the many tricks and pranks I played my
poor old grandmother and my aunt; but I
passed my time at Boston till the beginning
of the year 1790, when I got acquainted with
a young man by the name of William Jackson,
and his father was mate of a brig
belonging to Boston, and they wanted an
apprentice, and I persuaded my poor old
grandmother to let me go a voyage upon trial, which
I did, and it being summer-time, and fine
weather, and I liked it so well, that when we
returned to Boston, I was bound apprentice for
seven years, to Mr. Ingelow; and I was put on
board of a brig called the "Joseph and Ann."
The master of the brig, a man, called William
Turner, was a very good man, as far as
seamanship goes; but he was in other respects
a man of very bad morals; and me being
young and giddy, I did not gain anything
by it, for what good qualities I had
belonging to me were soon lost; for I had
always been used to say my prayers night
and morning, and at my meals; but, seeing
no one else do it, I soon forgot it, and I
thought within myself I should do as well as
the rest.

Our first voyage, after I joined the brig, was
from Boston to London with a cargo of oats,
and, thanks be to God, we got there safe, as
many ships were lost, for it blew a gale of wind
nearly the whole three weeks we were on our
passage; for it was in the month of November,
and I wished myself many times back again
in Boston along with my old grandmother;
but I soon forgot it all when I came to
London; for, when we got there, our captain
got a freight to go to Naples, up the
Mediterranean, to carry a cargo of pilchards from
Falmouth. When I heard that we were going
to a foreign country, I forgot all the troubles
of my former voyage, and I was glad to go.
We proceeded on our voyage to Falmouth,
and I got on middling well; we sailed from
Falmouth as soon as the convoy was ready,
and I left the Land's End of old England the
last day of the year 1790, and, thanks be to
God, we arrived safe at Naples after a passage
of six weeks. I don't wish to trouble the
reader with an account of the different places
we traded to, but we stood up the Mediterranean,
trading from one place to another till
the year 1794, when we got a freight for
London, where we arrived safe in August the
same year, and, after discharging our cargo, our
brig was obliged to go into dock to get repaired,
and when that was done, we went down to
Boston; when we got there I found that my
grandmother was dead, and my aunt was going
to live at Hull. What property my
grandmother had left was left to me; but, being
young and foolish, I soon got clear of it all;
and our brig being bound to London again,
where we arrived at the beginning of 1795,
and we got a freight to go to Cardiff in Wales,
to get a cargo of iron to take to Gibraltar.
We sailed from London in the beginning of
March, and we had a strong north-east gale
to drive us down Channel: and when we got
to the Land's End of England, the wind was
against us, for we were bound up the Bristol
Channel; so we were obliged to keep the ship
off and on in Mount's Bay till the weather
moderated, for it blew a heavy gale of wind
from the north north-east.

Now, I forgot to mention how many hands
we carried in the brig when we sailed from
London; we had eight on board, altogether,—
namely, the master and mate, four men before
the mast, and two boys; and we had the
misfortune to lose one man overboard when we got
underweigh in the Downs; so there were but
seven left on board when our misfortune
happened, which was on the 17th day of March,
about two o'clock in the morning, when, standing
off the land, we struck upon a rock called
the Randell Stone, which lays in Mount's Bay,
about three or four miles off the land; and it
blowing a heavy gale of wind, and at the same
time a heavy sea running, our poor old brig
soon went to pieces; but, thanks be to God
Almighty, who allowed us time enough to get
our long-boat out before the mast went out of
her, and six of us, out of the seven, got safe into
her before the brig went to pieces; the other
man must have been knocked overboard when
the mast fell, for we could see nothing of
him, for it was very dark; and we that were in
the boat saved nothing, only what we had on;
and I had the misfortune of losing my shoes
off my feet in getting into the boat. After
we got clear of the wreck we tried our best to
get the boat in-shore, but it blowing so hard,
we could not hold our own; and, when
daylight came, we found ourselves about six or
seven miles from the land, and still drifting
out as fast as we could. The weather being
clear, we could see the Islands of Scilly to
leeward of us, and our master being a man that
had been brought up in the coasting trade,
was well acquainted, for he had been several
times in the Scilly Islands; so we determined
to bear up for a place called Grimsby, and our
master intended to go through a place called
the Crow Sound; but our misfortune was
not complete yet, for it being nearly high
water by the time we got near the Island, and
the rocks being nearly all covered, our master
mistook the channel, and we were hove in
among the breakers, though we tried our best
to get clear of them; and the second sea that
struck us capsized our boat, and I found
myself hove against a middling steep rock,
where, by God's help, I contrived to hold on;
and, having no shoes on, I got up to the top
of the rock, where I could see my shipmates
trying to get; but only one succeeded in getting
up, and that was our old mate, a man nearly
sixty years of age, and he kicked off his shoes
before he succeeded in getting where I was:
and here, now, I had a great cause to be
thankful to the Almighty Giver of all
mercies for his providential care over me in
making me lose my shoes before I left the
brig; for what I thought the greatest mis-