocks were so perpendicular that in all probability the whole of us must have made food for fishes. In a quarter of an hour we were clear of the island. Had we been under sentence of death, and suddenly reprieved, the effect on our minds could not have been greater. Long, anxious faces coiled themselves up to half their length and became brighter. The captain, who had been pacing the quarter-deck in quick time, brought himself up all standing, and I could perceive his lips move, and, if I mistake not, he was offering up a mental prayer of thankfulness for our hair-breadth escape. At daylight the gale abated, when, on examining the masts, the maintop-mast was found sprung in the cap. The following evening we captured two French brigs from Martinique,[pg 198]laden with sugar and coffee, and the day after a Dutch ship from Smyrna bound to Amsterdam, laden with silks and cotton, in which I went as prize-master. On our arrival at Plymouth we were put into quarantine. The boat which came out to us kept on her oars. I could not forbear smiling when I requested our letters might be sent on shore by her to see the great and certainly necessary precautions taken by these cunning people. A long kind of sprit was held up, split at the end to receive the letters. When in the boat, one man clipped them with a pair of scissors, another fumigated them with brimstone, a third bedabbled them with dirty vinegar and threw them into a leathern bag, taking care not to touch them with his hands.

[pg 156]CHAPTER XII.FIGHTING EPISODES.Returns to his ship—Capture of a French schooner—An episode with two American sloops of war—Return to Port Royal—Attacked a second time by yellow fever—Seize and burn a Spanish gunboat—Return to Port Royal—Wetting a midshipman’s commission—Ordered home with a convoy—Pathetic farewells with mulatto washerwomen.On going on board a boat provided for the purpose, I found with much joy the five men who had been taken when the unfortunate master lost his life, my own boat’s crew, and seven other seamen. This addition was cheering. Five hours later we were shaking hands with some of our mess and shipmates, who appeared delighted to see us. The ship being close in with the shore, we soon reached her, and received a hearty welcome from all on board. I acquainted the captain with every circumstance respecting our capture, and with the great kindness and liberality of the Governor and American Consul, and that I had pledged my word of honour as an officer that an equal number of officers and men should be exchanged for us.“For your satisfaction, and I hope for his,”replied the captain,“a cartel is on her passage with a superior Spanish officer and twenty men, for immediately our liberal-minded[pg 157]commander-in-chief, Lord H. Seymour, heard, by an American vessel, of our misfortunes, he ordered the cartel to be got ready, and desired me to proceed, before we had half refitted, to St. Jago to reclaim you, having written a handsome letter to acknowledge the humane manner in which the Governor treated the English prisoners”—which letter was given to the Spanish officer to present to him on his arrival.“Now,”continued the captain,“have you heard anything of theFancy? I am afraid she is lost, with all on board her. The morning after you went away,”resumed he,“we saw a vessel in the offing much resembling her. I stood towards her, and found she was an American. The sea-breeze became so strong that I could not fetch sufficiently to windward, and that accounts for your not seeing us. I was truly unfortunate, and the cruise was disastrous beyond credibility. You a prisoner, with a midshipman and nine seamen, the master and three men killed, and five others taken, and the second lieutenant, a midshipman and sixteen of the best seamen most likely drowned—for I think beyond a doubt she has upset.”This conjecture was a few days after unhappily confirmed by a Bermudian sloop, which informed us that she had passed a small vessel, as we described her, bottom up near the Island of Inagua. This intelligence threw a gloom over the whole of us.“This is too tender a subject,”said I,“to have any more tenders.”“No,”replied the captain;“all these unhappy circumstances[pg 158]combined are most deplorable. I do not think I will ever send the boats away again.”“Not till the next time,”thinks I to myself. We repaired to one of our old cruising grounds, the Isle de Vâche, and although our noble captain had some days before come to a kind of secondhand determination of not sending boats away from the ship, on a large schooner heaving in sight towards the evening, I volunteered with the purser, if he would allow us the two cutters, as the wind had died away, to go after her. He, after a brown study of about half an hour, granted our request.“But,”said he,“be cautious, and if you find her heavily armed, try to decoy her off shore, but by no means attempt boarding her. We have suffered too much already.”Having prepared the boats, away we started, and after a most fatiguing pull, came up with her as she was making for Jacmel. Fortunately for us, the land-breeze was blowing rather fresh, which obliged her to make several tacks, and we boarded her whilst in stays. The people on board appeared astonished to see so many armed men so suddenly on her deck, as she had in the obscure light taken us for fishing canoes. She proved a French schooner, laden with bags of coffee. We soon rejoined the ship, quite elated with our prize, and sent her to Jamaica in charge of the purser. In the course of this cruise we fell in with two American sloops of war, which we chased, and as they did not shorten sail nor answer the private signal, we fired at the nearest;[pg 159]the shot passed through her cutwater. This event roused the minds and, I presume, the Yankee blood of both Jonathans, for they bore up, and we could hear their drums beating to quarters. We shortened sail, and they soon bowled alongside of us, with their sails spread like the tail of a turkey-cock.“You have fired into me,”said the nearest.“Have I?”said our skipper, very coolly;“I intended the shot to go ahead of you. You must blame your superior sailing for the accident. You fore-reached so rapidly that the shot had not time to go ahead of you.”“I don’t know anything about that,”was the reply.“We are American cruisers, and no one has a right, I guess, to fire into the United States men-of-war.”“Then the United States men-of-war should have answered the private signal and hoisted their colours,”returned our captain,“as we did ours.”Here they hailed each other, and soon afterwards hoisted their colours. Another boat adventure and the capture of a beautiful small schooner without any accident was the wind up of this cruise.We anchored at Port Royal once more. About a week after our arrival I was again attacked with the yellow fever and removed to my lodgings, where I was nursed with unremitting attention by a quadroon female, who did not leave my bedside day or night. She was a most tender and attentive nurse. It was a month before I was sufficiently strong to go on board, and nearly another before I could resume my duty. I was so reduced that I[pg 160]was literally a walking skeleton, or, if my reader pleases, the shadow of a ghost, and, had a purser’s candle been placed within me, I might have made a tolerably good substitute for the flag-ship’s top light. We were, in consequence of several of the crew being seized with yellow fever, ordered by the recommendation of the surgeon to Bluefields for change of air, and I am happy to state that from this judicious arrangement we did not lose a man. During the three weeks we remained here we amused ourselves by fishing. The water in eight fathoms was as pellucid as glass, and we could see the large conger eels twisting about between the stones at the bottom, as well as other fish, of which we caught several. I was regaining my strength rapidly, and was frequently invited to spend the day at several of the estates.I enjoyed walking of an evening about an hour before sunset in the pimento groves, of which there were several, and when the land-breeze set in we were often regaled on board the ship by their balmy fragrance. Mr. S., at whose house I frequently dined, was particularly kind, and his hospitality will not easily be effaced from my recollection. He had an amiable daughter, and had my heart not been lost in six different places, I think I should have sent it to cruise in her snug little boudoir. The captain, as the people who were ill had nearly recovered, thought His Majesty’s ship should no longer lie idle. We bade adieu to our kind friends, and once more made the water fly[pg 161]before us. Three days more brought us off the Havannah, where we joined theTrentandAlarmfrigates. Nothing worth noticing occurred until theTrent, which was in chase of a vessel, ran on a coral reef off Matanzas. The wind was light and the sea smooth, and we soon got her afloat again. The vessel she had chased ran on a sand beach under the protection of a martello tower. Two boats armed were soon in motion from each ship, to get her off if possible. I had the direction of our boats. The enemy’s gun-boat, for such she was, under Spanish colours, hoisted her ensign and the red flag of defiance, and kept up a smart fire on our boats. Fortunately we escaped, but those from theAlarmhad the lieutenant and three men wounded. Our boats were the first alongside of her, when I hauled down the red flag and her colours, and threw them into one of our boats, but the senior lieutenant claimed the former. This I refused, because as I was first on board and hauled it down I considered myself entitled to keep it. He said he should refer it to his captain, who was the chief officer.“So be it,”I replied. On our boarding the enemy’s vessel we found the crew had abandoned her, and were firing at us with muskets from the bushes. They had scuttled her, and she was full of water. We turned her guns on them, which soon dislodged them, and they scampered off as fast as their legs would carry them. More than half of our boat’s crews had landed and were under my orders. We soon perceived about thirty horse[pg 162]soldiers in a full trot towards us. We formed in a body two deep, and when we were near enough gave them a sailor’s salute with our muskets and three cheers. We knocked one off his horse, and set the others on a full gallop back from whence they came. They discharged their carbines at us, but they were too much alarmed to take good aim, and we escaped unharmed.As it was impossible to get the gun-boat afloat, we tarred her sails and set fire to her. We should have blown her up had not her powder been under water. She mounted a long eighteen-pounder on a traverse, and six long six-pounders on her quarter-deck. She was of great length and a formidable vessel, and we much regretted our not being able to get her afloat, as she would have answered for the Service. She had also four brass swivels mounted on her gunwales, which we took in the boats. After waiting until she had nearly burnt down to the water’s edge, we returned to our ships, taking with us the wounded Spanish dragoon. Soon after we were on our oars the martello tower began blazing away at us. It had hitherto been silent, but we supposed that when the run-away dragoons perceived we were withdrawing, they returned and mounted the tower to give us a parting salute. They might have spared themselves the trouble, as it had only one gun, and that badly served. We were on board our own ships before they fired the fourth shot.“Well,”said the captain, on my reaching the quarter-deck,“you were not[pg 163]able to get the vessel off.”“No,”I replied;“she was scuttled, and sank before we boarded her.”“Were her guns brass or iron?”“Iron,”said I,“and not worth bringing on board; there were four brass one-pound swivels, but those were taken by the lieutenant of the commodore’s boat, and he ungenerously claimed the red flag I had hauled down, but I refused to give it up.”Whilst this conversation was going on, a boat from theAlarmcame alongside with a midshipman and a written order from the commodore for me to give up, no longer the flag of defiance but that of dispute.“I think,”said the captain,“you had better comply with the order.”On seeing my disinclination to do so, he said,“It is not worth contending about.”“I believe, sir,”I replied,“you are right. It is of too childish a nature to contend about, although I cannot help considering it arbitrary, and I am surprised that a man like Captain D. could ever give such an unjust order.”“There are many men of various minds,”said he. There the disagreeable conversation ended. The mid received the piece of red bunting, and I walked the deck as surly as a bear with the Caledonian rash. The captain, who was going to dine with Captain A., told me he would explain to him anything I wished respecting what had occurred. This I declined, but I mentioned the swivels, and told him that they were very handy to mount in the boats when going on service.“I will ask him for two of them,”said he;“by doing this I probably may get one. You know,”[pg 164]continued he, laughing,“he is from the Land of Cakes and bannocks, where the device is ‘To hold fast and not let go.’”In the evening the captain returned on board, bringing in the boat one of the swivels.“I have laid a point to windward of the Highlander,”said he to me;“but I was obliged to make use of all my best logic, for he chose to be distressingly deaf on the subject of giving. But when I mentioned that I had a canister of real Scotch which was of no use to me, as I had left off taking snuff, his ears became instantly opened.‘You said something about two swivels, I think,’said he; ‘I cannot spare you two, but I will give you one. Will you take it in your boat with you, or I will send it in our jolly boat, and as I am nearly out of snuff, you can spare me the canister you mentioned that you do not need.’”“This puts me in mind,”said I,“of an Irish pilot who asked the purser of a ship I formerly belonged to, to spare him an empty barrel to make his pig a hencoop, and he would give him a sack of praters for nothing at all, at all.”“The case is nearly in point,”replied the captain;“I am afraid I have not gained so much on his weather-beam as I first imagined.”The signal was now made to weigh, and we were soon under sail. Next morning we parted company with the frigates, swept the Bay of Mexico, ran through the Turks’ Island passage, and cruised between Capes Maize and François for three weeks; took a small French schooner with tobacco, and burnt a small[pg 165]sloop in ballast. Again our anchor found the bottom of Port Royal, and the crew their copper and jet-coloured ladies.One afternoon, taking a glass of sangaree at the tavern, I was accosted by one of our late mids who had come on shore with some others to what he called wet his commission.“Will you do me the favour to join us for a quarter of an hour. We have a room upstairs,”said he to me. I told him I would in about five minutes. On entering, I found a gallon bowl filled with strong punch, with his commission soaking in it, and eight jolly mids sitting at the table in full glee. They all rose as I approached, and one of them offered me a chair.“Come, sir,”said the donor of the entertainment, offering me a bumper from the contents of the bowl,“tell me if it will suit your taste.”“Not quite,”replied I,“you have spoilt it by putting your commission into it instead of your pocket, and it smacks too much of ink and parchment.”“I told you how it would be,”said he, addressing a sly, roguish-looking youngster, who had persuaded him to put it in.“I vote that he shall drink it himself, and we will have another.”“Not on any account,”said I,“without you will allow me to pay for it.”“That will never do,”cried all of them. Another of a smaller size was ordered, out of which I drank his success. I remained nearly half an hour, during which time the large bowl was drained to the last dregs in spite of its parchment flavour, and the[pg 166]parchment was, what the mids called, returned high and dry to the owner of it, with the writing on it nearly effaced. I remarked they ought certainly to have a patent for wetting commissions, and wished them a pleasant evening.On returning on board I found a note for me from the captain, to acquaint me that we were to sail in a few days for Black River, in order to collect a homeward-bound convoy, as we were ordered to England. I withdrew my heart from the different little snug rooms I had left it in, and placed it on the right hook. I was so much elated that my dinner went from table untouched. I kept conjuring up Paradises, Elysian fields, and a number of other places never heard of, inhabited by women more beautiful than Eastern imagery can possibly describe—so fair, so chaste, so lovely, and so domestic.“Oh!”said I aloud, to the astonishment of my messmates, who were much occupied with their knives and forks,“give me but one of those fair ones, and I will not eat my dinner for a month.”“Hulloa!”said the surgeon,“what’s the matter with you?”“Nothing,”replied I;“the illusion is vanished, and I will take a glass of wine with you. I cannot eat, my mind is too full of England, and my heart crowded with its delightful fair ones. What unfeeling sea monsters you are all of you,”continued I,“to be eating with such voracious appetites when you know we are going to glorious England—the land of freedom and genuine hospitality.”“Not so fast,”said he, interrupting me;[pg 167]“how long is it since you were there?”“Nearly eight years,”said I.“I fear,”resumed he,“you will not have your dreams—for dreams they are—verified. I was there eighteen months ago, and found freedom in the mouths of the lower classes, who evidently did not understand the meaning of it, and when they did they only used it as a cloak to do mischief, for demagoguing—if you will allow the term—was the order of the day at that time, and as for hospitality that has, as you may express yourself, made sail and gone to cruise into some other climate. I had letters to two families from their relations in India; they asked me to dinner in a stiff, formal manner, and thought, I suppose, they had performed wonders. There our acquaintance ended. I am an Irishman,”continued he,“and I assert without partiality that there is more real hospitality in my land of praters than in all Europe. Freedom we will not talk about; but as for the women, dear creatures, they are a mixture of roses and lilies, and such busts, like dairy maids, sure,”said he;“don’t say anything more about them, or I shall be what has never happened to an Irishman yet—out of spirits.”“Now,”said I,“doctor, we have found you out. You lost your heart when in England, and were not requited by the cruel fair one.”“Fair or foul,”answered he,“I would not give one Munster girl for a dozen English. To be sure,”added he to a young Irish midshipman, whose turn it was to dine in the gun-room,“they are rather thick about the trotters, and their heels are to be[pg 168]compared to their red potatoes, but the upper part of their figures—say no more. Come, messmate, let’s drink a speedy passage and soon, as a worthy alderman did at a Guildhall dinner.”“You mistake, doctor,”said the second lieutenant,“he gave for a toast, a speedy peace and soon.”“Never mind,”said the doctor,“it will be all the same a hundred years hence; an Irishman is always allowed to speak twice.”Our parting with our washerwomen and other friends was pathetic in the extreme; their precious tears were sufficient to fill several (but as I did not measure them I cannot say how many) monkeys.“Oh, Gramercy, my lob!”said my lady to me,“I neber shall see you no more; but I hope dat you member dat Julia lob you more den he can tell. No,”said she, turning aside,“nobody can lob like poor me one, Julia.”She appeared overwhelmed with grief, and I felt my situation awkward and pathetically silly, as she had followed me down to the boat, and the eyes of several boats’ crews with their young, laughing wicked mids, were on us. I shook hands for the last time and jumped into the boat with a tear rolling down my cheek from my starboard eye. Reader, I beg you will not pity me, for I was not in love. I was what an old maiden cousin would have called imprudent.[pg 169]CHAPTER XIII.HOME AGAIN.Ordered to the Black River—Meet the magistrate there, and“bow to his bishop”—Sail with a convoy of thirty ships—Arrive at Deal—A cruise on horseback on a baker’s nag, which conscientiously goes the bread round—The Author’s brother comes on board, but he fails to recognise him—Paid off at Deptford.At daylight next morning we catted the anchors, made all sail, and were the next day reposing like a swan in a lake at Black River. As notices from the merchants at Kingston had been sent to the different ports round the island that two men-of-war were going to take convoy to England, we were soon joined by several West Indiamen. This place can scarcely be called even a village, there being so few houses, and those straggling. The first time I went on shore I was called to by a stout man wearing a linen jacket and trousers, with an immense broad-brimmed straw hat on his head, and his address was abrupt and by no means polished.“What ship,”said he,“officer?”“TheVolage,”replied I, not in love with the person’s face, which was bluish-red, with a large nose.“Then,”said he,“you bloody dog, come and bow to my bishop,”pointing to the best house there. I stared with astonishment, and was turning away presuming he was a cloth in the wind or some[pg 170]madman escaped from his keeper.“Ho, ho! but you can’t go before you have bowed to my bishop,”he again called out;“come with me to my house, and we shall be better acquainted.”He took my arm; I thought him a character, which I afterwards found he was, and gave in to his whim. On entering the verandah of the house, which was shaded by close Venetian blinds and very cool, he stopped before an immense large jug in the shape of a bishop. It was placed on a bracket slab, so that to drink out of the corner of its hat, which was its beak or spout, you were obliged to stoop. This I found he called bowing to his bishop. It contained delicious sangaree, and I bowed to it without being entreated to do so a second time.“Now,”said he,“you bloody dog, you have complied like a good fellow with my first request. Your captain dines with me to-morrow; I must insist on your doing so too, and then I shall consider you an obedient officer and worthy to bow to my bishop whenever you are thirsty. My dinner-hour is five o’clock, and as I am the magistrate of this overgrown metropolis I admit of no excuse.”I could not help smiling at this rough urbanity. I accepted the invitation, and at the appointed hour repaired to his house with the captain and surgeon. He received us with great good humour, and insisted, as we were bloody dogs—I understood afterwards he was very partial to naval officers and always called them by that pet name—that we should bow to his bishop before dinner. We met at his table[pg 171]our kind acquaintance Mr. S., his daughter, another gentleman, his wife and two nieces, who were going to England in one of the ships of the convoy. The dining-room was entirely of cedar, and the floor like a mirror, very spacious, and it partly projected over the river. Above the dining-table was a large punkah, which was kept in constant motion during dinner by two young grinning black girls. The table groaned with good things, and we did ample justice to our host’s entertainment. He was evidently a great humourist, and amused us at dinner by relating anecdotes of Lord Rodney and Admiral Benbow’s time.“There are,”said he,“twelve tough old fellows, of which I am the chairman, who keep up the twelfth of April by an annual dinner, and as he never flinched from the enemy, we never flinch from the bottle, and keep it up till daylight, when we are so gloriously sober that we are carried home by our slaves.”“Is it true,”said he, addressing the captain,“that Sir Eyre Coote is to supersede the Earl of B. as Governor of our Islands? Do you know anything of him?”“Only from report,”was the reply;“I think he distinguished himself by a brilliant victory over Hyder Ali in the East Indies.”“Why, the devil,”said he,“I beg your pardon, ladies, for swearing, do they send us soldiers as governors? We want something in the shape of a statesman with a lawyer’s head, with his wig and litigation. I have no fault to find with the earl; he has governed us very fairly, and I hope his[pg 172]successor will do the same, although we prefer a civilian to a soldier.”After dinner we were amused by the feats of one of his household slaves named Paddy Whack, who threw somersaults round the drawing-room, walked on his hands, and afterwards threw himself several times from the highest part of the bridge, about twenty-four feet, into the river. After coffee we took leave of our eccentric but warm-hearted host, who, on shaking hands, insisted on our bloody dogships dining with him once more before we sailed. We promised to do so conditionally. Eighteen sail of merchant vessels had assembled, and we expected seven more. The surf had been high on the bar, and we had not had communication with the shore for the last two days. A canoe came off from Mr. C. with Paddy Whack, who delivered a note to the captain.“What is it about, boy?”said he.“Paper peak, massa,”was the reply;“Paddy only wait answer from Massa Captain.”The note was a pressing invitation to dine on shore the following day, and included the captain and officers. As I had dined with the worthy planter I persuaded the second lieutenant to go. The rest of the convoy having joined us, our sails were again swelling to a strong sea-breeze. The convoy of thirty sail of sugar-laden ships were hovering round us like chickens round the mother hen. Four others joined us at Bluefields, and off Negril Point we fell in with the S. frigate, with the former Governor of Jamaica on[pg 173]board and three other West Indiamen. The captain went on board the S. to pay his respects and to receive his orders.After his return on board the signal was made to make all sail, and away we bowled for the Gulf of Florida. We touched at the Caymans for turtle, and were cheated as usual. Nothing particular occurred during our passage but our nearly being run down by one of the ships of the convoy, and my having my left shoulder unshipped by being washed off one of the weather guns by a heavy sea, which obliged me to keep my cot for more than a fortnight. The eighth week brought us in sight of the Land’s End, when we repeated the signal for the convoy to separate for their respective ports. Those bound to London kept company with us as far as the Downs. I longed to be once more on my native shore, but I was doomed to be mortified for two days, as the surf on the beach was too high to admit a boat to land. On the third day I jumped on shore with a light heart and a thin pair of trousers, and repaired to the“Hoop and Griffin.”I had a desperate desire to have a cruise on horseback. I rang the bell, which was answered by one of the finest formed young women I ever beheld. I was taken aback, and my heart, which I had brought from the West Indies, went like the handle of the chain pumps up and down.“What do you please to want, sir,”said she, with a most musically toned voice. I blushed and modestly requested to have a horse as soon as he could be got ready.“I am really sorry,[pg 174]sir,”answered she,“that all our horses are post-horses, but”continued she, with the gentlest accent in this world and probably many more,“we will procure you one.”“Many thanks,”said I;“and will you oblige me by sending up some bread and butter with some oysters, but not those which are gathered from the mangrove trees,”for I had the West Indies in my mind.“Gathered from trees!—oysters from trees! I never heard of such a thing before,”said she, and she went laughing out of the room. The waiter soon appeared with what I had ordered, and a foaming tankard of ale which I had forgotten to order. During my repast I envied no one. I was as happy as a city alderman at a Lord Mayor’s feast; I could not contain myself or believe I was in England; I could not sit quietly in my chair; I paced the room, jumped, rubbed my hands and head, and in one of my ecstatic fits I rang the bell. My beautiful maid (not Braham’s) entered as I was cutting a caper extraordinary.“Did you ring, sir?”said she with a smile becoming an angel.“I believe I did,”I replied,“but I am not certain. I scarcely know what I am about. I have eaten my oysters, and now I wish for my horse.”“He is not quite ready yet, sir. You said something about oysters growing on trees, didn’t you, sir. I told it to my mother, and she thinks I did not understand what you said. Will you be good enough to tell me if they grow in orchards like our apples?”“I have seen thousands, and have eaten thousands that have[pg 175]grown on trees,”said I,“but not in orchards. The tree that bears them grows close to the water side; its lower branches dip into it, and are clustered by the shell-fish, which are very small, and you may swallow a dozen at a mouthful.”“Thank you, sir; my mother I am sure will believe me now. I will desire John to take away. Did you like our country oysters as well as those in foreign parts?”“They are,”said I,“like you, excellent.”“I will see if the horse is ready,”said she, as she dropped a curtsey and quitted the room.Shortly after up came John to announce my horse being at the door.“Will you have a pair of master’s spurs, sir?”said he.“No, I thank you, my good fellow,”returned I.“Lend me a whip, and I shall be able to manage without spurs.”Behold a sailor on horseback, gentle reader, to the admiration or astonishment of all the bystanders, of which there were as many as would man a king’s cutter. I kept under moderate sail until I reached Middle Deal, when my companion brought up all standing at the door of a decent-looking house, nor could I make him again break ground until a maidservant opened the door.“Lord,”said she,“I thought it was the baker, sir, for you are on his horse.”“That accounts,”I said,“for his halting at your door. I wish, Betty, you would get him once more into plain sailing.”She most kindly took hold of the bridle and led him into the middle of the street. I now thought myself in the fair way, and I gave him a stroke with the whip, which I nearly[pg 176]repented, for he kicked up with his hind legs, and had not I seized the after part of the saddle I should have gone over his forecastle. I held on until he righted. After this freak, which was nearly knocking up my cruise, we jogged on steadily until we came to a narrow street, down which he turned in spite of all my endeavours to prevent him, and again hove to at the door of another house.“This turning to windward,”thinks I,“will never do. It reminds me of Commodore Trunnion making a Tom Coxe’s traverse to fetch the church.”Whilst I was puzzling my wise noddle what I was to do next, a man passed me.“I wish you would get this horse under weigh,”said I,“for here have I been at single anchor for these five minutes at this door, and cannot cast him the right way.”“Why,”said he,“I knows that there horse; it be the baker’s.”“D——n the baker, and his horse too,”said I, not much pleased at his remark.“You are close to the Canterbury road, and mayhap if I leads him he may go on.”