and the captain told rne that, if I liked, I
could stay on board of his ship all the time
that the ship lay in Port Royal, or till I got
another ship. We arrived in Port Royal on
the 28th day of August, 1804; and I was
obliged to go on shore the next day to go to
the consul, and tell all that I knew about the
loss of the "Sprightly" brig. The brig being
insured, I received the wages that was due to
me to the time she was lost, which amounted
to about one hundred and eighty dollars; so
I was able to lay myself in a good stock of
clothes, which I wanted very much; and I
stayed on board the "Big Ann" till the 15th
day of September, when I shipped on board
of a ship belonging to Liverpool, called the
"King George." She was bound to the Coast
of Africa, for a cargo of slaves; she was a
fine ship, mounting eighteen guns, and carried
eighty men; and she had a letter-of-marque
commission for to fight her own way. We
sailed from Port Royal the latter part of
September, and we had a very pleasant
passage across the Trades, and we arrived on the
Coast of Africa at a place called Anne Bone,
the latter part of November; and we traded
up and down the coast till we got our cargo,
which we completed by the beginning of
February, 1805; but just before we sailed,
our captain got information, by a ship that
arrived there, that two French frigates were
cruising in their track, from the Coast of
Africa to the West Indies; so our captain
altered his mind, and, in room of going to the
West Indies, we steered for Rio de Janeiro on
the Coast of the Brazils, where we arrived on
the 15th day of April, 1805; and as soon as
we got our cargo of slaves out, and our ship
cleaned, we took in a cargo of sugar for Liverpool,
and we sailed from Rio de Janeiro the
last day of May, and we were bound for
Liverpool; and we had a very good passage;
though rather a long one, for we were
becalmed for twelve days, in what is called the
"Horse latitudes;" that was just after we had
crossed the line; but afterwards we got a fine
breeze across the North-east Trades, till the
17th day of July, when we fell in with a fleet
of English men-of-war. The time of our
letter-of-marque commission being expired,
they came on board of us, and pressed forty
men out of us; and I was pressed among the
rest, and sent on board of the "Spashot," of
seventy-four guns.

So there I was, once more, on board of
an English man-of-war; and I hailed for
a foreigner, and I said that I belonged
to Hamburgh, in Germany, thinking that I
should get clear; but it would not do; they
would not let me go; so when I found I
could not get clear, I contented myself and
tried to make the best of a bad bargain. We
kept cruising at sea, looking out for French
or Spanish ships, till the month of October,
when Admiral Nelson joined the fleet with
some more ships; and then we were stationed
off Cadiz, till the glorious twenty-first of
October, when we brought the French and
Spanish fleet to action; and we had pretty
warm work while it lasted, but, thanks be to
God, we beat them and gained the victory.
And after the action I was sent on board of
one of the prizes, a Spanish seventy-four; and
she had lost her fore and mizen-mast by the
board, and it being late in the afternoon
before we got on board of her, and got the
prisoners secured and exchanged, it was
nearly night before we could begin rigging
our jury, fore, and mizen-mast; but by
daylight next morning we got our fore and
mizen standing; but they proved of very
little use to us, for, it coming on a gale
of wind, we soon lost our jury-mast again,
and we were driving as fast as we could
towards the Spanish shore. It is bad enough
to be on a lee-shore in a gale of wind at any
time, but especially when that lee-shore is an
enemy's coast; but we found that, if the gale
continued, we should have to go on shore
before morning; so our commanding officer
thought best to run her on shore whilst it
was daylight. To effect this, we had to get
the ship before the wind, which we could not
effect without cutting away the main-mast,
which we were obliged to do, and then setting
a spritsail upon the bowsprit, we got the ship
before the wind; and as soon as we got the ship
before the wind we opened the hatches to let
our prisoners come up, so that the poor fellows
could look out to save their own lives; but
the ship ran upon a sandy beach, but, thanks
be to God, being nearly a new ship, and very
strong built, she kept together, and she soon
worked herself broadside on; and us on board,
heaving all the starboard guns overboard, and
rolling all the shot we could get at, or any
heavy thing, over to the larboard side, we made
shift to give her good list in-shore. And
the ship having worked herself broadside on,
and well in to the sand, we contrived to get
ashore under her lee; which we did by
cutting her port gangway and hammock
nettings away, and launching her boom-
boats; which we effected, after a good deal
of trouble, and by which I got my right leg
and my arm hurt a good deal, which laid
me up for some time afterwards. Now, after
we got the boats baled out, we sent the
prisoners ashore first, and then followed
ourselves afterwards; and by four o'clock the
next morning—that is to say, the 23rd day
of October—we all got safe on shore.

Now the Spanish prisoners, that had come
on shore first, some of them had been and
seen their friends and, as daylight came on,
they came down to assist us; which they
did, for they brought us some bread, and
some figs, and some wine, to refresh us;
which we wanted very much, for we had
scarcely tasted anything the last twenty-four
hours; and the Spaniards behaved very kind
to us. As for myself, after I had eaten some
bread and fruit, and drank some wine, I tried
to get up, but I could not; and one of the