seven gallons; and, as I told you before, the
Frenchmen's friends fetched plenty of bread
and other things on board, we found a pretty
good stock of it, enough, with care, to last us
two or three days, by which time we expected,
with God's help, to be in England. And after
getting one of the privateer's compasses into
the boat, we were all ready; but it would not
do for us to start before the rounds had been,
which was a guard-boat that pulled round
the harbour once a night; so we dropped our
boat a-stern again, and laid down quietly till
the guard-boat was past, which came round
about ten o'clock in the morning. And our
Guernsey man was lucky enough to hear the
watchword for the morning; for in going out
of the harbour, we had to pass close to a fort
on our starboard hand, and the sentry was
sure to hail you to ask the countersign. So
after the guard-boat was gone, and everything
was quiet, we started, and we passed the
fort about three o'clock in the morning; and,
thanks be to God, we got clear of the mouth
of the harbour long before daylight. Now
the wind, when we left the harbour, was about
east-south-east, and we being bound to the
northward, we had a fair wind and a fine
breeze; and we all expected to have made some
part of England by the next day; but our
hopes were very soon all frustrated, for towards
the middle part of our first day at sea,
the wind came round to the north-east, and
from there to north-north-east; and it came
to blow very hard, and we were obliged to
close-reef our sails, and lay as close to the
wind as we could: and we made our course
nearly north-west, which was four points off
our course that we intended to steer for. It
blew very hard all night, and it was very cold,
and you may depend we were all very glad
when it pleased the Almighty to send us daylight
once more; but we could not see anything
of any ship or land, and we all sat down to
eat our scanty breakfast; but before we sat
down, we all went to prayers to return thanks
to God for preserving us during the night,
and hoping that the Almighty would protect
us during the day.

After we had done our breakfast, the
wind lulling a bit, we shook one reef out
of our foresail. But not to tire my reader
with everything that we done; we stayed
in this condition for four days, the weather
being very thick and hazy, and very
little wind. We saw a large ship close by
us, and being all hands very weak, we got
our oars out, and pulled after the ship, which
at last we accomplished; and she proved to
be a ship belonging to Bremen, with emigrants
from Hanover; for the French had drove
them out of their country, and they were
bound to Baltimore, in America. When we
first got alongside of the ship, the people on
board of her came to the gangway, and
seemed quite surprised to see so many poor
wretched-looking men in so small a boat;
for our boat was only twenty-five feet long;
and they asked us in German where we
came from, and what we wanted. Now, I
being the only one that could understand
a little of the German language, which I
learned at the time that I belonged to the
Hamburgh ship that I mentioned, I told
them that we were Englishmen that had run
away from a French prison. As soon as they
heard it, they told us to come up; and you
may depend we were glad to hear that; and
we tried our best to get up, but we could not,
for we were so weak, and so cold, that we
could not stand upon our legs. So the captain
seeing this, he was kind enough to send some
of the crew into the boat to help us, and they
were obliged to haul us up the ship's side
with ropes; and, thanks be to God, we all
got safely on board; and a miserable set we
were, for we had been nearly five days in a
small open boat, and when we started we had
scarcely provisions enough to last us two
days; and then to be exposed in the month
of January to a cold north-east wind, and
plenty of snow beating about us; so you may
depend we were in a very bad state; and if
they had given us the ship and all her cargo,
we could not stand upon our legs. But the
captain and the passengers were very kind to
us; and the doctor had us put to bed as soon
as he could, and they gave me a little sago
and some wine, and I soon fell into a sound
sleep, from which I did not awake till the
next day; and, thanks be to God, and the
good people's care, I was able to come on
deck in four or five days' time; but we
had the misfortune to lose three of my
companions, who died the day after we were
picked up.

And now there being only six of us left, and
some of them were a long time before they
got well; but, in eight or ten days' time, I was
as well as ever I was; and I was able to be of
some service to my preservers; for we falling
in with some very squally weather, we split a
good many of our sails, and I being a middling
good sail-maker, I was able to repair them,
which pleased the captain very much. Now
the captain had been kind enough to hoist
our boat in, and she being a very good boat,
the captain asked me if I would sell the boat
to him; for I being the only one that could
speak any German, is the reason the captain
asked me. I told him that if he thought the
boat was of any use to him, he might have
her and welcome; for, in my opinion, we
owed him a great deal more than the value
of the boat, for his kindness towards us all.
But he said he would not have the boat at
that price, for he had done no more than his
duty; but, as we were very short of clothing,
he would give us a suit of clothes and a
couple of shirts a-piece out of the slop chest
for the boat, to which I agreed at once, and
thanked him very kindly for his kind offer;
and he gave us our clothes; and in fact every
one on board of that ship behaved better
than if we had been their own brothers; and