“You are the best fellow I have met for a quarter of an hour. Do get him into open cruising ground as fast as you can, for I have been on his back more than an hour, and have not gained half a mile.”He gave me a broad grin, and good-naturedly led the horse until I got clear of the houses. He then let go the bridle, gave the animal a smart slap on the flank, which set him off at a hand-gallop, and nearly jerked me over the taffrail. I kept him to his speed, and in about half an hour he stopped[pg 177]suddenly near a small farmhouse, and I was again nearly going over his bows. A slovenly kind of woman hove in sight. I hailed her, and asked her to bring me a tumbler of milk, but I might as well have spoken to a Porto Rico donkey. She showed me her stern, and brought up in a piggery.“The devil take your hospitality,”said I. The weather was exceedingly warm, and I was very thirsty, which made me more hasty in my expressions to the Dulciana of the pigstye than I ought to have been. But show me the fair one who would not excuse a sailor thirsty and on the back of an animal as obstinate as a boat’s crew when cutting out. After a fruitless attempt to proceed further on my voyage of discovery, I hove about. The animal answered stays as well as any frigate, and was round sooner than the captain of the forecastle could clap the jib traveller over the end of the jib-boom. I was heartily tired of my horse cruise, and was glad when I hove to at the“Hoop and Griffin.”As soon as I had thrown myself on the sofa, my beautiful maid entered.“Will you favour me with your name?”said I, addressing her with quarter-deck modesty.“I am called Lucy,”said she.“That’s a very pretty name,”returned I.“Pray, Miss Lucy, may I ask where the horse came from I have been riding? I have had a worse cruise than a dismantled Dutch dogger on the Goodwin Sands. I have, into the bargain, lost out of my waistcoat-pocket two two-pound[pg 178]notes and five new gloves out of six which I very stupidly stuffed into my coat-pocket.”“I am very sorry, sir, indeed, for your misfortune,”answered she.“The horse came from the‘Royal Oak.’We desired them to send a quiet one, as it was for a gentleman who was not in the habit of riding.”“I wish they had sent me a donkey instead of the baker’s horse,”said I;“he took it into his head to stop at his master’s customers’ houses, nor could I make him leave them without assistance. No more cruising on horseback for me,”continued I.“Pray do let me have plenty of oysters and bread and butter, with a tankard of ale as smiling as yourself, as soon as the waiter can bring them up, for I am very hungry.”“We have a nice cold chicken in the house and some ham; shall I send them up too?”“That’s the stuff for trousers,”answered I.“Let all be handed up in the turn of a handspike, and if I do not do ample justice to the whole, you are not the prettiest girl I have seen. I suppose it would be treason to ask you to partake of the good things I have ordered?”“Oh, no, sir,”said she;“that is not the fashion in our house, for me to sit down with a strange gentleman.”Saying this, she left the room, and as I observed the smile which dimpled her blooming cheeks had vanished, I began to think I had said too much. Whilst I was in a blue study, up came chicken, ham, oysters, bread and butter, with the ale. I drew to the table and began with a keen West-country appetite, and for the first ten minutes forgot Lucy, baker’s horse,[pg 179]pound notes and gloves, and almost that it was growing dark, and that we were to sail by the next morning’s tide. Before I had finished moving my under jaw, which had been in constant motion for the last twenty minutes, in came the purser and one of the mids to report the boat being on shore.“You have saved me from a surfeit,”exclaimed I.“Come,”said I to the youngster,“sit down and finish the feast. As for you, Master Purser, I know you have been faring well elsewhere, therefore I shall not ask you to take anything.”Having paid the bill and shaken hands with Lucy, I jumped into the boat, and was soon on board. On seating myself in the gun-room,“Now, messmates,”said I, addressing the second lieutenant and surgeon,“you commissioned me to buy you each a pair of gloves. I fulfilled it to the letter, but I have left them on the Canterbury road.”I then related my adventure, which elicited a hearty laugh.“Now,”added I,“we will have a glass of grog, and drink to fair Lucy at the‘Hoop and Griffin,’for she is a very pretty girl, and I have lost half my heart.”“If we do not sail to-morrow,”replied they,“we will go on shore and see whether she deserves the appellation you have given her.”“Do,”said I,“and give my love to her.”At daylight our signal was made to remain at anchor until further orders. On sending the last boat on shore for the officers, I ordered the midshipman who had charge of her to acquaint my messmates[pg 180]not to bring off any strangers to dinner, as no boat would leave the ship after they returned. About 3p.m.the boat came on board, and, in contradiction to my order, brought off a stranger. The second lieutenant was first up the side, and the stranger followed. On his reaching the quarter-deck, he introduced him to me as a person sent off by the admiral as a broker to exchange English for foreign coin. He gave me his card, which I put into my pocket without looking at it. I began by telling him he had come on board at a very inconvenient time, and that, in consequence of the spring tide, the boat would not leave the ship until the morning.“It is of little consequence to me,”said he, very coolly;“I can remain where I am until that time.”“Respecting the errand you have come on,”I resumed,“I am afraid you will be disappointed, as two persons have already been before you.”“How came you,”said I to the youngster who had charge of the boat,“to disobey the order I gave you?”Before he could answer the surgeon came up and whispered to me,“It is your brother.”I examined his countenance more closely. He gave me one of his schoolboy grins and his hand, and then I was convinced. We had not seen each other for nearly nine years, and he had grown entirely out of my recollection. I did not give him the fraternal hug, but I shook him affectionately by the hand and told him I should not part with him until we reached Deptford, to which he willingly consented. He acquainted me with all family[pg 181]concerns, and that my mother was waiting in London, anxious to see me.The following day we received on board eighteen French prisoners for the prison-ships in the river. We wished them at Jericho, where the man fell among those who used him worse than a Turk would have done. The same afternoon we daylighted the anchor, mastheaded the sails, crested the briny wave like a Yankee sea-serpent, and on the second day let go no fool of a piece of crooked iron off dirty Deptford. As orders were received to pay us off, we were fully occupied for nearly a week dismantling the ship and returning stores, etc. On the second day I ran up to London and saw my mother. She did not, luckily for both parties, shed a flood of tears, but received me with maternal affection, though she said she scarcely knew me—I was grown, as my sister was pleased to say, such a black man. On the sixth day after our anchoring I ordered the ship to be put out of commission, and the cook hauled down the pendant. We had a parting dinner at the“Gun”Inn, shook hands and separated.[pg 182]CHAPTER XIV.A HOLIDAY ASHORE.On shore—Tired of inactivity—Apply for a ship—Appointed to H.M.S.Minotaur(74)—Prisoners sent on board as part of crew—Go to Plymouth—Scarcity of seamen—Ruse to impress an Irish farm labourer—Ordered to join the Channel fleet off Ushant—Capture French thirty-six-gun ship—In danger off Ushant—Capture two small French ships and one Dutch one: author sent to Plymouth in charge of the latter—Placed in quarantine.After I had remained in noisy, bustling, crowded and disagreeable London a month, my mother wishing to go into Surrey, I was glad of the opportunity to accompany her and to breathe purer air, and left town without regret.I was now under my own orders, and was much puzzled to find out how I was to obey myself. For the last ten years I had been under the control of superiors. Now I had the whole of my crew within myself, and discipline I found was necessary. I knew no more of England than it knew of me. Men and manners were equally strange to me, except those on board the different men-of-war I had served in, and they were not the most polished. In the society of the fair sex I was exceedingly shy, and my feelings were sometimes painful when I had to run the gauntlet through rows of well-dressed women, some looking as demure as a noddy at the[pg 183]masthead. I was now in my twenty-third year, and an agreeable—nay, an old lady, whose word was considered sacred—declared I was a charming young man. My life passed as monotonously as that of a clock in an old maid’s sitting-room. My habits were too active to remain long in this state of listlessness. I was almost idle enough to make love, and nearly lost my heart seven times. Caring little for the society of the men, I generally strolled over two or three fields to read my books, or to scribble sonnets on a plough, for I began to be sentimental and plaintive. Whilst meditating one morning in bed, I started up with a determination to have an interview with Sir J. Colpoys, who was one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and ask him in person for employment, for I began to be apprehensive if I remained longer on shore I should think a ship was something to eat, and the bobstay the top-sail haulyards. Three weeks after my application I was appointed to theMinotaurof seventy-four guns lying at Blackstakes, and I found it black enough, for she not having her masts stepped, we were all obliged—that is the officers—to live at the“Tap”at Shurnasty, commonly called Sheerness, where we spent thirteen out of six shillings a day, and until the ship was ready to receive us, which was nearly a fortnight, we drank elevation to the noble Secretary of the Admiralty, for, owing to his ignorance, we had been obliged to spend seven shillings daily more than our pay.Two days after the ship was commissioned, and[pg 184]I had been carrying on the war, for I was the senior lieutenant, the gallant captain made his appearance. After touching his hat in return to my grand salaam, he said,“Hulloa, how is this? I expected to find the ship masted. I will thank you to desire the boatswain to turn the hands up to hear my commission read, and quartermaster,”addressing a dockyard matey,“go down and tell all the officers I am on board.”“That is not a quartermaster,”said I to him,“he is one of the dockyard men.”“Then where are the quartermasters?”“We have none,”replied I,“nor have we a seaman on board except some one-legged and one-armed old Greenwich pensioners that were sent on board yesterday.”At this satisfactory intelligence he turned his eyes up like a crow in a thunderstorm, and muttered, I fear, something in the shape of a prayer for the whole Board of Admiralty. Whilst we were looking at each other not knowing what to say next, a man came up the hatchway to report that one of the Greenwich men had broken his leg.“Where is the surgeon?”said the captain.“He has not yet joined,”replied I.“We must send him to the dockyard for surgical aid. Man the boat, and you, Mr. Brown, take him on shore,”said I. Mr. Brown made one of his best bows, and acquainted me that it was the carpenter who was wanted and not the surgeon, as the man had snapped his wooden leg in one of the holes of the grating, and the carpenter’s mate was fishing it. After a pause of some minutes,“So,”[pg 185]resumed the captain,“this is the manner King’s ships are to be fitted out. Why, it will take us a month of Sundays before the lower masts are rigged. What the devil did they send those old codgers with their wooden legs here for? I will go immediately to the Admiral, and point out the state we are in.”In the afternoon another lieutenant joined the ship, junior to me. I began to think I should be the first, when on the following day I was unshipped, for two others came on board by some years my seniors. The captain also sent four young mids on board and the Admiralty two oldsters, one of whom was a sprig of nobility. On the morning of the fourth day we were masted, and a lighter came alongside filled with riggers from London, and soon afterwards we received our complement of marines, with a captain and two lieutenants. We were now beginning to get animated and to make some show, when, as I was giving an order to the boatswain, Mr. Brown, whom I ought to have introduced before as the gunner, reported a barge coming alongside with prisoners.“That is surely a mistake,”replied I;“I hope they do not take us for the prison ship.”Bump she came, stern on.“Hulloa!”I called out;“do you wish to try what the bends are made of?”Before I could say anything more, up came and stood before me, cocked-up hat in hand, a consequential, dapper little stout man dressed in black, with his hair in powder.“Please you, sir, I have brought, by the order of the magistrates at Maidstone,[pg 186]fifteen men to belong to your ship. They be all of them tolerable good men, except five, who have been condemned to be transported, and two to be hung, but as they be contrabanders like, the Government have sent down orders for ’em to be sent on board your ship.”“I am sure,”said I,“I can in the name of His Majesty’s officers offer many thanks to His Majesty’s Government for their great consideration in sending men who deserve hanging to be made sailors on board His Majesty’s ships.”He then, with a flourish, presented me a paper with their names and the offences of which they had been guilty. Nine of these honest, worthy members of society were stout, robust fellows, and had only taken what did not belong to them. Two of the remaining six had been condemned for putting brave citizens in bodily fear on the King’s highway and borrowing their purses and watches. The other four were smugglers bold, who wished to oblige their friends with a few hundreds of yards of Brussels lace and gloves, as well as some tubs of brandy, but were unfortunately interrupted in the exercise of their profession by those useless sea-beach cruisers called the Coast Guard.“Pray, sir,”said I,“to whom may I be obliged to for the safe conveyance of these honest men?”“I be the under-sheriff’s officer, sir,”answered he,“and I have had mighty hard work to bring them along.”“You deserve to be rewarded, Mr. Deputy Sheriff”(for I like to give every man his title), said I;“you would probably[pg 187]like to have a glass of grog.”“Why it’s thirsty weather, and I shall be obliged to you, sir.”I called the steward, desired he might have some refreshment, and he soon after quitted the ship, admonishing the live cargo he brought on board, who were still on the quarter-deck, to behave themselves like good men. A month had expired by the time the top-gallant masts were on end. We had received all our officers and two hundred men from Chatham and the river. At length, Greenwich pensioners, riggers, and dockyard mateys took their departure, to our great satisfaction, as it was impossible to bring the ship’s crew into discipline whilst they were on board. Our complement, including the officers, was six hundred and forty men. We had only three hundred and twenty when orders came down for us to proceed to Plymouth. The captain and first lieutenant looked very wise on this occasion, and were apprehensive that if the ship slipped the bridles she would be like an unruly horse, and run away with us, for there were only forty men on board who knew how to go aloft except a few of the marines. The pilot made his appearance, and soon afterwards down went the bridles, and we were fairly adrift. We reached the Nore, and let go the anchors in a hail squall, and it was with the greatest difficulty we got the top-sails furled. The admiral, having proof positive that we were as helpless as a cow in a jolly-boat, took compassion on us and sent fifty more men from the flag-ship, most of them able[pg 188]seamen. On the fourth day after quitting the Nore we anchored in Plymouth Sound.I now had the delightful opportunity of once more breathing my native air, viewing beautiful Mount Edgcumbe, revelling in clotted cream and potted pilchards, tickling my palate—as Quin used to do—with John-dories, conger eels, star-gazey and squab pies, cray-fish, and sometimes, but not very often—for my purse was only half-flood in consequence of my expenses whilst on shore at the“Tap”at Sheerness—I had a drive upon Dock. The flag-ship in Hamoaze was theSalvador del Mundo, a three-decker taken from the Spaniards in the memorable battle of the fourth of February. The day after anchoring I was ordered by the captain to go with him on board theSally-waiter-de-Modo. I reflected a short time, and not knowing there was such a ship on the Navy List, turned to the first lieutenant and asked him if he had heard of such a man-of-war.“No,”said he, smiling,“the captain chooses to call her so; he means the flag-ship.”On repairing on board her, my commander said to me,“You help me to look at those fellows’ phizes,”pointing to a number of men who were toeing the seam on her quarter-deck.“I am to take thirty of them; they are queer-looking chaps, and I do not much like the cut of their jib. But mind,”added he,“don’t take any one that has not a large quid of tobacco in his cheek.”I went up to the second man, who had a double[pg 189]allowance of Virginia or some other weed in his gill, the captain following me.“Well, my man,”said I,“how long have you been to sea?”“Four months,”was the reply.“Why, you d——d rascal,”said our skipper—for observe, reader, he never swore—“what the devil business have you with such a quantity of tobacco in your mouth? I thought you were an old sailor.”“No, sir,”answered the man,“my trade is a tailor, but I have chawed bacca from my infancy.”“Question another,”was my order. I interrogated the next, who was a short, slight, pale-faced man.“And pray,”said I,“what part of the play have you been performing; were you ever at sea?”“No, sir,”said he;“I am a hairdresser, and was pressed a week ago.”“D——n these fellows!”said my captain;“they are all tailors, barbers, or grass-combers. I want seamen.”“Then,”said Captain N., who was the flag-captain, and had just come on board,“I much fear you will be disappointed. These are the only disposable men, and it’s Hobson’s choice—those or none.”“The admiral promised me some good seamen,”returned my skipper, rather quickly.“Then I fear the admiral must find them,”was the answer,“as I have not more than twenty seamen on board besides the petty officers. The last were drafted a few days ago in theDefiance. Will you take any of these men, Captain W.?”“What do you think,”said my captain to me;“shall we take any of[pg 190]them?”“Suppose,”returned I,“we take twenty of them and the tailor; they will all fit in in time.”I then picked out twenty of the best, who were bad enough, as they were the worst set I ever saw grouped. Their appearance and dress were wretched in the extreme. I reached the ship before the hour of dinner with my live cargo.“What, more hard bargains,”said the firstlieutenant,“we have too many clodhoppers on board already. The captain told me we were to have seamen.”“Captain N.,”said I,“assured our noble captain that theDefiancehad taken all the A.B.’s.”“D——n theDefiance!”replied he;“IdefyCaptain N. or anybody else to match those gentlemanly ragamuffins.”The master’s mates were called, and they were given into their charge.One of them, a tall, large-boned man, requested to remain on deck a little longer as he had a palpitation of the heart.“What country man are you?”said I.“Shure,”answered he,“I’m all the way from dear ould Ireland, and I don’t think I shall be arter seeing the bogs again; but good luck to her, wherever she goes!”“What did you do there?”said I.“Och,”said he,“why do I give all this trouble and what business have I here? In Ireland, plase your honour, I planted praters and tended cows. In the hay season I came to England and was employed in stacking, when one day, as I was taking a walk in a field near Lunnen, I fell in with four men who asked me to join them as they were going to a public-house[pg 191]to have something to drink. I thought this was very civil to a stranger. After taking the first pot they told me they intended going in a boat on the river, and asked me if I could pull an oar.‘I’ll try,’said I.‘Well,’said they,‘on Saturday, at five o’clock in the evening, be down at Wapping Stairs and you will see a green painted boat with six men in her. I will be ready to meet you,’said one of the most good-natured,‘and we will have a pleasant trip.’I little thought, your honour, that these spalpeens, saving your presence, intended anything more than friendship. I was at the place pointed out, and stepped into the boat. I took the second oar, but I caught so many crabs that I was desired to sit in the stern. We pulled up the river, which I thought very pleasant. In returning, the man who steered said he had a message to deliver on board a dark-looking vessel we were close to. We got alongside of her.‘Won’t you go up, Pat?’said he;‘you never was on board so large a vessel; she is worth looking at.’I went up after him, when a man dressed in a blue coat with yellow buttons came up to me and told me to go below. Saying this, he called to another, who told me he would show me the way, which he soon did, and I was forced into a dark place where I found seven more half-ragged, half-starved looking animals. Two of them were countrymen.‘Who have we here?’said one of them.‘I am all the way from Ireland,’said I,‘and I have come to see this ship.’‘The devil you have, my honey; and what do you[pg 192]come here for?’‘Shure enough,’replied I,‘that’s true. I’ll go and see arter my frinds.’At this they all laughed. I went to the door, but found a sodjer there with a drawn sword.‘What do you want?’demanded he.‘To go, and plase you.’‘To-morrow, my lad,’replied he;‘to-night you stay where you are.’‘Why, what a bother you are making, Pat,’said one of my companions;‘you know you are going to serve the King.’‘And pray,’said I,‘who is the King? I never saw or heard of him before. How can I serve him?’‘That’s a good one,’said the one who first spoke.‘Where were you born and baptized?’‘About the bogs of Ireland,’replied I,‘and I was baptized over a bowl of buttermilk and praters by Father Murphy in a stable among a parcel of cows.’‘You’ll do,’said another;‘have you any dibbs?’‘Yes,’answered I,‘I have got two shillings andfourpence.’‘That will do. Send for a pot of the right sort, and we’ll drink a long life to Ireland.’I gave the one who spoke some money. We had our pot, drew ourselves up like pigs in a trough, and went to sleep. Next morning at daylight we were put on board a tender—not very tenderly, your honour, for I lost my waistcoat and my money, and when I complained I was forced over the ship’s side. They said the boat could not wait, as the tender was under weigh. We arrived at Plymouth about a fortnight ago, and here I am, your honour.”“Well,”said I,“if you behave yourself well and endeavour to do your duty, you will be happy[pg 193]enough; and as I brought you on board, I will, if you deserve it, keep sight of you, and in time you may become a good seaman, and perhaps a petty officer.”“Long life to your honour! I’ll be shure and take your advice.”And so he did, and in a few months after was made captain of the waist.We were now tolerably in order, and soon after joined the Channel fleet off Ushant. The second day after leaving Plymouth Sound we fell in with theFranchise, a large French frigate of thirty-six guns and three hundred and forty men, who, after exchanging a few shot without doing us any mischief, struck her colours. She was from St. Domingo, with General F. on board, bound to Brest. Her second captain appeared a very delicate young person, and during the four days he was on board he never slept in the cot provided for him in the captain’s cabin, but always threw himself down on the sofa in his clothes. We all conjectured that, as a son of Erin might say, he was a woman, which idea after the prisoners left us, was confirmed by the captain’s steward, who had been bribed to secrecy during the passage to Plymouth. The lady was the daughter of the captain of the captured frigate in disguise.Having seen our prize into Hamoaze, and taken our officers and men out of her, we left her in charge of the prize agent, and repaired to our station off Ushant. We joined the fleet, consisting of thirteen sail of the line and two frigates. We looked into Brest roads, and could discover only eight sail of the enemy’s line of battle ships, with[pg 194]their top-gallant yards crossed; nine others were coming forward. Four more sail of the line having joined our fleet, we were directed to part company and cruise off Vigo Bay. Soon after we fell in with theVenerable. Having the watch on deck, the captain desired the signalman to hoist the dog-a-tory pendant over the dinner signal. The man scratched his head and made wide eyes at one of the midshipmen, requesting him to tell him what the captain meant.“By Jove!”said the mid,“if you do not bear a hand and get the signal ready, he will make you a dog-of-a-wig instead of a Tory.”Seeing the man at a pause, I asked him if he had the signal ready.“Yes, sir,”replied he;“I have the telegraph dinner flags ready, but I do not know what the dog-a-tory pennant is; it must be in the boatswain’s store-room, for I have never had charge of it.”I could not forbear laughing at the man’s explanation.“What’s the signalman about?”inquired the captain;“why does he not hoist the signal?”“He did not know where to find the pendant you mentioned,”replied I.“I have told him you meant the interrogatory pendant.”“To be sure; I said so as plain as I could speak. The fellow must be stupid not to understand me,”continued our deeply-read skipper. A worthier, better or braver seaman than our noble commander never had the honour of commanding a King’s ship. His zeal and loyalty were unimpeachable. To hear him read the Articles of War to us once a month was, if[pg 195]not improving, most amusing. He dogrogated God’s honour with emphasis, and accused the ministers of the Church of being lethargic. Some of my messmates declared, although it was perfectly without intention on his part, that the captain in the last expression was right, for although the word was liturgy, he was justified in reading it lethargy. Respecting the other word,“dogrogation,”they had all turned over the leaves of Bailey’s ancient dictionary in vain; but they presumed the captain meant to read“derogation,”as it respected God’s honour, and they considered it as alapsus linguæ. Two of the officers’ names were Bateman and Slateman. For months after they had been on board our worthy captain did not appear to know one from the other, and we were sometimes much diverted, and they were much annoyed, by his sending for one when he meant the other. Although our cruising ground appeared a profitable one, and we were considered fortunate in being sent there, for six weeks we only made prizes of hundreds of the finny tribe by trawling off Quimper and L’Orient. This amusement, exercising guns, sails and lead, gave us full employment, and kept us out of mischief.For nearly two months we had only seen four of our cruisers, and a few of the enemy’s small craft going along shore, and although we frequently volunteered for boat service, our commander always closed his ears to our requests. He was no friend to boating, he said; it very seldom turned out[pg 196]successful, and it only answered, if it did at all, when courage was doubtful.“And if you are not men of courage,”he used to add,“you are not the men I took you for.”At length a cutter brought us orders to rejoin the Channel fleet under Lord Gardner, as the French fleet had increased to nineteen sail of the line, besides frigates. After joining, we were stationed off the Black Rocks, with four other ships, to watch Brest and the movements of the enemy’s fleet. At this time we were seventeen sail of the line and three frigates, and were very sanguine that the ships at Brest would favour us with their company, as they had been practising their firing and sailing in Brest water. We strained our eyes and imaginations in vain. There they stuck, as the seamen used to say, like theMerrydun, of Dover, which took seven years in veering, and when she did so the fly of her ensign swept two flocks of sheep off Beachy Head, while her jib-boom knocked down the steeple of Calais church and killed the sexton. Cruising on this Siberian ground was horribly monotonous work. We sincerely wished the French fleet alongside of us, or in a warmer place. On one dark night we were caught in a heavy gale from the westward. We were under close-reefed main and foretop-sails and mizzen. The ship was settling down on Ushant rapidly, and we expected to strike every moment. The rebound of the water from the rocks caused the spray to fly half-way over the decks from to leeward.[pg 197]A rock called La Jument was on our lee bow. Luckily we saw the sea breaking over it.“Port the helm!”called out one of the pilots,“or the ship’s lost. She must bear the main-sail, captain,”added he,“or we shall not weather the island, and she will strike in less than half an hour.”The main-sail was cast loose, and after a severe contest, its unwilling tack and sheet were belayed. The ship was literally buried in the foam, and I expected to see the main-mast go by the board every instant. Orders had been given, in case of such an event, to have all the axes ready. Providentially the wind veered two points to the southward, which saved the ship and her crew. Had she struck, she must instantly have gone to pieces. The rocks were so perpendicular that in all probability the whole of us must have made food for fishes. In a quarter of an hour we were clear of the island. Had we been under sentence of death, and suddenly reprieved, the effect on our minds could not have been greater. Long, anxious faces coiled themselves up to half their length and became brighter. The captain, who had been pacing the quarter-deck in quick time, brought himself up all standing, and I could perceive his lips move, and, if I mistake not, he was offering up a mental prayer of thankfulness for our hair-breadth escape. At daylight the gale abated, when, on examining the masts, the maintop-mast was found sprung in the cap. The following evening we captured two French brigs from Martinique,[pg 198]laden with sugar and coffee, and the day after a Dutch ship from Smyrna bound to Amsterdam, laden with silks and cotton, in which I went as prize-master. On our arrival at Plymouth we were put into quarantine. The boat which came out to us kept on her oars. I could not forbear smiling when I requested our letters might be sent on shore by her to see the great and certainly necessary precautions taken by these cunning people. A long kind of sprit was held up, split at the end to receive the letters. When in the boat, one man clipped them with a pair of scissors, another fumigated them with brimstone, a third bedabbled them with dirty vinegar and threw them into a leathern bag, taking care not to touch them with his hands.

[pg 156]CHAPTER XII.FIGHTING EPISODES.Returns to his ship—Capture of a French schooner—An episode with two American sloops of war—Return to Port Royal—Attacked a second time by yellow fever—Seize and burn a Spanish gunboat—Return to Port Royal—Wetting a midshipman’s commission—Ordered home with a convoy—Pathetic farewells with mulatto washerwomen.On going on board a boat provided for the purpose, I found with much joy the five men who had been taken when the unfortunate master lost his life, my own boat’s crew, and seven other seamen. This addition was cheering. Five hours later we were shaking hands with some of our mess and shipmates, who appeared delighted to see us. The ship being close in with the shore, we soon reached her, and received a hearty welcome from all on board. I acquainted the captain with every circumstance respecting our capture, and with the great kindness and liberality of the Governor and American Consul, and that I had pledged my word of honour as an officer that an equal number of officers and men should be exchanged for us.“For your satisfaction, and I hope for his,”replied the captain,“a cartel is on her passage with a superior Spanish officer and twenty men, for immediately our liberal-minded[pg 157]commander-in-chief, Lord H. Seymour, heard, by an American vessel, of our misfortunes, he ordered the cartel to be got ready, and desired me to proceed, before we had half refitted, to St. Jago to reclaim you, having written a handsome letter to acknowledge the humane manner in which the Governor treated the English prisoners”—which letter was given to the Spanish officer to present to him on his arrival.“Now,”continued the captain,“have you heard anything of theFancy? I am afraid she is lost, with all on board her. The morning after you went away,”resumed he,“we saw a vessel in the offing much resembling her. I stood towards her, and found she was an American. The sea-breeze became so strong that I could not fetch sufficiently to windward, and that accounts for your not seeing us. I was truly unfortunate, and the cruise was disastrous beyond credibility. You a prisoner, with a midshipman and nine seamen, the master and three men killed, and five others taken, and the second lieutenant, a midshipman and sixteen of the best seamen most likely drowned—for I think beyond a doubt she has upset.”This conjecture was a few days after unhappily confirmed by a Bermudian sloop, which informed us that she had passed a small vessel, as we described her, bottom up near the Island of Inagua. This intelligence threw a gloom over the whole of us.“This is too tender a subject,”said I,“to have any more tenders.”“No,”replied the captain;“all these unhappy circumstances[pg 158]combined are most deplorable. I do not think I will ever send the boats away again.”“Not till the next time,”thinks I to myself. We repaired to one of our old cruising grounds, the Isle de Vâche, and although our noble captain had some days before come to a kind of secondhand determination of not sending boats away from the ship, on a large schooner heaving in sight towards the evening, I volunteered with the purser, if he would allow us the two cutters, as the wind had died away, to go after her. He, after a brown study of about half an hour, granted our request.“But,”said he,“be cautious, and if you find her heavily armed, try to decoy her off shore, but by no means attempt boarding her. We have suffered too much already.”Having prepared the boats, away we started, and after a most fatiguing pull, came up with her as she was making for Jacmel. Fortunately for us, the land-breeze was blowing rather fresh, which obliged her to make several tacks, and we boarded her whilst in stays. The people on board appeared astonished to see so many armed men so suddenly on her deck, as she had in the obscure light taken us for fishing canoes. She proved a French schooner, laden with bags of coffee. We soon rejoined the ship, quite elated with our prize, and sent her to Jamaica in charge of the purser. In the course of this cruise we fell in with two American sloops of war, which we chased, and as they did not shorten sail nor answer the private signal, we fired at the nearest;[pg 159]the shot passed through her cutwater. This event roused the minds and, I presume, the Yankee blood of both Jonathans, for they bore up, and we could hear their drums beating to quarters. We shortened sail, and they soon bowled alongside of us, with their sails spread like the tail of a turkey-cock.“You have fired into me,”said the nearest.“Have I?”said our skipper, very coolly;“I intended the shot to go ahead of you. You must blame your superior sailing for the accident. You fore-reached so rapidly that the shot had not time to go ahead of you.”“I don’t know anything about that,”was the reply.“We are American cruisers, and no one has a right, I guess, to fire into the United States men-of-war.”“Then the United States men-of-war should have answered the private signal and hoisted their colours,”returned our captain,“as we did ours.”Here they hailed each other, and soon afterwards hoisted their colours. Another boat adventure and the capture of a beautiful small schooner without any accident was the wind up of this cruise.We anchored at Port Royal once more. About a week after our arrival I was again attacked with the yellow fever and removed to my lodgings, where I was nursed with unremitting attention by a quadroon female, who did not leave my bedside day or night. She was a most tender and attentive nurse. It was a month before I was sufficiently strong to go on board, and nearly another before I could resume my duty. I was so reduced that I[pg 160]was literally a walking skeleton, or, if my reader pleases, the shadow of a ghost, and, had a purser’s candle been placed within me, I might have made a tolerably good substitute for the flag-ship’s top light. We were, in consequence of several of the crew being seized with yellow fever, ordered by the recommendation of the surgeon to Bluefields for change of air, and I am happy to state that from this judicious arrangement we did not lose a man. During the three weeks we remained here we amused ourselves by fishing. The water in eight fathoms was as pellucid as glass, and we could see the large conger eels twisting about between the stones at the bottom, as well as other fish, of which we caught several. I was regaining my strength rapidly, and was frequently invited to spend the day at several of the estates.I enjoyed walking of an evening about an hour before sunset in the pimento groves, of which there were several, and when the land-breeze set in we were often regaled on board the ship by their balmy fragrance. Mr. S., at whose house I frequently dined, was particularly kind, and his hospitality will not easily be effaced from my recollection. He had an amiable daughter, and had my heart not been lost in six different places, I think I should have sent it to cruise in her snug little boudoir. The captain, as the people who were ill had nearly recovered, thought His Majesty’s ship should no longer lie idle. We bade adieu to our kind friends, and once more made the water fly[pg 161]before us. Three days more brought us off the Havannah, where we joined theTrentandAlarmfrigates. Nothing worth noticing occurred until theTrent, which was in chase of a vessel, ran on a coral reef off Matanzas. The wind was light and the sea smooth, and we soon got her afloat again. The vessel she had chased ran on a sand beach under the protection of a martello tower. Two boats armed were soon in motion from each ship, to get her off if possible. I had the direction of our boats. The enemy’s gun-boat, for such she was, under Spanish colours, hoisted her ensign and the red flag of defiance, and kept up a smart fire on our boats. Fortunately we escaped, but those from theAlarmhad the lieutenant and three men wounded. Our boats were the first alongside of her, when I hauled down the red flag and her colours, and threw them into one of our boats, but the senior lieutenant claimed the former. This I refused, because as I was first on board and hauled it down I considered myself entitled to keep it. He said he should refer it to his captain, who was the chief officer.“So be it,”I replied. On our boarding the enemy’s vessel we found the crew had abandoned her, and were firing at us with muskets from the bushes. They had scuttled her, and she was full of water. We turned her guns on them, which soon dislodged them, and they scampered off as fast as their legs would carry them. More than half of our boat’s crews had landed and were under my orders. We soon perceived about thirty horse[pg 162]soldiers in a full trot towards us. We formed in a body two deep, and when we were near enough gave them a sailor’s salute with our muskets and three cheers. We knocked one off his horse, and set the others on a full gallop back from whence they came. They discharged their carbines at us, but they were too much alarmed to take good aim, and we escaped unharmed.As it was impossible to get the gun-boat afloat, we tarred her sails and set fire to her. We should have blown her up had not her powder been under water. She mounted a long eighteen-pounder on a traverse, and six long six-pounders on her quarter-deck. She was of great length and a formidable vessel, and we much regretted our not being able to get her afloat, as she would have answered for the Service. She had also four brass swivels mounted on her gunwales, which we took in the boats. After waiting until she had nearly burnt down to the water’s edge, we returned to our ships, taking with us the wounded Spanish dragoon. Soon after we were on our oars the martello tower began blazing away at us. It had hitherto been silent, but we supposed that when the run-away dragoons perceived we were withdrawing, they returned and mounted the tower to give us a parting salute. They might have spared themselves the trouble, as it had only one gun, and that badly served. We were on board our own ships before they fired the fourth shot.“Well,”said the captain, on my reaching the quarter-deck,“you were not[pg 163]able to get the vessel off.”“No,”I replied;“she was scuttled, and sank before we boarded her.”“Were her guns brass or iron?”“Iron,”said I,“and not worth bringing on board; there were four brass one-pound swivels, but those were taken by the lieutenant of the commodore’s boat, and he ungenerously claimed the red flag I had hauled down, but I refused to give it up.”Whilst this conversation was going on, a boat from theAlarmcame alongside with a midshipman and a written order from the commodore for me to give up, no longer the flag of defiance but that of dispute.“I think,”said the captain,“you had better comply with the order.”On seeing my disinclination to do so, he said,“It is not worth contending about.”“I believe, sir,”I replied,“you are right. It is of too childish a nature to contend about, although I cannot help considering it arbitrary, and I am surprised that a man like Captain D. could ever give such an unjust order.”“There are many men of various minds,”said he. There the disagreeable conversation ended. The mid received the piece of red bunting, and I walked the deck as surly as a bear with the Caledonian rash. The captain, who was going to dine with Captain A., told me he would explain to him anything I wished respecting what had occurred. This I declined, but I mentioned the swivels, and told him that they were very handy to mount in the boats when going on service.“I will ask him for two of them,”said he;“by doing this I probably may get one. You know,”[pg 164]continued he, laughing,“he is from the Land of Cakes and bannocks, where the device is ‘To hold fast and not let go.’”In the evening the captain returned on board, bringing in the boat one of the swivels.“I have laid a point to windward of the Highlander,”said he to me;“but I was obliged to make use of all my best logic, for he chose to be distressingly deaf on the subject of giving. But when I mentioned that I had a canister of real Scotch which was of no use to me, as I had left off taking snuff, his ears became instantly opened.‘You said something about two swivels, I think,’said he; ‘I cannot spare you two, but I will give you one. Will you take it in your boat with you, or I will send it in our jolly boat, and as I am nearly out of snuff, you can spare me the canister you mentioned that you do not need.’”“This puts me in mind,”said I,“of an Irish pilot who asked the purser of a ship I formerly belonged to, to spare him an empty barrel to make his pig a hencoop, and he would give him a sack of praters for nothing at all, at all.”“The case is nearly in point,”replied the captain;“I am afraid I have not gained so much on his weather-beam as I first imagined.”The signal was now made to weigh, and we were soon under sail. Next morning we parted company with the frigates, swept the Bay of Mexico, ran through the Turks’ Island passage, and cruised between Capes Maize and François for three weeks; took a small French schooner with tobacco, and burnt a small[pg 165]sloop in ballast. Again our anchor found the bottom of Port Royal, and the crew their copper and jet-coloured ladies.One afternoon, taking a glass of sangaree at the tavern, I was accosted by one of our late mids who had come on shore with some others to what he called wet his commission.“Will you do me the favour to join us for a quarter of an hour. We have a room upstairs,”said he to me. I told him I would in about five minutes. On entering, I found a gallon bowl filled with strong punch, with his commission soaking in it, and eight jolly mids sitting at the table in full glee. They all rose as I approached, and one of them offered me a chair.“Come, sir,”said the donor of the entertainment, offering me a bumper from the contents of the bowl,“tell me if it will suit your taste.”“Not quite,”replied I,“you have spoilt it by putting your commission into it instead of your pocket, and it smacks too much of ink and parchment.”“I told you how it would be,”said he, addressing a sly, roguish-looking youngster, who had persuaded him to put it in.“I vote that he shall drink it himself, and we will have another.”“Not on any account,”said I,“without you will allow me to pay for it.”“That will never do,”cried all of them. Another of a smaller size was ordered, out of which I drank his success. I remained nearly half an hour, during which time the large bowl was drained to the last dregs in spite of its parchment flavour, and the[pg 166]parchment was, what the mids called, returned high and dry to the owner of it, with the writing on it nearly effaced. I remarked they ought certainly to have a patent for wetting commissions, and wished them a pleasant evening.On returning on board I found a note for me from the captain, to acquaint me that we were to sail in a few days for Black River, in order to collect a homeward-bound convoy, as we were ordered to England. I withdrew my heart from the different little snug rooms I had left it in, and placed it on the right hook. I was so much elated that my dinner went from table untouched. I kept conjuring up Paradises, Elysian fields, and a number of other places never heard of, inhabited by women more beautiful than Eastern imagery can possibly describe—so fair, so chaste, so lovely, and so domestic.“Oh!”said I aloud, to the astonishment of my messmates, who were much occupied with their knives and forks,“give me but one of those fair ones, and I will not eat my dinner for a month.”“Hulloa!”said the surgeon,“what’s the matter with you?”“Nothing,”replied I;“the illusion is vanished, and I will take a glass of wine with you. I cannot eat, my mind is too full of England, and my heart crowded with its delightful fair ones. What unfeeling sea monsters you are all of you,”continued I,“to be eating with such voracious appetites when you know we are going to glorious England—the land of freedom and genuine hospitality.”“Not so fast,”said he, interrupting me;[pg 167]“how long is it since you were there?”“Nearly eight years,”said I.“I fear,”resumed he,“you will not have your dreams—for dreams they are—verified. I was there eighteen months ago, and found freedom in the mouths of the lower classes, who evidently did not understand the meaning of it, and when they did they only used it as a cloak to do mischief, for demagoguing—if you will allow the term—was the order of the day at that time, and as for hospitality that has, as you may express yourself, made sail and gone to cruise into some other climate. I had letters to two families from their relations in India; they asked me to dinner in a stiff, formal manner, and thought, I suppose, they had performed wonders. There our acquaintance ended. I am an Irishman,”continued he,“and I assert without partiality that there is more real hospitality in my land of praters than in all Europe. Freedom we will not talk about; but as for the women, dear creatures, they are a mixture of roses and lilies, and such busts, like dairy maids, sure,”said he;“don’t say anything more about them, or I shall be what has never happened to an Irishman yet—out of spirits.”“Now,”said I,“doctor, we have found you out. You lost your heart when in England, and were not requited by the cruel fair one.”“Fair or foul,”answered he,“I would not give one Munster girl for a dozen English. To be sure,”added he to a young Irish midshipman, whose turn it was to dine in the gun-room,“they are rather thick about the trotters, and their heels are to be[pg 168]compared to their red potatoes, but the upper part of their figures—say no more. Come, messmate, let’s drink a speedy passage and soon, as a worthy alderman did at a Guildhall dinner.”“You mistake, doctor,”said the second lieutenant,“he gave for a toast, a speedy peace and soon.”“Never mind,”said the doctor,“it will be all the same a hundred years hence; an Irishman is always allowed to speak twice.”Our parting with our washerwomen and other friends was pathetic in the extreme; their precious tears were sufficient to fill several (but as I did not measure them I cannot say how many) monkeys.“Oh, Gramercy, my lob!”said my lady to me,“I neber shall see you no more; but I hope dat you member dat Julia lob you more den he can tell. No,”said she, turning aside,“nobody can lob like poor me one, Julia.”She appeared overwhelmed with grief, and I felt my situation awkward and pathetically silly, as she had followed me down to the boat, and the eyes of several boats’ crews with their young, laughing wicked mids, were on us. I shook hands for the last time and jumped into the boat with a tear rolling down my cheek from my starboard eye. Reader, I beg you will not pity me, for I was not in love. I was what an old maiden cousin would have called imprudent.

Returns to his ship—Capture of a French schooner—An episode with two American sloops of war—Return to Port Royal—Attacked a second time by yellow fever—Seize and burn a Spanish gunboat—Return to Port Royal—Wetting a midshipman’s commission—Ordered home with a convoy—Pathetic farewells with mulatto washerwomen.

Returns to his ship—Capture of a French schooner—An episode with two American sloops of war—Return to Port Royal—Attacked a second time by yellow fever—Seize and burn a Spanish gunboat—Return to Port Royal—Wetting a midshipman’s commission—Ordered home with a convoy—Pathetic farewells with mulatto washerwomen.

On going on board a boat provided for the purpose, I found with much joy the five men who had been taken when the unfortunate master lost his life, my own boat’s crew, and seven other seamen. This addition was cheering. Five hours later we were shaking hands with some of our mess and shipmates, who appeared delighted to see us. The ship being close in with the shore, we soon reached her, and received a hearty welcome from all on board. I acquainted the captain with every circumstance respecting our capture, and with the great kindness and liberality of the Governor and American Consul, and that I had pledged my word of honour as an officer that an equal number of officers and men should be exchanged for us.“For your satisfaction, and I hope for his,”replied the captain,“a cartel is on her passage with a superior Spanish officer and twenty men, for immediately our liberal-minded[pg 157]commander-in-chief, Lord H. Seymour, heard, by an American vessel, of our misfortunes, he ordered the cartel to be got ready, and desired me to proceed, before we had half refitted, to St. Jago to reclaim you, having written a handsome letter to acknowledge the humane manner in which the Governor treated the English prisoners”—which letter was given to the Spanish officer to present to him on his arrival.“Now,”continued the captain,“have you heard anything of theFancy? I am afraid she is lost, with all on board her. The morning after you went away,”resumed he,“we saw a vessel in the offing much resembling her. I stood towards her, and found she was an American. The sea-breeze became so strong that I could not fetch sufficiently to windward, and that accounts for your not seeing us. I was truly unfortunate, and the cruise was disastrous beyond credibility. You a prisoner, with a midshipman and nine seamen, the master and three men killed, and five others taken, and the second lieutenant, a midshipman and sixteen of the best seamen most likely drowned—for I think beyond a doubt she has upset.”This conjecture was a few days after unhappily confirmed by a Bermudian sloop, which informed us that she had passed a small vessel, as we described her, bottom up near the Island of Inagua. This intelligence threw a gloom over the whole of us.“This is too tender a subject,”said I,“to have any more tenders.”“No,”replied the captain;“all these unhappy circumstances[pg 158]combined are most deplorable. I do not think I will ever send the boats away again.”“Not till the next time,”thinks I to myself. We repaired to one of our old cruising grounds, the Isle de Vâche, and although our noble captain had some days before come to a kind of secondhand determination of not sending boats away from the ship, on a large schooner heaving in sight towards the evening, I volunteered with the purser, if he would allow us the two cutters, as the wind had died away, to go after her. He, after a brown study of about half an hour, granted our request.“But,”said he,“be cautious, and if you find her heavily armed, try to decoy her off shore, but by no means attempt boarding her. We have suffered too much already.”Having prepared the boats, away we started, and after a most fatiguing pull, came up with her as she was making for Jacmel. Fortunately for us, the land-breeze was blowing rather fresh, which obliged her to make several tacks, and we boarded her whilst in stays. The people on board appeared astonished to see so many armed men so suddenly on her deck, as she had in the obscure light taken us for fishing canoes. She proved a French schooner, laden with bags of coffee. We soon rejoined the ship, quite elated with our prize, and sent her to Jamaica in charge of the purser. In the course of this cruise we fell in with two American sloops of war, which we chased, and as they did not shorten sail nor answer the private signal, we fired at the nearest;[pg 159]the shot passed through her cutwater. This event roused the minds and, I presume, the Yankee blood of both Jonathans, for they bore up, and we could hear their drums beating to quarters. We shortened sail, and they soon bowled alongside of us, with their sails spread like the tail of a turkey-cock.“You have fired into me,”said the nearest.“Have I?”said our skipper, very coolly;“I intended the shot to go ahead of you. You must blame your superior sailing for the accident. You fore-reached so rapidly that the shot had not time to go ahead of you.”“I don’t know anything about that,”was the reply.“We are American cruisers, and no one has a right, I guess, to fire into the United States men-of-war.”“Then the United States men-of-war should have answered the private signal and hoisted their colours,”returned our captain,“as we did ours.”Here they hailed each other, and soon afterwards hoisted their colours. Another boat adventure and the capture of a beautiful small schooner without any accident was the wind up of this cruise.

We anchored at Port Royal once more. About a week after our arrival I was again attacked with the yellow fever and removed to my lodgings, where I was nursed with unremitting attention by a quadroon female, who did not leave my bedside day or night. She was a most tender and attentive nurse. It was a month before I was sufficiently strong to go on board, and nearly another before I could resume my duty. I was so reduced that I[pg 160]was literally a walking skeleton, or, if my reader pleases, the shadow of a ghost, and, had a purser’s candle been placed within me, I might have made a tolerably good substitute for the flag-ship’s top light. We were, in consequence of several of the crew being seized with yellow fever, ordered by the recommendation of the surgeon to Bluefields for change of air, and I am happy to state that from this judicious arrangement we did not lose a man. During the three weeks we remained here we amused ourselves by fishing. The water in eight fathoms was as pellucid as glass, and we could see the large conger eels twisting about between the stones at the bottom, as well as other fish, of which we caught several. I was regaining my strength rapidly, and was frequently invited to spend the day at several of the estates.

I enjoyed walking of an evening about an hour before sunset in the pimento groves, of which there were several, and when the land-breeze set in we were often regaled on board the ship by their balmy fragrance. Mr. S., at whose house I frequently dined, was particularly kind, and his hospitality will not easily be effaced from my recollection. He had an amiable daughter, and had my heart not been lost in six different places, I think I should have sent it to cruise in her snug little boudoir. The captain, as the people who were ill had nearly recovered, thought His Majesty’s ship should no longer lie idle. We bade adieu to our kind friends, and once more made the water fly[pg 161]before us. Three days more brought us off the Havannah, where we joined theTrentandAlarmfrigates. Nothing worth noticing occurred until theTrent, which was in chase of a vessel, ran on a coral reef off Matanzas. The wind was light and the sea smooth, and we soon got her afloat again. The vessel she had chased ran on a sand beach under the protection of a martello tower. Two boats armed were soon in motion from each ship, to get her off if possible. I had the direction of our boats. The enemy’s gun-boat, for such she was, under Spanish colours, hoisted her ensign and the red flag of defiance, and kept up a smart fire on our boats. Fortunately we escaped, but those from theAlarmhad the lieutenant and three men wounded. Our boats were the first alongside of her, when I hauled down the red flag and her colours, and threw them into one of our boats, but the senior lieutenant claimed the former. This I refused, because as I was first on board and hauled it down I considered myself entitled to keep it. He said he should refer it to his captain, who was the chief officer.“So be it,”I replied. On our boarding the enemy’s vessel we found the crew had abandoned her, and were firing at us with muskets from the bushes. They had scuttled her, and she was full of water. We turned her guns on them, which soon dislodged them, and they scampered off as fast as their legs would carry them. More than half of our boat’s crews had landed and were under my orders. We soon perceived about thirty horse[pg 162]soldiers in a full trot towards us. We formed in a body two deep, and when we were near enough gave them a sailor’s salute with our muskets and three cheers. We knocked one off his horse, and set the others on a full gallop back from whence they came. They discharged their carbines at us, but they were too much alarmed to take good aim, and we escaped unharmed.

As it was impossible to get the gun-boat afloat, we tarred her sails and set fire to her. We should have blown her up had not her powder been under water. She mounted a long eighteen-pounder on a traverse, and six long six-pounders on her quarter-deck. She was of great length and a formidable vessel, and we much regretted our not being able to get her afloat, as she would have answered for the Service. She had also four brass swivels mounted on her gunwales, which we took in the boats. After waiting until she had nearly burnt down to the water’s edge, we returned to our ships, taking with us the wounded Spanish dragoon. Soon after we were on our oars the martello tower began blazing away at us. It had hitherto been silent, but we supposed that when the run-away dragoons perceived we were withdrawing, they returned and mounted the tower to give us a parting salute. They might have spared themselves the trouble, as it had only one gun, and that badly served. We were on board our own ships before they fired the fourth shot.“Well,”said the captain, on my reaching the quarter-deck,“you were not[pg 163]able to get the vessel off.”“No,”I replied;“she was scuttled, and sank before we boarded her.”“Were her guns brass or iron?”“Iron,”said I,“and not worth bringing on board; there were four brass one-pound swivels, but those were taken by the lieutenant of the commodore’s boat, and he ungenerously claimed the red flag I had hauled down, but I refused to give it up.”Whilst this conversation was going on, a boat from theAlarmcame alongside with a midshipman and a written order from the commodore for me to give up, no longer the flag of defiance but that of dispute.“I think,”said the captain,“you had better comply with the order.”On seeing my disinclination to do so, he said,“It is not worth contending about.”“I believe, sir,”I replied,“you are right. It is of too childish a nature to contend about, although I cannot help considering it arbitrary, and I am surprised that a man like Captain D. could ever give such an unjust order.”“There are many men of various minds,”said he. There the disagreeable conversation ended. The mid received the piece of red bunting, and I walked the deck as surly as a bear with the Caledonian rash. The captain, who was going to dine with Captain A., told me he would explain to him anything I wished respecting what had occurred. This I declined, but I mentioned the swivels, and told him that they were very handy to mount in the boats when going on service.“I will ask him for two of them,”said he;“by doing this I probably may get one. You know,”[pg 164]continued he, laughing,“he is from the Land of Cakes and bannocks, where the device is ‘To hold fast and not let go.’”

In the evening the captain returned on board, bringing in the boat one of the swivels.“I have laid a point to windward of the Highlander,”said he to me;“but I was obliged to make use of all my best logic, for he chose to be distressingly deaf on the subject of giving. But when I mentioned that I had a canister of real Scotch which was of no use to me, as I had left off taking snuff, his ears became instantly opened.‘You said something about two swivels, I think,’said he; ‘I cannot spare you two, but I will give you one. Will you take it in your boat with you, or I will send it in our jolly boat, and as I am nearly out of snuff, you can spare me the canister you mentioned that you do not need.’”“This puts me in mind,”said I,“of an Irish pilot who asked the purser of a ship I formerly belonged to, to spare him an empty barrel to make his pig a hencoop, and he would give him a sack of praters for nothing at all, at all.”“The case is nearly in point,”replied the captain;“I am afraid I have not gained so much on his weather-beam as I first imagined.”The signal was now made to weigh, and we were soon under sail. Next morning we parted company with the frigates, swept the Bay of Mexico, ran through the Turks’ Island passage, and cruised between Capes Maize and François for three weeks; took a small French schooner with tobacco, and burnt a small[pg 165]sloop in ballast. Again our anchor found the bottom of Port Royal, and the crew their copper and jet-coloured ladies.

One afternoon, taking a glass of sangaree at the tavern, I was accosted by one of our late mids who had come on shore with some others to what he called wet his commission.“Will you do me the favour to join us for a quarter of an hour. We have a room upstairs,”said he to me. I told him I would in about five minutes. On entering, I found a gallon bowl filled with strong punch, with his commission soaking in it, and eight jolly mids sitting at the table in full glee. They all rose as I approached, and one of them offered me a chair.“Come, sir,”said the donor of the entertainment, offering me a bumper from the contents of the bowl,“tell me if it will suit your taste.”“Not quite,”replied I,“you have spoilt it by putting your commission into it instead of your pocket, and it smacks too much of ink and parchment.”“I told you how it would be,”said he, addressing a sly, roguish-looking youngster, who had persuaded him to put it in.“I vote that he shall drink it himself, and we will have another.”“Not on any account,”said I,“without you will allow me to pay for it.”“That will never do,”cried all of them. Another of a smaller size was ordered, out of which I drank his success. I remained nearly half an hour, during which time the large bowl was drained to the last dregs in spite of its parchment flavour, and the[pg 166]parchment was, what the mids called, returned high and dry to the owner of it, with the writing on it nearly effaced. I remarked they ought certainly to have a patent for wetting commissions, and wished them a pleasant evening.

On returning on board I found a note for me from the captain, to acquaint me that we were to sail in a few days for Black River, in order to collect a homeward-bound convoy, as we were ordered to England. I withdrew my heart from the different little snug rooms I had left it in, and placed it on the right hook. I was so much elated that my dinner went from table untouched. I kept conjuring up Paradises, Elysian fields, and a number of other places never heard of, inhabited by women more beautiful than Eastern imagery can possibly describe—so fair, so chaste, so lovely, and so domestic.“Oh!”said I aloud, to the astonishment of my messmates, who were much occupied with their knives and forks,“give me but one of those fair ones, and I will not eat my dinner for a month.”“Hulloa!”said the surgeon,“what’s the matter with you?”“Nothing,”replied I;“the illusion is vanished, and I will take a glass of wine with you. I cannot eat, my mind is too full of England, and my heart crowded with its delightful fair ones. What unfeeling sea monsters you are all of you,”continued I,“to be eating with such voracious appetites when you know we are going to glorious England—the land of freedom and genuine hospitality.”“Not so fast,”said he, interrupting me;[pg 167]“how long is it since you were there?”“Nearly eight years,”said I.“I fear,”resumed he,“you will not have your dreams—for dreams they are—verified. I was there eighteen months ago, and found freedom in the mouths of the lower classes, who evidently did not understand the meaning of it, and when they did they only used it as a cloak to do mischief, for demagoguing—if you will allow the term—was the order of the day at that time, and as for hospitality that has, as you may express yourself, made sail and gone to cruise into some other climate. I had letters to two families from their relations in India; they asked me to dinner in a stiff, formal manner, and thought, I suppose, they had performed wonders. There our acquaintance ended. I am an Irishman,”continued he,“and I assert without partiality that there is more real hospitality in my land of praters than in all Europe. Freedom we will not talk about; but as for the women, dear creatures, they are a mixture of roses and lilies, and such busts, like dairy maids, sure,”said he;“don’t say anything more about them, or I shall be what has never happened to an Irishman yet—out of spirits.”“Now,”said I,“doctor, we have found you out. You lost your heart when in England, and were not requited by the cruel fair one.”“Fair or foul,”answered he,“I would not give one Munster girl for a dozen English. To be sure,”added he to a young Irish midshipman, whose turn it was to dine in the gun-room,“they are rather thick about the trotters, and their heels are to be[pg 168]compared to their red potatoes, but the upper part of their figures—say no more. Come, messmate, let’s drink a speedy passage and soon, as a worthy alderman did at a Guildhall dinner.”“You mistake, doctor,”said the second lieutenant,“he gave for a toast, a speedy peace and soon.”“Never mind,”said the doctor,“it will be all the same a hundred years hence; an Irishman is always allowed to speak twice.”Our parting with our washerwomen and other friends was pathetic in the extreme; their precious tears were sufficient to fill several (but as I did not measure them I cannot say how many) monkeys.

“Oh, Gramercy, my lob!”said my lady to me,“I neber shall see you no more; but I hope dat you member dat Julia lob you more den he can tell. No,”said she, turning aside,“nobody can lob like poor me one, Julia.”She appeared overwhelmed with grief, and I felt my situation awkward and pathetically silly, as she had followed me down to the boat, and the eyes of several boats’ crews with their young, laughing wicked mids, were on us. I shook hands for the last time and jumped into the boat with a tear rolling down my cheek from my starboard eye. Reader, I beg you will not pity me, for I was not in love. I was what an old maiden cousin would have called imprudent.

[pg 169]CHAPTER XIII.HOME AGAIN.Ordered to the Black River—Meet the magistrate there, and“bow to his bishop”—Sail with a convoy of thirty ships—Arrive at Deal—A cruise on horseback on a baker’s nag, which conscientiously goes the bread round—The Author’s brother comes on board, but he fails to recognise him—Paid off at Deptford.At daylight next morning we catted the anchors, made all sail, and were the next day reposing like a swan in a lake at Black River. As notices from the merchants at Kingston had been sent to the different ports round the island that two men-of-war were going to take convoy to England, we were soon joined by several West Indiamen. This place can scarcely be called even a village, there being so few houses, and those straggling. The first time I went on shore I was called to by a stout man wearing a linen jacket and trousers, with an immense broad-brimmed straw hat on his head, and his address was abrupt and by no means polished.“What ship,”said he,“officer?”“TheVolage,”replied I, not in love with the person’s face, which was bluish-red, with a large nose.“Then,”said he,“you bloody dog, come and bow to my bishop,”pointing to the best house there. I stared with astonishment, and was turning away presuming he was a cloth in the wind or some[pg 170]madman escaped from his keeper.“Ho, ho! but you can’t go before you have bowed to my bishop,”he again called out;“come with me to my house, and we shall be better acquainted.”He took my arm; I thought him a character, which I afterwards found he was, and gave in to his whim. On entering the verandah of the house, which was shaded by close Venetian blinds and very cool, he stopped before an immense large jug in the shape of a bishop. It was placed on a bracket slab, so that to drink out of the corner of its hat, which was its beak or spout, you were obliged to stoop. This I found he called bowing to his bishop. It contained delicious sangaree, and I bowed to it without being entreated to do so a second time.“Now,”said he,“you bloody dog, you have complied like a good fellow with my first request. Your captain dines with me to-morrow; I must insist on your doing so too, and then I shall consider you an obedient officer and worthy to bow to my bishop whenever you are thirsty. My dinner-hour is five o’clock, and as I am the magistrate of this overgrown metropolis I admit of no excuse.”I could not help smiling at this rough urbanity. I accepted the invitation, and at the appointed hour repaired to his house with the captain and surgeon. He received us with great good humour, and insisted, as we were bloody dogs—I understood afterwards he was very partial to naval officers and always called them by that pet name—that we should bow to his bishop before dinner. We met at his table[pg 171]our kind acquaintance Mr. S., his daughter, another gentleman, his wife and two nieces, who were going to England in one of the ships of the convoy. The dining-room was entirely of cedar, and the floor like a mirror, very spacious, and it partly projected over the river. Above the dining-table was a large punkah, which was kept in constant motion during dinner by two young grinning black girls. The table groaned with good things, and we did ample justice to our host’s entertainment. He was evidently a great humourist, and amused us at dinner by relating anecdotes of Lord Rodney and Admiral Benbow’s time.“There are,”said he,“twelve tough old fellows, of which I am the chairman, who keep up the twelfth of April by an annual dinner, and as he never flinched from the enemy, we never flinch from the bottle, and keep it up till daylight, when we are so gloriously sober that we are carried home by our slaves.”“Is it true,”said he, addressing the captain,“that Sir Eyre Coote is to supersede the Earl of B. as Governor of our Islands? Do you know anything of him?”“Only from report,”was the reply;“I think he distinguished himself by a brilliant victory over Hyder Ali in the East Indies.”“Why, the devil,”said he,“I beg your pardon, ladies, for swearing, do they send us soldiers as governors? We want something in the shape of a statesman with a lawyer’s head, with his wig and litigation. I have no fault to find with the earl; he has governed us very fairly, and I hope his[pg 172]successor will do the same, although we prefer a civilian to a soldier.”After dinner we were amused by the feats of one of his household slaves named Paddy Whack, who threw somersaults round the drawing-room, walked on his hands, and afterwards threw himself several times from the highest part of the bridge, about twenty-four feet, into the river. After coffee we took leave of our eccentric but warm-hearted host, who, on shaking hands, insisted on our bloody dogships dining with him once more before we sailed. We promised to do so conditionally. Eighteen sail of merchant vessels had assembled, and we expected seven more. The surf had been high on the bar, and we had not had communication with the shore for the last two days. A canoe came off from Mr. C. with Paddy Whack, who delivered a note to the captain.“What is it about, boy?”said he.“Paper peak, massa,”was the reply;“Paddy only wait answer from Massa Captain.”The note was a pressing invitation to dine on shore the following day, and included the captain and officers. As I had dined with the worthy planter I persuaded the second lieutenant to go. The rest of the convoy having joined us, our sails were again swelling to a strong sea-breeze. The convoy of thirty sail of sugar-laden ships were hovering round us like chickens round the mother hen. Four others joined us at Bluefields, and off Negril Point we fell in with the S. frigate, with the former Governor of Jamaica on[pg 173]board and three other West Indiamen. The captain went on board the S. to pay his respects and to receive his orders.After his return on board the signal was made to make all sail, and away we bowled for the Gulf of Florida. We touched at the Caymans for turtle, and were cheated as usual. Nothing particular occurred during our passage but our nearly being run down by one of the ships of the convoy, and my having my left shoulder unshipped by being washed off one of the weather guns by a heavy sea, which obliged me to keep my cot for more than a fortnight. The eighth week brought us in sight of the Land’s End, when we repeated the signal for the convoy to separate for their respective ports. Those bound to London kept company with us as far as the Downs. I longed to be once more on my native shore, but I was doomed to be mortified for two days, as the surf on the beach was too high to admit a boat to land. On the third day I jumped on shore with a light heart and a thin pair of trousers, and repaired to the“Hoop and Griffin.”I had a desperate desire to have a cruise on horseback. I rang the bell, which was answered by one of the finest formed young women I ever beheld. I was taken aback, and my heart, which I had brought from the West Indies, went like the handle of the chain pumps up and down.“What do you please to want, sir,”said she, with a most musically toned voice. I blushed and modestly requested to have a horse as soon as he could be got ready.“I am really sorry,[pg 174]sir,”answered she,“that all our horses are post-horses, but”continued she, with the gentlest accent in this world and probably many more,“we will procure you one.”“Many thanks,”said I;“and will you oblige me by sending up some bread and butter with some oysters, but not those which are gathered from the mangrove trees,”for I had the West Indies in my mind.“Gathered from trees!—oysters from trees! I never heard of such a thing before,”said she, and she went laughing out of the room. The waiter soon appeared with what I had ordered, and a foaming tankard of ale which I had forgotten to order. During my repast I envied no one. I was as happy as a city alderman at a Lord Mayor’s feast; I could not contain myself or believe I was in England; I could not sit quietly in my chair; I paced the room, jumped, rubbed my hands and head, and in one of my ecstatic fits I rang the bell. My beautiful maid (not Braham’s) entered as I was cutting a caper extraordinary.“Did you ring, sir?”said she with a smile becoming an angel.“I believe I did,”I replied,“but I am not certain. I scarcely know what I am about. I have eaten my oysters, and now I wish for my horse.”“He is not quite ready yet, sir. You said something about oysters growing on trees, didn’t you, sir. I told it to my mother, and she thinks I did not understand what you said. Will you be good enough to tell me if they grow in orchards like our apples?”“I have seen thousands, and have eaten thousands that have[pg 175]grown on trees,”said I,“but not in orchards. The tree that bears them grows close to the water side; its lower branches dip into it, and are clustered by the shell-fish, which are very small, and you may swallow a dozen at a mouthful.”“Thank you, sir; my mother I am sure will believe me now. I will desire John to take away. Did you like our country oysters as well as those in foreign parts?”“They are,”said I,“like you, excellent.”“I will see if the horse is ready,”said she, as she dropped a curtsey and quitted the room.Shortly after up came John to announce my horse being at the door.“Will you have a pair of master’s spurs, sir?”said he.“No, I thank you, my good fellow,”returned I.“Lend me a whip, and I shall be able to manage without spurs.”Behold a sailor on horseback, gentle reader, to the admiration or astonishment of all the bystanders, of which there were as many as would man a king’s cutter. I kept under moderate sail until I reached Middle Deal, when my companion brought up all standing at the door of a decent-looking house, nor could I make him again break ground until a maidservant opened the door.“Lord,”said she,“I thought it was the baker, sir, for you are on his horse.”“That accounts,”I said,“for his halting at your door. I wish, Betty, you would get him once more into plain sailing.”She most kindly took hold of the bridle and led him into the middle of the street. I now thought myself in the fair way, and I gave him a stroke with the whip, which I nearly[pg 176]repented, for he kicked up with his hind legs, and had not I seized the after part of the saddle I should have gone over his forecastle. I held on until he righted. After this freak, which was nearly knocking up my cruise, we jogged on steadily until we came to a narrow street, down which he turned in spite of all my endeavours to prevent him, and again hove to at the door of another house.“This turning to windward,”thinks I,“will never do. It reminds me of Commodore Trunnion making a Tom Coxe’s traverse to fetch the church.”Whilst I was puzzling my wise noddle what I was to do next, a man passed me.“I wish you would get this horse under weigh,”said I,“for here have I been at single anchor for these five minutes at this door, and cannot cast him the right way.”“Why,”said he,“I knows that there horse; it be the baker’s.”“D——n the baker, and his horse too,”said I, not much pleased at his remark.“You are close to the Canterbury road, and mayhap if I leads him he may go on.”“You are the best fellow I have met for a quarter of an hour. Do get him into open cruising ground as fast as you can, for I have been on his back more than an hour, and have not gained half a mile.”He gave me a broad grin, and good-naturedly led the horse until I got clear of the houses. He then let go the bridle, gave the animal a smart slap on the flank, which set him off at a hand-gallop, and nearly jerked me over the taffrail. I kept him to his speed, and in about half an hour he stopped[pg 177]suddenly near a small farmhouse, and I was again nearly going over his bows. A slovenly kind of woman hove in sight. I hailed her, and asked her to bring me a tumbler of milk, but I might as well have spoken to a Porto Rico donkey. She showed me her stern, and brought up in a piggery.“The devil take your hospitality,”said I. The weather was exceedingly warm, and I was very thirsty, which made me more hasty in my expressions to the Dulciana of the pigstye than I ought to have been. But show me the fair one who would not excuse a sailor thirsty and on the back of an animal as obstinate as a boat’s crew when cutting out. After a fruitless attempt to proceed further on my voyage of discovery, I hove about. The animal answered stays as well as any frigate, and was round sooner than the captain of the forecastle could clap the jib traveller over the end of the jib-boom. I was heartily tired of my horse cruise, and was glad when I hove to at the“Hoop and Griffin.”As soon as I had thrown myself on the sofa, my beautiful maid entered.“Will you favour me with your name?”said I, addressing her with quarter-deck modesty.“I am called Lucy,”said she.“That’s a very pretty name,”returned I.“Pray, Miss Lucy, may I ask where the horse came from I have been riding? I have had a worse cruise than a dismantled Dutch dogger on the Goodwin Sands. I have, into the bargain, lost out of my waistcoat-pocket two two-pound[pg 178]notes and five new gloves out of six which I very stupidly stuffed into my coat-pocket.”“I am very sorry, sir, indeed, for your misfortune,”answered she.“The horse came from the‘Royal Oak.’We desired them to send a quiet one, as it was for a gentleman who was not in the habit of riding.”“I wish they had sent me a donkey instead of the baker’s horse,”said I;“he took it into his head to stop at his master’s customers’ houses, nor could I make him leave them without assistance. No more cruising on horseback for me,”continued I.“Pray do let me have plenty of oysters and bread and butter, with a tankard of ale as smiling as yourself, as soon as the waiter can bring them up, for I am very hungry.”“We have a nice cold chicken in the house and some ham; shall I send them up too?”“That’s the stuff for trousers,”answered I.“Let all be handed up in the turn of a handspike, and if I do not do ample justice to the whole, you are not the prettiest girl I have seen. I suppose it would be treason to ask you to partake of the good things I have ordered?”“Oh, no, sir,”said she;“that is not the fashion in our house, for me to sit down with a strange gentleman.”Saying this, she left the room, and as I observed the smile which dimpled her blooming cheeks had vanished, I began to think I had said too much. Whilst I was in a blue study, up came chicken, ham, oysters, bread and butter, with the ale. I drew to the table and began with a keen West-country appetite, and for the first ten minutes forgot Lucy, baker’s horse,[pg 179]pound notes and gloves, and almost that it was growing dark, and that we were to sail by the next morning’s tide. Before I had finished moving my under jaw, which had been in constant motion for the last twenty minutes, in came the purser and one of the mids to report the boat being on shore.“You have saved me from a surfeit,”exclaimed I.“Come,”said I to the youngster,“sit down and finish the feast. As for you, Master Purser, I know you have been faring well elsewhere, therefore I shall not ask you to take anything.”Having paid the bill and shaken hands with Lucy, I jumped into the boat, and was soon on board. On seating myself in the gun-room,“Now, messmates,”said I, addressing the second lieutenant and surgeon,“you commissioned me to buy you each a pair of gloves. I fulfilled it to the letter, but I have left them on the Canterbury road.”I then related my adventure, which elicited a hearty laugh.“Now,”added I,“we will have a glass of grog, and drink to fair Lucy at the‘Hoop and Griffin,’for she is a very pretty girl, and I have lost half my heart.”“If we do not sail to-morrow,”replied they,“we will go on shore and see whether she deserves the appellation you have given her.”“Do,”said I,“and give my love to her.”At daylight our signal was made to remain at anchor until further orders. On sending the last boat on shore for the officers, I ordered the midshipman who had charge of her to acquaint my messmates[pg 180]not to bring off any strangers to dinner, as no boat would leave the ship after they returned. About 3p.m.the boat came on board, and, in contradiction to my order, brought off a stranger. The second lieutenant was first up the side, and the stranger followed. On his reaching the quarter-deck, he introduced him to me as a person sent off by the admiral as a broker to exchange English for foreign coin. He gave me his card, which I put into my pocket without looking at it. I began by telling him he had come on board at a very inconvenient time, and that, in consequence of the spring tide, the boat would not leave the ship until the morning.“It is of little consequence to me,”said he, very coolly;“I can remain where I am until that time.”“Respecting the errand you have come on,”I resumed,“I am afraid you will be disappointed, as two persons have already been before you.”“How came you,”said I to the youngster who had charge of the boat,“to disobey the order I gave you?”Before he could answer the surgeon came up and whispered to me,“It is your brother.”I examined his countenance more closely. He gave me one of his schoolboy grins and his hand, and then I was convinced. We had not seen each other for nearly nine years, and he had grown entirely out of my recollection. I did not give him the fraternal hug, but I shook him affectionately by the hand and told him I should not part with him until we reached Deptford, to which he willingly consented. He acquainted me with all family[pg 181]concerns, and that my mother was waiting in London, anxious to see me.The following day we received on board eighteen French prisoners for the prison-ships in the river. We wished them at Jericho, where the man fell among those who used him worse than a Turk would have done. The same afternoon we daylighted the anchor, mastheaded the sails, crested the briny wave like a Yankee sea-serpent, and on the second day let go no fool of a piece of crooked iron off dirty Deptford. As orders were received to pay us off, we were fully occupied for nearly a week dismantling the ship and returning stores, etc. On the second day I ran up to London and saw my mother. She did not, luckily for both parties, shed a flood of tears, but received me with maternal affection, though she said she scarcely knew me—I was grown, as my sister was pleased to say, such a black man. On the sixth day after our anchoring I ordered the ship to be put out of commission, and the cook hauled down the pendant. We had a parting dinner at the“Gun”Inn, shook hands and separated.

Ordered to the Black River—Meet the magistrate there, and“bow to his bishop”—Sail with a convoy of thirty ships—Arrive at Deal—A cruise on horseback on a baker’s nag, which conscientiously goes the bread round—The Author’s brother comes on board, but he fails to recognise him—Paid off at Deptford.

Ordered to the Black River—Meet the magistrate there, and“bow to his bishop”—Sail with a convoy of thirty ships—Arrive at Deal—A cruise on horseback on a baker’s nag, which conscientiously goes the bread round—The Author’s brother comes on board, but he fails to recognise him—Paid off at Deptford.

At daylight next morning we catted the anchors, made all sail, and were the next day reposing like a swan in a lake at Black River. As notices from the merchants at Kingston had been sent to the different ports round the island that two men-of-war were going to take convoy to England, we were soon joined by several West Indiamen. This place can scarcely be called even a village, there being so few houses, and those straggling. The first time I went on shore I was called to by a stout man wearing a linen jacket and trousers, with an immense broad-brimmed straw hat on his head, and his address was abrupt and by no means polished.“What ship,”said he,“officer?”“TheVolage,”replied I, not in love with the person’s face, which was bluish-red, with a large nose.“Then,”said he,“you bloody dog, come and bow to my bishop,”pointing to the best house there. I stared with astonishment, and was turning away presuming he was a cloth in the wind or some[pg 170]madman escaped from his keeper.“Ho, ho! but you can’t go before you have bowed to my bishop,”he again called out;“come with me to my house, and we shall be better acquainted.”He took my arm; I thought him a character, which I afterwards found he was, and gave in to his whim. On entering the verandah of the house, which was shaded by close Venetian blinds and very cool, he stopped before an immense large jug in the shape of a bishop. It was placed on a bracket slab, so that to drink out of the corner of its hat, which was its beak or spout, you were obliged to stoop. This I found he called bowing to his bishop. It contained delicious sangaree, and I bowed to it without being entreated to do so a second time.“Now,”said he,“you bloody dog, you have complied like a good fellow with my first request. Your captain dines with me to-morrow; I must insist on your doing so too, and then I shall consider you an obedient officer and worthy to bow to my bishop whenever you are thirsty. My dinner-hour is five o’clock, and as I am the magistrate of this overgrown metropolis I admit of no excuse.”I could not help smiling at this rough urbanity. I accepted the invitation, and at the appointed hour repaired to his house with the captain and surgeon. He received us with great good humour, and insisted, as we were bloody dogs—I understood afterwards he was very partial to naval officers and always called them by that pet name—that we should bow to his bishop before dinner. We met at his table[pg 171]our kind acquaintance Mr. S., his daughter, another gentleman, his wife and two nieces, who were going to England in one of the ships of the convoy. The dining-room was entirely of cedar, and the floor like a mirror, very spacious, and it partly projected over the river. Above the dining-table was a large punkah, which was kept in constant motion during dinner by two young grinning black girls. The table groaned with good things, and we did ample justice to our host’s entertainment. He was evidently a great humourist, and amused us at dinner by relating anecdotes of Lord Rodney and Admiral Benbow’s time.“There are,”said he,“twelve tough old fellows, of which I am the chairman, who keep up the twelfth of April by an annual dinner, and as he never flinched from the enemy, we never flinch from the bottle, and keep it up till daylight, when we are so gloriously sober that we are carried home by our slaves.”“Is it true,”said he, addressing the captain,“that Sir Eyre Coote is to supersede the Earl of B. as Governor of our Islands? Do you know anything of him?”“Only from report,”was the reply;“I think he distinguished himself by a brilliant victory over Hyder Ali in the East Indies.”“Why, the devil,”said he,“I beg your pardon, ladies, for swearing, do they send us soldiers as governors? We want something in the shape of a statesman with a lawyer’s head, with his wig and litigation. I have no fault to find with the earl; he has governed us very fairly, and I hope his[pg 172]successor will do the same, although we prefer a civilian to a soldier.”

After dinner we were amused by the feats of one of his household slaves named Paddy Whack, who threw somersaults round the drawing-room, walked on his hands, and afterwards threw himself several times from the highest part of the bridge, about twenty-four feet, into the river. After coffee we took leave of our eccentric but warm-hearted host, who, on shaking hands, insisted on our bloody dogships dining with him once more before we sailed. We promised to do so conditionally. Eighteen sail of merchant vessels had assembled, and we expected seven more. The surf had been high on the bar, and we had not had communication with the shore for the last two days. A canoe came off from Mr. C. with Paddy Whack, who delivered a note to the captain.“What is it about, boy?”said he.“Paper peak, massa,”was the reply;“Paddy only wait answer from Massa Captain.”The note was a pressing invitation to dine on shore the following day, and included the captain and officers. As I had dined with the worthy planter I persuaded the second lieutenant to go. The rest of the convoy having joined us, our sails were again swelling to a strong sea-breeze. The convoy of thirty sail of sugar-laden ships were hovering round us like chickens round the mother hen. Four others joined us at Bluefields, and off Negril Point we fell in with the S. frigate, with the former Governor of Jamaica on[pg 173]board and three other West Indiamen. The captain went on board the S. to pay his respects and to receive his orders.

After his return on board the signal was made to make all sail, and away we bowled for the Gulf of Florida. We touched at the Caymans for turtle, and were cheated as usual. Nothing particular occurred during our passage but our nearly being run down by one of the ships of the convoy, and my having my left shoulder unshipped by being washed off one of the weather guns by a heavy sea, which obliged me to keep my cot for more than a fortnight. The eighth week brought us in sight of the Land’s End, when we repeated the signal for the convoy to separate for their respective ports. Those bound to London kept company with us as far as the Downs. I longed to be once more on my native shore, but I was doomed to be mortified for two days, as the surf on the beach was too high to admit a boat to land. On the third day I jumped on shore with a light heart and a thin pair of trousers, and repaired to the“Hoop and Griffin.”I had a desperate desire to have a cruise on horseback. I rang the bell, which was answered by one of the finest formed young women I ever beheld. I was taken aback, and my heart, which I had brought from the West Indies, went like the handle of the chain pumps up and down.“What do you please to want, sir,”said she, with a most musically toned voice. I blushed and modestly requested to have a horse as soon as he could be got ready.“I am really sorry,[pg 174]sir,”answered she,“that all our horses are post-horses, but”continued she, with the gentlest accent in this world and probably many more,“we will procure you one.”“Many thanks,”said I;“and will you oblige me by sending up some bread and butter with some oysters, but not those which are gathered from the mangrove trees,”for I had the West Indies in my mind.“Gathered from trees!—oysters from trees! I never heard of such a thing before,”said she, and she went laughing out of the room. The waiter soon appeared with what I had ordered, and a foaming tankard of ale which I had forgotten to order. During my repast I envied no one. I was as happy as a city alderman at a Lord Mayor’s feast; I could not contain myself or believe I was in England; I could not sit quietly in my chair; I paced the room, jumped, rubbed my hands and head, and in one of my ecstatic fits I rang the bell. My beautiful maid (not Braham’s) entered as I was cutting a caper extraordinary.“Did you ring, sir?”said she with a smile becoming an angel.“I believe I did,”I replied,“but I am not certain. I scarcely know what I am about. I have eaten my oysters, and now I wish for my horse.”“He is not quite ready yet, sir. You said something about oysters growing on trees, didn’t you, sir. I told it to my mother, and she thinks I did not understand what you said. Will you be good enough to tell me if they grow in orchards like our apples?”“I have seen thousands, and have eaten thousands that have[pg 175]grown on trees,”said I,“but not in orchards. The tree that bears them grows close to the water side; its lower branches dip into it, and are clustered by the shell-fish, which are very small, and you may swallow a dozen at a mouthful.”“Thank you, sir; my mother I am sure will believe me now. I will desire John to take away. Did you like our country oysters as well as those in foreign parts?”“They are,”said I,“like you, excellent.”“I will see if the horse is ready,”said she, as she dropped a curtsey and quitted the room.

Shortly after up came John to announce my horse being at the door.“Will you have a pair of master’s spurs, sir?”said he.“No, I thank you, my good fellow,”returned I.“Lend me a whip, and I shall be able to manage without spurs.”Behold a sailor on horseback, gentle reader, to the admiration or astonishment of all the bystanders, of which there were as many as would man a king’s cutter. I kept under moderate sail until I reached Middle Deal, when my companion brought up all standing at the door of a decent-looking house, nor could I make him again break ground until a maidservant opened the door.“Lord,”said she,“I thought it was the baker, sir, for you are on his horse.”“That accounts,”I said,“for his halting at your door. I wish, Betty, you would get him once more into plain sailing.”She most kindly took hold of the bridle and led him into the middle of the street. I now thought myself in the fair way, and I gave him a stroke with the whip, which I nearly[pg 176]repented, for he kicked up with his hind legs, and had not I seized the after part of the saddle I should have gone over his forecastle. I held on until he righted. After this freak, which was nearly knocking up my cruise, we jogged on steadily until we came to a narrow street, down which he turned in spite of all my endeavours to prevent him, and again hove to at the door of another house.

“This turning to windward,”thinks I,“will never do. It reminds me of Commodore Trunnion making a Tom Coxe’s traverse to fetch the church.”Whilst I was puzzling my wise noddle what I was to do next, a man passed me.“I wish you would get this horse under weigh,”said I,“for here have I been at single anchor for these five minutes at this door, and cannot cast him the right way.”“Why,”said he,“I knows that there horse; it be the baker’s.”“D——n the baker, and his horse too,”said I, not much pleased at his remark.“You are close to the Canterbury road, and mayhap if I leads him he may go on.”“You are the best fellow I have met for a quarter of an hour. Do get him into open cruising ground as fast as you can, for I have been on his back more than an hour, and have not gained half a mile.”He gave me a broad grin, and good-naturedly led the horse until I got clear of the houses. He then let go the bridle, gave the animal a smart slap on the flank, which set him off at a hand-gallop, and nearly jerked me over the taffrail. I kept him to his speed, and in about half an hour he stopped[pg 177]suddenly near a small farmhouse, and I was again nearly going over his bows. A slovenly kind of woman hove in sight. I hailed her, and asked her to bring me a tumbler of milk, but I might as well have spoken to a Porto Rico donkey. She showed me her stern, and brought up in a piggery.“The devil take your hospitality,”said I. The weather was exceedingly warm, and I was very thirsty, which made me more hasty in my expressions to the Dulciana of the pigstye than I ought to have been. But show me the fair one who would not excuse a sailor thirsty and on the back of an animal as obstinate as a boat’s crew when cutting out. After a fruitless attempt to proceed further on my voyage of discovery, I hove about. The animal answered stays as well as any frigate, and was round sooner than the captain of the forecastle could clap the jib traveller over the end of the jib-boom. I was heartily tired of my horse cruise, and was glad when I hove to at the“Hoop and Griffin.”

As soon as I had thrown myself on the sofa, my beautiful maid entered.“Will you favour me with your name?”said I, addressing her with quarter-deck modesty.“I am called Lucy,”said she.“That’s a very pretty name,”returned I.“Pray, Miss Lucy, may I ask where the horse came from I have been riding? I have had a worse cruise than a dismantled Dutch dogger on the Goodwin Sands. I have, into the bargain, lost out of my waistcoat-pocket two two-pound[pg 178]notes and five new gloves out of six which I very stupidly stuffed into my coat-pocket.”“I am very sorry, sir, indeed, for your misfortune,”answered she.“The horse came from the‘Royal Oak.’We desired them to send a quiet one, as it was for a gentleman who was not in the habit of riding.”“I wish they had sent me a donkey instead of the baker’s horse,”said I;“he took it into his head to stop at his master’s customers’ houses, nor could I make him leave them without assistance. No more cruising on horseback for me,”continued I.“Pray do let me have plenty of oysters and bread and butter, with a tankard of ale as smiling as yourself, as soon as the waiter can bring them up, for I am very hungry.”“We have a nice cold chicken in the house and some ham; shall I send them up too?”“That’s the stuff for trousers,”answered I.“Let all be handed up in the turn of a handspike, and if I do not do ample justice to the whole, you are not the prettiest girl I have seen. I suppose it would be treason to ask you to partake of the good things I have ordered?”“Oh, no, sir,”said she;“that is not the fashion in our house, for me to sit down with a strange gentleman.”Saying this, she left the room, and as I observed the smile which dimpled her blooming cheeks had vanished, I began to think I had said too much. Whilst I was in a blue study, up came chicken, ham, oysters, bread and butter, with the ale. I drew to the table and began with a keen West-country appetite, and for the first ten minutes forgot Lucy, baker’s horse,[pg 179]pound notes and gloves, and almost that it was growing dark, and that we were to sail by the next morning’s tide. Before I had finished moving my under jaw, which had been in constant motion for the last twenty minutes, in came the purser and one of the mids to report the boat being on shore.“You have saved me from a surfeit,”exclaimed I.“Come,”said I to the youngster,“sit down and finish the feast. As for you, Master Purser, I know you have been faring well elsewhere, therefore I shall not ask you to take anything.”

Having paid the bill and shaken hands with Lucy, I jumped into the boat, and was soon on board. On seating myself in the gun-room,“Now, messmates,”said I, addressing the second lieutenant and surgeon,“you commissioned me to buy you each a pair of gloves. I fulfilled it to the letter, but I have left them on the Canterbury road.”I then related my adventure, which elicited a hearty laugh.“Now,”added I,“we will have a glass of grog, and drink to fair Lucy at the‘Hoop and Griffin,’for she is a very pretty girl, and I have lost half my heart.”“If we do not sail to-morrow,”replied they,“we will go on shore and see whether she deserves the appellation you have given her.”“Do,”said I,“and give my love to her.”

At daylight our signal was made to remain at anchor until further orders. On sending the last boat on shore for the officers, I ordered the midshipman who had charge of her to acquaint my messmates[pg 180]not to bring off any strangers to dinner, as no boat would leave the ship after they returned. About 3p.m.the boat came on board, and, in contradiction to my order, brought off a stranger. The second lieutenant was first up the side, and the stranger followed. On his reaching the quarter-deck, he introduced him to me as a person sent off by the admiral as a broker to exchange English for foreign coin. He gave me his card, which I put into my pocket without looking at it. I began by telling him he had come on board at a very inconvenient time, and that, in consequence of the spring tide, the boat would not leave the ship until the morning.“It is of little consequence to me,”said he, very coolly;“I can remain where I am until that time.”“Respecting the errand you have come on,”I resumed,“I am afraid you will be disappointed, as two persons have already been before you.”“How came you,”said I to the youngster who had charge of the boat,“to disobey the order I gave you?”Before he could answer the surgeon came up and whispered to me,“It is your brother.”I examined his countenance more closely. He gave me one of his schoolboy grins and his hand, and then I was convinced. We had not seen each other for nearly nine years, and he had grown entirely out of my recollection. I did not give him the fraternal hug, but I shook him affectionately by the hand and told him I should not part with him until we reached Deptford, to which he willingly consented. He acquainted me with all family[pg 181]concerns, and that my mother was waiting in London, anxious to see me.

The following day we received on board eighteen French prisoners for the prison-ships in the river. We wished them at Jericho, where the man fell among those who used him worse than a Turk would have done. The same afternoon we daylighted the anchor, mastheaded the sails, crested the briny wave like a Yankee sea-serpent, and on the second day let go no fool of a piece of crooked iron off dirty Deptford. As orders were received to pay us off, we were fully occupied for nearly a week dismantling the ship and returning stores, etc. On the second day I ran up to London and saw my mother. She did not, luckily for both parties, shed a flood of tears, but received me with maternal affection, though she said she scarcely knew me—I was grown, as my sister was pleased to say, such a black man. On the sixth day after our anchoring I ordered the ship to be put out of commission, and the cook hauled down the pendant. We had a parting dinner at the“Gun”Inn, shook hands and separated.

[pg 182]CHAPTER XIV.A HOLIDAY ASHORE.On shore—Tired of inactivity—Apply for a ship—Appointed to H.M.S.Minotaur(74)—Prisoners sent on board as part of crew—Go to Plymouth—Scarcity of seamen—Ruse to impress an Irish farm labourer—Ordered to join the Channel fleet off Ushant—Capture French thirty-six-gun ship—In danger off Ushant—Capture two small French ships and one Dutch one: author sent to Plymouth in charge of the latter—Placed in quarantine.After I had remained in noisy, bustling, crowded and disagreeable London a month, my mother wishing to go into Surrey, I was glad of the opportunity to accompany her and to breathe purer air, and left town without regret.I was now under my own orders, and was much puzzled to find out how I was to obey myself. For the last ten years I had been under the control of superiors. Now I had the whole of my crew within myself, and discipline I found was necessary. I knew no more of England than it knew of me. Men and manners were equally strange to me, except those on board the different men-of-war I had served in, and they were not the most polished. In the society of the fair sex I was exceedingly shy, and my feelings were sometimes painful when I had to run the gauntlet through rows of well-dressed women, some looking as demure as a noddy at the[pg 183]masthead. I was now in my twenty-third year, and an agreeable—nay, an old lady, whose word was considered sacred—declared I was a charming young man. My life passed as monotonously as that of a clock in an old maid’s sitting-room. My habits were too active to remain long in this state of listlessness. I was almost idle enough to make love, and nearly lost my heart seven times. Caring little for the society of the men, I generally strolled over two or three fields to read my books, or to scribble sonnets on a plough, for I began to be sentimental and plaintive. Whilst meditating one morning in bed, I started up with a determination to have an interview with Sir J. Colpoys, who was one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and ask him in person for employment, for I began to be apprehensive if I remained longer on shore I should think a ship was something to eat, and the bobstay the top-sail haulyards. Three weeks after my application I was appointed to theMinotaurof seventy-four guns lying at Blackstakes, and I found it black enough, for she not having her masts stepped, we were all obliged—that is the officers—to live at the“Tap”at Shurnasty, commonly called Sheerness, where we spent thirteen out of six shillings a day, and until the ship was ready to receive us, which was nearly a fortnight, we drank elevation to the noble Secretary of the Admiralty, for, owing to his ignorance, we had been obliged to spend seven shillings daily more than our pay.Two days after the ship was commissioned, and[pg 184]I had been carrying on the war, for I was the senior lieutenant, the gallant captain made his appearance. After touching his hat in return to my grand salaam, he said,“Hulloa, how is this? I expected to find the ship masted. I will thank you to desire the boatswain to turn the hands up to hear my commission read, and quartermaster,”addressing a dockyard matey,“go down and tell all the officers I am on board.”“That is not a quartermaster,”said I to him,“he is one of the dockyard men.”“Then where are the quartermasters?”“We have none,”replied I,“nor have we a seaman on board except some one-legged and one-armed old Greenwich pensioners that were sent on board yesterday.”At this satisfactory intelligence he turned his eyes up like a crow in a thunderstorm, and muttered, I fear, something in the shape of a prayer for the whole Board of Admiralty. Whilst we were looking at each other not knowing what to say next, a man came up the hatchway to report that one of the Greenwich men had broken his leg.“Where is the surgeon?”said the captain.“He has not yet joined,”replied I.“We must send him to the dockyard for surgical aid. Man the boat, and you, Mr. Brown, take him on shore,”said I. Mr. Brown made one of his best bows, and acquainted me that it was the carpenter who was wanted and not the surgeon, as the man had snapped his wooden leg in one of the holes of the grating, and the carpenter’s mate was fishing it. After a pause of some minutes,“So,”[pg 185]resumed the captain,“this is the manner King’s ships are to be fitted out. Why, it will take us a month of Sundays before the lower masts are rigged. What the devil did they send those old codgers with their wooden legs here for? I will go immediately to the Admiral, and point out the state we are in.”In the afternoon another lieutenant joined the ship, junior to me. I began to think I should be the first, when on the following day I was unshipped, for two others came on board by some years my seniors. The captain also sent four young mids on board and the Admiralty two oldsters, one of whom was a sprig of nobility. On the morning of the fourth day we were masted, and a lighter came alongside filled with riggers from London, and soon afterwards we received our complement of marines, with a captain and two lieutenants. We were now beginning to get animated and to make some show, when, as I was giving an order to the boatswain, Mr. Brown, whom I ought to have introduced before as the gunner, reported a barge coming alongside with prisoners.“That is surely a mistake,”replied I;“I hope they do not take us for the prison ship.”Bump she came, stern on.“Hulloa!”I called out;“do you wish to try what the bends are made of?”Before I could say anything more, up came and stood before me, cocked-up hat in hand, a consequential, dapper little stout man dressed in black, with his hair in powder.“Please you, sir, I have brought, by the order of the magistrates at Maidstone,[pg 186]fifteen men to belong to your ship. They be all of them tolerable good men, except five, who have been condemned to be transported, and two to be hung, but as they be contrabanders like, the Government have sent down orders for ’em to be sent on board your ship.”“I am sure,”said I,“I can in the name of His Majesty’s officers offer many thanks to His Majesty’s Government for their great consideration in sending men who deserve hanging to be made sailors on board His Majesty’s ships.”He then, with a flourish, presented me a paper with their names and the offences of which they had been guilty. Nine of these honest, worthy members of society were stout, robust fellows, and had only taken what did not belong to them. Two of the remaining six had been condemned for putting brave citizens in bodily fear on the King’s highway and borrowing their purses and watches. The other four were smugglers bold, who wished to oblige their friends with a few hundreds of yards of Brussels lace and gloves, as well as some tubs of brandy, but were unfortunately interrupted in the exercise of their profession by those useless sea-beach cruisers called the Coast Guard.“Pray, sir,”said I,“to whom may I be obliged to for the safe conveyance of these honest men?”“I be the under-sheriff’s officer, sir,”answered he,“and I have had mighty hard work to bring them along.”“You deserve to be rewarded, Mr. Deputy Sheriff”(for I like to give every man his title), said I;“you would probably[pg 187]like to have a glass of grog.”“Why it’s thirsty weather, and I shall be obliged to you, sir.”I called the steward, desired he might have some refreshment, and he soon after quitted the ship, admonishing the live cargo he brought on board, who were still on the quarter-deck, to behave themselves like good men. A month had expired by the time the top-gallant masts were on end. We had received all our officers and two hundred men from Chatham and the river. At length, Greenwich pensioners, riggers, and dockyard mateys took their departure, to our great satisfaction, as it was impossible to bring the ship’s crew into discipline whilst they were on board. Our complement, including the officers, was six hundred and forty men. We had only three hundred and twenty when orders came down for us to proceed to Plymouth. The captain and first lieutenant looked very wise on this occasion, and were apprehensive that if the ship slipped the bridles she would be like an unruly horse, and run away with us, for there were only forty men on board who knew how to go aloft except a few of the marines. The pilot made his appearance, and soon afterwards down went the bridles, and we were fairly adrift. We reached the Nore, and let go the anchors in a hail squall, and it was with the greatest difficulty we got the top-sails furled. The admiral, having proof positive that we were as helpless as a cow in a jolly-boat, took compassion on us and sent fifty more men from the flag-ship, most of them able[pg 188]seamen. On the fourth day after quitting the Nore we anchored in Plymouth Sound.I now had the delightful opportunity of once more breathing my native air, viewing beautiful Mount Edgcumbe, revelling in clotted cream and potted pilchards, tickling my palate—as Quin used to do—with John-dories, conger eels, star-gazey and squab pies, cray-fish, and sometimes, but not very often—for my purse was only half-flood in consequence of my expenses whilst on shore at the“Tap”at Sheerness—I had a drive upon Dock. The flag-ship in Hamoaze was theSalvador del Mundo, a three-decker taken from the Spaniards in the memorable battle of the fourth of February. The day after anchoring I was ordered by the captain to go with him on board theSally-waiter-de-Modo. I reflected a short time, and not knowing there was such a ship on the Navy List, turned to the first lieutenant and asked him if he had heard of such a man-of-war.“No,”said he, smiling,“the captain chooses to call her so; he means the flag-ship.”On repairing on board her, my commander said to me,“You help me to look at those fellows’ phizes,”pointing to a number of men who were toeing the seam on her quarter-deck.“I am to take thirty of them; they are queer-looking chaps, and I do not much like the cut of their jib. But mind,”added he,“don’t take any one that has not a large quid of tobacco in his cheek.”I went up to the second man, who had a double[pg 189]allowance of Virginia or some other weed in his gill, the captain following me.“Well, my man,”said I,“how long have you been to sea?”“Four months,”was the reply.“Why, you d——d rascal,”said our skipper—for observe, reader, he never swore—“what the devil business have you with such a quantity of tobacco in your mouth? I thought you were an old sailor.”“No, sir,”answered the man,“my trade is a tailor, but I have chawed bacca from my infancy.”“Question another,”was my order. I interrogated the next, who was a short, slight, pale-faced man.“And pray,”said I,“what part of the play have you been performing; were you ever at sea?”“No, sir,”said he;“I am a hairdresser, and was pressed a week ago.”“D——n these fellows!”said my captain;“they are all tailors, barbers, or grass-combers. I want seamen.”“Then,”said Captain N., who was the flag-captain, and had just come on board,“I much fear you will be disappointed. These are the only disposable men, and it’s Hobson’s choice—those or none.”“The admiral promised me some good seamen,”returned my skipper, rather quickly.“Then I fear the admiral must find them,”was the answer,“as I have not more than twenty seamen on board besides the petty officers. The last were drafted a few days ago in theDefiance. Will you take any of these men, Captain W.?”“What do you think,”said my captain to me;“shall we take any of[pg 190]them?”“Suppose,”returned I,“we take twenty of them and the tailor; they will all fit in in time.”I then picked out twenty of the best, who were bad enough, as they were the worst set I ever saw grouped. Their appearance and dress were wretched in the extreme. I reached the ship before the hour of dinner with my live cargo.“What, more hard bargains,”said the firstlieutenant,“we have too many clodhoppers on board already. The captain told me we were to have seamen.”“Captain N.,”said I,“assured our noble captain that theDefiancehad taken all the A.B.’s.”“D——n theDefiance!”replied he;“IdefyCaptain N. or anybody else to match those gentlemanly ragamuffins.”The master’s mates were called, and they were given into their charge.One of them, a tall, large-boned man, requested to remain on deck a little longer as he had a palpitation of the heart.“What country man are you?”said I.“Shure,”answered he,“I’m all the way from dear ould Ireland, and I don’t think I shall be arter seeing the bogs again; but good luck to her, wherever she goes!”“What did you do there?”said I.“Och,”said he,“why do I give all this trouble and what business have I here? In Ireland, plase your honour, I planted praters and tended cows. In the hay season I came to England and was employed in stacking, when one day, as I was taking a walk in a field near Lunnen, I fell in with four men who asked me to join them as they were going to a public-house[pg 191]to have something to drink. I thought this was very civil to a stranger. After taking the first pot they told me they intended going in a boat on the river, and asked me if I could pull an oar.‘I’ll try,’said I.‘Well,’said they,‘on Saturday, at five o’clock in the evening, be down at Wapping Stairs and you will see a green painted boat with six men in her. I will be ready to meet you,’said one of the most good-natured,‘and we will have a pleasant trip.’I little thought, your honour, that these spalpeens, saving your presence, intended anything more than friendship. I was at the place pointed out, and stepped into the boat. I took the second oar, but I caught so many crabs that I was desired to sit in the stern. We pulled up the river, which I thought very pleasant. In returning, the man who steered said he had a message to deliver on board a dark-looking vessel we were close to. We got alongside of her.‘Won’t you go up, Pat?’said he;‘you never was on board so large a vessel; she is worth looking at.’I went up after him, when a man dressed in a blue coat with yellow buttons came up to me and told me to go below. Saying this, he called to another, who told me he would show me the way, which he soon did, and I was forced into a dark place where I found seven more half-ragged, half-starved looking animals. Two of them were countrymen.‘Who have we here?’said one of them.‘I am all the way from Ireland,’said I,‘and I have come to see this ship.’‘The devil you have, my honey; and what do you[pg 192]come here for?’‘Shure enough,’replied I,‘that’s true. I’ll go and see arter my frinds.’At this they all laughed. I went to the door, but found a sodjer there with a drawn sword.‘What do you want?’demanded he.‘To go, and plase you.’‘To-morrow, my lad,’replied he;‘to-night you stay where you are.’‘Why, what a bother you are making, Pat,’said one of my companions;‘you know you are going to serve the King.’‘And pray,’said I,‘who is the King? I never saw or heard of him before. How can I serve him?’‘That’s a good one,’said the one who first spoke.‘Where were you born and baptized?’‘About the bogs of Ireland,’replied I,‘and I was baptized over a bowl of buttermilk and praters by Father Murphy in a stable among a parcel of cows.’‘You’ll do,’said another;‘have you any dibbs?’‘Yes,’answered I,‘I have got two shillings andfourpence.’‘That will do. Send for a pot of the right sort, and we’ll drink a long life to Ireland.’I gave the one who spoke some money. We had our pot, drew ourselves up like pigs in a trough, and went to sleep. Next morning at daylight we were put on board a tender—not very tenderly, your honour, for I lost my waistcoat and my money, and when I complained I was forced over the ship’s side. They said the boat could not wait, as the tender was under weigh. We arrived at Plymouth about a fortnight ago, and here I am, your honour.”“Well,”said I,“if you behave yourself well and endeavour to do your duty, you will be happy[pg 193]enough; and as I brought you on board, I will, if you deserve it, keep sight of you, and in time you may become a good seaman, and perhaps a petty officer.”“Long life to your honour! I’ll be shure and take your advice.”And so he did, and in a few months after was made captain of the waist.We were now tolerably in order, and soon after joined the Channel fleet off Ushant. The second day after leaving Plymouth Sound we fell in with theFranchise, a large French frigate of thirty-six guns and three hundred and forty men, who, after exchanging a few shot without doing us any mischief, struck her colours. She was from St. Domingo, with General F. on board, bound to Brest. Her second captain appeared a very delicate young person, and during the four days he was on board he never slept in the cot provided for him in the captain’s cabin, but always threw himself down on the sofa in his clothes. We all conjectured that, as a son of Erin might say, he was a woman, which idea after the prisoners left us, was confirmed by the captain’s steward, who had been bribed to secrecy during the passage to Plymouth. The lady was the daughter of the captain of the captured frigate in disguise.Having seen our prize into Hamoaze, and taken our officers and men out of her, we left her in charge of the prize agent, and repaired to our station off Ushant. We joined the fleet, consisting of thirteen sail of the line and two frigates. We looked into Brest roads, and could discover only eight sail of the enemy’s line of battle ships, with[pg 194]their top-gallant yards crossed; nine others were coming forward. Four more sail of the line having joined our fleet, we were directed to part company and cruise off Vigo Bay. Soon after we fell in with theVenerable. Having the watch on deck, the captain desired the signalman to hoist the dog-a-tory pendant over the dinner signal. The man scratched his head and made wide eyes at one of the midshipmen, requesting him to tell him what the captain meant.“By Jove!”said the mid,“if you do not bear a hand and get the signal ready, he will make you a dog-of-a-wig instead of a Tory.”Seeing the man at a pause, I asked him if he had the signal ready.“Yes, sir,”replied he;“I have the telegraph dinner flags ready, but I do not know what the dog-a-tory pennant is; it must be in the boatswain’s store-room, for I have never had charge of it.”I could not forbear laughing at the man’s explanation.“What’s the signalman about?”inquired the captain;“why does he not hoist the signal?”“He did not know where to find the pendant you mentioned,”replied I.“I have told him you meant the interrogatory pendant.”“To be sure; I said so as plain as I could speak. The fellow must be stupid not to understand me,”continued our deeply-read skipper. A worthier, better or braver seaman than our noble commander never had the honour of commanding a King’s ship. His zeal and loyalty were unimpeachable. To hear him read the Articles of War to us once a month was, if[pg 195]not improving, most amusing. He dogrogated God’s honour with emphasis, and accused the ministers of the Church of being lethargic. Some of my messmates declared, although it was perfectly without intention on his part, that the captain in the last expression was right, for although the word was liturgy, he was justified in reading it lethargy. Respecting the other word,“dogrogation,”they had all turned over the leaves of Bailey’s ancient dictionary in vain; but they presumed the captain meant to read“derogation,”as it respected God’s honour, and they considered it as alapsus linguæ. Two of the officers’ names were Bateman and Slateman. For months after they had been on board our worthy captain did not appear to know one from the other, and we were sometimes much diverted, and they were much annoyed, by his sending for one when he meant the other. Although our cruising ground appeared a profitable one, and we were considered fortunate in being sent there, for six weeks we only made prizes of hundreds of the finny tribe by trawling off Quimper and L’Orient. This amusement, exercising guns, sails and lead, gave us full employment, and kept us out of mischief.For nearly two months we had only seen four of our cruisers, and a few of the enemy’s small craft going along shore, and although we frequently volunteered for boat service, our commander always closed his ears to our requests. He was no friend to boating, he said; it very seldom turned out[pg 196]successful, and it only answered, if it did at all, when courage was doubtful.“And if you are not men of courage,”he used to add,“you are not the men I took you for.”At length a cutter brought us orders to rejoin the Channel fleet under Lord Gardner, as the French fleet had increased to nineteen sail of the line, besides frigates. After joining, we were stationed off the Black Rocks, with four other ships, to watch Brest and the movements of the enemy’s fleet. At this time we were seventeen sail of the line and three frigates, and were very sanguine that the ships at Brest would favour us with their company, as they had been practising their firing and sailing in Brest water. We strained our eyes and imaginations in vain. There they stuck, as the seamen used to say, like theMerrydun, of Dover, which took seven years in veering, and when she did so the fly of her ensign swept two flocks of sheep off Beachy Head, while her jib-boom knocked down the steeple of Calais church and killed the sexton. Cruising on this Siberian ground was horribly monotonous work. We sincerely wished the French fleet alongside of us, or in a warmer place. On one dark night we were caught in a heavy gale from the westward. We were under close-reefed main and foretop-sails and mizzen. The ship was settling down on Ushant rapidly, and we expected to strike every moment. The rebound of the water from the rocks caused the spray to fly half-way over the decks from to leeward.[pg 197]A rock called La Jument was on our lee bow. Luckily we saw the sea breaking over it.“Port the helm!”called out one of the pilots,“or the ship’s lost. She must bear the main-sail, captain,”added he,“or we shall not weather the island, and she will strike in less than half an hour.”The main-sail was cast loose, and after a severe contest, its unwilling tack and sheet were belayed. The ship was literally buried in the foam, and I expected to see the main-mast go by the board every instant. Orders had been given, in case of such an event, to have all the axes ready. Providentially the wind veered two points to the southward, which saved the ship and her crew. Had she struck, she must instantly have gone to pieces. The rocks were so perpendicular that in all probability the whole of us must have made food for fishes. In a quarter of an hour we were clear of the island. Had we been under sentence of death, and suddenly reprieved, the effect on our minds could not have been greater. Long, anxious faces coiled themselves up to half their length and became brighter. The captain, who had been pacing the quarter-deck in quick time, brought himself up all standing, and I could perceive his lips move, and, if I mistake not, he was offering up a mental prayer of thankfulness for our hair-breadth escape. At daylight the gale abated, when, on examining the masts, the maintop-mast was found sprung in the cap. The following evening we captured two French brigs from Martinique,[pg 198]laden with sugar and coffee, and the day after a Dutch ship from Smyrna bound to Amsterdam, laden with silks and cotton, in which I went as prize-master. On our arrival at Plymouth we were put into quarantine. The boat which came out to us kept on her oars. I could not forbear smiling when I requested our letters might be sent on shore by her to see the great and certainly necessary precautions taken by these cunning people. A long kind of sprit was held up, split at the end to receive the letters. When in the boat, one man clipped them with a pair of scissors, another fumigated them with brimstone, a third bedabbled them with dirty vinegar and threw them into a leathern bag, taking care not to touch them with his hands.

On shore—Tired of inactivity—Apply for a ship—Appointed to H.M.S.Minotaur(74)—Prisoners sent on board as part of crew—Go to Plymouth—Scarcity of seamen—Ruse to impress an Irish farm labourer—Ordered to join the Channel fleet off Ushant—Capture French thirty-six-gun ship—In danger off Ushant—Capture two small French ships and one Dutch one: author sent to Plymouth in charge of the latter—Placed in quarantine.

On shore—Tired of inactivity—Apply for a ship—Appointed to H.M.S.Minotaur(74)—Prisoners sent on board as part of crew—Go to Plymouth—Scarcity of seamen—Ruse to impress an Irish farm labourer—Ordered to join the Channel fleet off Ushant—Capture French thirty-six-gun ship—In danger off Ushant—Capture two small French ships and one Dutch one: author sent to Plymouth in charge of the latter—Placed in quarantine.

After I had remained in noisy, bustling, crowded and disagreeable London a month, my mother wishing to go into Surrey, I was glad of the opportunity to accompany her and to breathe purer air, and left town without regret.

I was now under my own orders, and was much puzzled to find out how I was to obey myself. For the last ten years I had been under the control of superiors. Now I had the whole of my crew within myself, and discipline I found was necessary. I knew no more of England than it knew of me. Men and manners were equally strange to me, except those on board the different men-of-war I had served in, and they were not the most polished. In the society of the fair sex I was exceedingly shy, and my feelings were sometimes painful when I had to run the gauntlet through rows of well-dressed women, some looking as demure as a noddy at the[pg 183]masthead. I was now in my twenty-third year, and an agreeable—nay, an old lady, whose word was considered sacred—declared I was a charming young man. My life passed as monotonously as that of a clock in an old maid’s sitting-room. My habits were too active to remain long in this state of listlessness. I was almost idle enough to make love, and nearly lost my heart seven times. Caring little for the society of the men, I generally strolled over two or three fields to read my books, or to scribble sonnets on a plough, for I began to be sentimental and plaintive. Whilst meditating one morning in bed, I started up with a determination to have an interview with Sir J. Colpoys, who was one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and ask him in person for employment, for I began to be apprehensive if I remained longer on shore I should think a ship was something to eat, and the bobstay the top-sail haulyards. Three weeks after my application I was appointed to theMinotaurof seventy-four guns lying at Blackstakes, and I found it black enough, for she not having her masts stepped, we were all obliged—that is the officers—to live at the“Tap”at Shurnasty, commonly called Sheerness, where we spent thirteen out of six shillings a day, and until the ship was ready to receive us, which was nearly a fortnight, we drank elevation to the noble Secretary of the Admiralty, for, owing to his ignorance, we had been obliged to spend seven shillings daily more than our pay.

Two days after the ship was commissioned, and[pg 184]I had been carrying on the war, for I was the senior lieutenant, the gallant captain made his appearance. After touching his hat in return to my grand salaam, he said,“Hulloa, how is this? I expected to find the ship masted. I will thank you to desire the boatswain to turn the hands up to hear my commission read, and quartermaster,”addressing a dockyard matey,“go down and tell all the officers I am on board.”

“That is not a quartermaster,”said I to him,“he is one of the dockyard men.”“Then where are the quartermasters?”“We have none,”replied I,“nor have we a seaman on board except some one-legged and one-armed old Greenwich pensioners that were sent on board yesterday.”At this satisfactory intelligence he turned his eyes up like a crow in a thunderstorm, and muttered, I fear, something in the shape of a prayer for the whole Board of Admiralty. Whilst we were looking at each other not knowing what to say next, a man came up the hatchway to report that one of the Greenwich men had broken his leg.“Where is the surgeon?”said the captain.“He has not yet joined,”replied I.“We must send him to the dockyard for surgical aid. Man the boat, and you, Mr. Brown, take him on shore,”said I. Mr. Brown made one of his best bows, and acquainted me that it was the carpenter who was wanted and not the surgeon, as the man had snapped his wooden leg in one of the holes of the grating, and the carpenter’s mate was fishing it. After a pause of some minutes,“So,”[pg 185]resumed the captain,“this is the manner King’s ships are to be fitted out. Why, it will take us a month of Sundays before the lower masts are rigged. What the devil did they send those old codgers with their wooden legs here for? I will go immediately to the Admiral, and point out the state we are in.”In the afternoon another lieutenant joined the ship, junior to me. I began to think I should be the first, when on the following day I was unshipped, for two others came on board by some years my seniors. The captain also sent four young mids on board and the Admiralty two oldsters, one of whom was a sprig of nobility. On the morning of the fourth day we were masted, and a lighter came alongside filled with riggers from London, and soon afterwards we received our complement of marines, with a captain and two lieutenants. We were now beginning to get animated and to make some show, when, as I was giving an order to the boatswain, Mr. Brown, whom I ought to have introduced before as the gunner, reported a barge coming alongside with prisoners.“That is surely a mistake,”replied I;“I hope they do not take us for the prison ship.”Bump she came, stern on.“Hulloa!”I called out;“do you wish to try what the bends are made of?”Before I could say anything more, up came and stood before me, cocked-up hat in hand, a consequential, dapper little stout man dressed in black, with his hair in powder.“Please you, sir, I have brought, by the order of the magistrates at Maidstone,[pg 186]fifteen men to belong to your ship. They be all of them tolerable good men, except five, who have been condemned to be transported, and two to be hung, but as they be contrabanders like, the Government have sent down orders for ’em to be sent on board your ship.”“I am sure,”said I,“I can in the name of His Majesty’s officers offer many thanks to His Majesty’s Government for their great consideration in sending men who deserve hanging to be made sailors on board His Majesty’s ships.”He then, with a flourish, presented me a paper with their names and the offences of which they had been guilty. Nine of these honest, worthy members of society were stout, robust fellows, and had only taken what did not belong to them. Two of the remaining six had been condemned for putting brave citizens in bodily fear on the King’s highway and borrowing their purses and watches. The other four were smugglers bold, who wished to oblige their friends with a few hundreds of yards of Brussels lace and gloves, as well as some tubs of brandy, but were unfortunately interrupted in the exercise of their profession by those useless sea-beach cruisers called the Coast Guard.“Pray, sir,”said I,“to whom may I be obliged to for the safe conveyance of these honest men?”“I be the under-sheriff’s officer, sir,”answered he,“and I have had mighty hard work to bring them along.”“You deserve to be rewarded, Mr. Deputy Sheriff”(for I like to give every man his title), said I;“you would probably[pg 187]like to have a glass of grog.”“Why it’s thirsty weather, and I shall be obliged to you, sir.”I called the steward, desired he might have some refreshment, and he soon after quitted the ship, admonishing the live cargo he brought on board, who were still on the quarter-deck, to behave themselves like good men. A month had expired by the time the top-gallant masts were on end. We had received all our officers and two hundred men from Chatham and the river. At length, Greenwich pensioners, riggers, and dockyard mateys took their departure, to our great satisfaction, as it was impossible to bring the ship’s crew into discipline whilst they were on board. Our complement, including the officers, was six hundred and forty men. We had only three hundred and twenty when orders came down for us to proceed to Plymouth. The captain and first lieutenant looked very wise on this occasion, and were apprehensive that if the ship slipped the bridles she would be like an unruly horse, and run away with us, for there were only forty men on board who knew how to go aloft except a few of the marines. The pilot made his appearance, and soon afterwards down went the bridles, and we were fairly adrift. We reached the Nore, and let go the anchors in a hail squall, and it was with the greatest difficulty we got the top-sails furled. The admiral, having proof positive that we were as helpless as a cow in a jolly-boat, took compassion on us and sent fifty more men from the flag-ship, most of them able[pg 188]seamen. On the fourth day after quitting the Nore we anchored in Plymouth Sound.

I now had the delightful opportunity of once more breathing my native air, viewing beautiful Mount Edgcumbe, revelling in clotted cream and potted pilchards, tickling my palate—as Quin used to do—with John-dories, conger eels, star-gazey and squab pies, cray-fish, and sometimes, but not very often—for my purse was only half-flood in consequence of my expenses whilst on shore at the“Tap”at Sheerness—I had a drive upon Dock. The flag-ship in Hamoaze was theSalvador del Mundo, a three-decker taken from the Spaniards in the memorable battle of the fourth of February. The day after anchoring I was ordered by the captain to go with him on board theSally-waiter-de-Modo. I reflected a short time, and not knowing there was such a ship on the Navy List, turned to the first lieutenant and asked him if he had heard of such a man-of-war.“No,”said he, smiling,“the captain chooses to call her so; he means the flag-ship.”On repairing on board her, my commander said to me,“You help me to look at those fellows’ phizes,”pointing to a number of men who were toeing the seam on her quarter-deck.“I am to take thirty of them; they are queer-looking chaps, and I do not much like the cut of their jib. But mind,”added he,“don’t take any one that has not a large quid of tobacco in his cheek.”

I went up to the second man, who had a double[pg 189]allowance of Virginia or some other weed in his gill, the captain following me.“Well, my man,”said I,“how long have you been to sea?”“Four months,”was the reply.“Why, you d——d rascal,”said our skipper—for observe, reader, he never swore—“what the devil business have you with such a quantity of tobacco in your mouth? I thought you were an old sailor.”“No, sir,”answered the man,“my trade is a tailor, but I have chawed bacca from my infancy.”“Question another,”was my order. I interrogated the next, who was a short, slight, pale-faced man.“And pray,”said I,“what part of the play have you been performing; were you ever at sea?”“No, sir,”said he;“I am a hairdresser, and was pressed a week ago.”“D——n these fellows!”said my captain;“they are all tailors, barbers, or grass-combers. I want seamen.”

“Then,”said Captain N., who was the flag-captain, and had just come on board,“I much fear you will be disappointed. These are the only disposable men, and it’s Hobson’s choice—those or none.”

“The admiral promised me some good seamen,”returned my skipper, rather quickly.“Then I fear the admiral must find them,”was the answer,“as I have not more than twenty seamen on board besides the petty officers. The last were drafted a few days ago in theDefiance. Will you take any of these men, Captain W.?”“What do you think,”said my captain to me;“shall we take any of[pg 190]them?”“Suppose,”returned I,“we take twenty of them and the tailor; they will all fit in in time.”I then picked out twenty of the best, who were bad enough, as they were the worst set I ever saw grouped. Their appearance and dress were wretched in the extreme. I reached the ship before the hour of dinner with my live cargo.“What, more hard bargains,”said the firstlieutenant,“we have too many clodhoppers on board already. The captain told me we were to have seamen.”“Captain N.,”said I,“assured our noble captain that theDefiancehad taken all the A.B.’s.”“D——n theDefiance!”replied he;“IdefyCaptain N. or anybody else to match those gentlemanly ragamuffins.”The master’s mates were called, and they were given into their charge.

One of them, a tall, large-boned man, requested to remain on deck a little longer as he had a palpitation of the heart.“What country man are you?”said I.“Shure,”answered he,“I’m all the way from dear ould Ireland, and I don’t think I shall be arter seeing the bogs again; but good luck to her, wherever she goes!”“What did you do there?”said I.“Och,”said he,“why do I give all this trouble and what business have I here? In Ireland, plase your honour, I planted praters and tended cows. In the hay season I came to England and was employed in stacking, when one day, as I was taking a walk in a field near Lunnen, I fell in with four men who asked me to join them as they were going to a public-house[pg 191]to have something to drink. I thought this was very civil to a stranger. After taking the first pot they told me they intended going in a boat on the river, and asked me if I could pull an oar.‘I’ll try,’said I.‘Well,’said they,‘on Saturday, at five o’clock in the evening, be down at Wapping Stairs and you will see a green painted boat with six men in her. I will be ready to meet you,’said one of the most good-natured,‘and we will have a pleasant trip.’I little thought, your honour, that these spalpeens, saving your presence, intended anything more than friendship. I was at the place pointed out, and stepped into the boat. I took the second oar, but I caught so many crabs that I was desired to sit in the stern. We pulled up the river, which I thought very pleasant. In returning, the man who steered said he had a message to deliver on board a dark-looking vessel we were close to. We got alongside of her.‘Won’t you go up, Pat?’said he;‘you never was on board so large a vessel; she is worth looking at.’I went up after him, when a man dressed in a blue coat with yellow buttons came up to me and told me to go below. Saying this, he called to another, who told me he would show me the way, which he soon did, and I was forced into a dark place where I found seven more half-ragged, half-starved looking animals. Two of them were countrymen.‘Who have we here?’said one of them.‘I am all the way from Ireland,’said I,‘and I have come to see this ship.’‘The devil you have, my honey; and what do you[pg 192]come here for?’‘Shure enough,’replied I,‘that’s true. I’ll go and see arter my frinds.’At this they all laughed. I went to the door, but found a sodjer there with a drawn sword.‘What do you want?’demanded he.‘To go, and plase you.’‘To-morrow, my lad,’replied he;‘to-night you stay where you are.’‘Why, what a bother you are making, Pat,’said one of my companions;‘you know you are going to serve the King.’‘And pray,’said I,‘who is the King? I never saw or heard of him before. How can I serve him?’‘That’s a good one,’said the one who first spoke.‘Where were you born and baptized?’‘About the bogs of Ireland,’replied I,‘and I was baptized over a bowl of buttermilk and praters by Father Murphy in a stable among a parcel of cows.’‘You’ll do,’said another;‘have you any dibbs?’‘Yes,’answered I,‘I have got two shillings andfourpence.’‘That will do. Send for a pot of the right sort, and we’ll drink a long life to Ireland.’I gave the one who spoke some money. We had our pot, drew ourselves up like pigs in a trough, and went to sleep. Next morning at daylight we were put on board a tender—not very tenderly, your honour, for I lost my waistcoat and my money, and when I complained I was forced over the ship’s side. They said the boat could not wait, as the tender was under weigh. We arrived at Plymouth about a fortnight ago, and here I am, your honour.”“Well,”said I,“if you behave yourself well and endeavour to do your duty, you will be happy[pg 193]enough; and as I brought you on board, I will, if you deserve it, keep sight of you, and in time you may become a good seaman, and perhaps a petty officer.”“Long life to your honour! I’ll be shure and take your advice.”And so he did, and in a few months after was made captain of the waist.

We were now tolerably in order, and soon after joined the Channel fleet off Ushant. The second day after leaving Plymouth Sound we fell in with theFranchise, a large French frigate of thirty-six guns and three hundred and forty men, who, after exchanging a few shot without doing us any mischief, struck her colours. She was from St. Domingo, with General F. on board, bound to Brest. Her second captain appeared a very delicate young person, and during the four days he was on board he never slept in the cot provided for him in the captain’s cabin, but always threw himself down on the sofa in his clothes. We all conjectured that, as a son of Erin might say, he was a woman, which idea after the prisoners left us, was confirmed by the captain’s steward, who had been bribed to secrecy during the passage to Plymouth. The lady was the daughter of the captain of the captured frigate in disguise.

Having seen our prize into Hamoaze, and taken our officers and men out of her, we left her in charge of the prize agent, and repaired to our station off Ushant. We joined the fleet, consisting of thirteen sail of the line and two frigates. We looked into Brest roads, and could discover only eight sail of the enemy’s line of battle ships, with[pg 194]their top-gallant yards crossed; nine others were coming forward. Four more sail of the line having joined our fleet, we were directed to part company and cruise off Vigo Bay. Soon after we fell in with theVenerable. Having the watch on deck, the captain desired the signalman to hoist the dog-a-tory pendant over the dinner signal. The man scratched his head and made wide eyes at one of the midshipmen, requesting him to tell him what the captain meant.“By Jove!”said the mid,“if you do not bear a hand and get the signal ready, he will make you a dog-of-a-wig instead of a Tory.”Seeing the man at a pause, I asked him if he had the signal ready.“Yes, sir,”replied he;“I have the telegraph dinner flags ready, but I do not know what the dog-a-tory pennant is; it must be in the boatswain’s store-room, for I have never had charge of it.”I could not forbear laughing at the man’s explanation.“What’s the signalman about?”inquired the captain;“why does he not hoist the signal?”“He did not know where to find the pendant you mentioned,”replied I.“I have told him you meant the interrogatory pendant.”“To be sure; I said so as plain as I could speak. The fellow must be stupid not to understand me,”continued our deeply-read skipper. A worthier, better or braver seaman than our noble commander never had the honour of commanding a King’s ship. His zeal and loyalty were unimpeachable. To hear him read the Articles of War to us once a month was, if[pg 195]not improving, most amusing. He dogrogated God’s honour with emphasis, and accused the ministers of the Church of being lethargic. Some of my messmates declared, although it was perfectly without intention on his part, that the captain in the last expression was right, for although the word was liturgy, he was justified in reading it lethargy. Respecting the other word,“dogrogation,”they had all turned over the leaves of Bailey’s ancient dictionary in vain; but they presumed the captain meant to read“derogation,”as it respected God’s honour, and they considered it as alapsus linguæ. Two of the officers’ names were Bateman and Slateman. For months after they had been on board our worthy captain did not appear to know one from the other, and we were sometimes much diverted, and they were much annoyed, by his sending for one when he meant the other. Although our cruising ground appeared a profitable one, and we were considered fortunate in being sent there, for six weeks we only made prizes of hundreds of the finny tribe by trawling off Quimper and L’Orient. This amusement, exercising guns, sails and lead, gave us full employment, and kept us out of mischief.

For nearly two months we had only seen four of our cruisers, and a few of the enemy’s small craft going along shore, and although we frequently volunteered for boat service, our commander always closed his ears to our requests. He was no friend to boating, he said; it very seldom turned out[pg 196]successful, and it only answered, if it did at all, when courage was doubtful.“And if you are not men of courage,”he used to add,“you are not the men I took you for.”At length a cutter brought us orders to rejoin the Channel fleet under Lord Gardner, as the French fleet had increased to nineteen sail of the line, besides frigates. After joining, we were stationed off the Black Rocks, with four other ships, to watch Brest and the movements of the enemy’s fleet. At this time we were seventeen sail of the line and three frigates, and were very sanguine that the ships at Brest would favour us with their company, as they had been practising their firing and sailing in Brest water. We strained our eyes and imaginations in vain. There they stuck, as the seamen used to say, like theMerrydun, of Dover, which took seven years in veering, and when she did so the fly of her ensign swept two flocks of sheep off Beachy Head, while her jib-boom knocked down the steeple of Calais church and killed the sexton. Cruising on this Siberian ground was horribly monotonous work. We sincerely wished the French fleet alongside of us, or in a warmer place. On one dark night we were caught in a heavy gale from the westward. We were under close-reefed main and foretop-sails and mizzen. The ship was settling down on Ushant rapidly, and we expected to strike every moment. The rebound of the water from the rocks caused the spray to fly half-way over the decks from to leeward.[pg 197]A rock called La Jument was on our lee bow. Luckily we saw the sea breaking over it.“Port the helm!”called out one of the pilots,“or the ship’s lost. She must bear the main-sail, captain,”added he,“or we shall not weather the island, and she will strike in less than half an hour.”The main-sail was cast loose, and after a severe contest, its unwilling tack and sheet were belayed. The ship was literally buried in the foam, and I expected to see the main-mast go by the board every instant. Orders had been given, in case of such an event, to have all the axes ready. Providentially the wind veered two points to the southward, which saved the ship and her crew. Had she struck, she must instantly have gone to pieces. The rocks were so perpendicular that in all probability the whole of us must have made food for fishes. In a quarter of an hour we were clear of the island. Had we been under sentence of death, and suddenly reprieved, the effect on our minds could not have been greater. Long, anxious faces coiled themselves up to half their length and became brighter. The captain, who had been pacing the quarter-deck in quick time, brought himself up all standing, and I could perceive his lips move, and, if I mistake not, he was offering up a mental prayer of thankfulness for our hair-breadth escape. At daylight the gale abated, when, on examining the masts, the maintop-mast was found sprung in the cap. The following evening we captured two French brigs from Martinique,[pg 198]laden with sugar and coffee, and the day after a Dutch ship from Smyrna bound to Amsterdam, laden with silks and cotton, in which I went as prize-master. On our arrival at Plymouth we were put into quarantine. The boat which came out to us kept on her oars. I could not forbear smiling when I requested our letters might be sent on shore by her to see the great and certainly necessary precautions taken by these cunning people. A long kind of sprit was held up, split at the end to receive the letters. When in the boat, one man clipped them with a pair of scissors, another fumigated them with brimstone, a third bedabbled them with dirty vinegar and threw them into a leathern bag, taking care not to touch them with his hands.

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