We stayed on the coast till the beginning
of May, 1814, when we fell in with an English
brig from London, who brought us the news
of the Peace, and of Buonaparte giving
himself up; and the brig brought us some
newspapers, and some letters for the captain and
officers, for she had been to Sierra Leone.
You may depend we were all very glad to
hear of the news of Peace; and the next
morning we went to sea, and shaped our
course for Portsmouth, where we arrived on
the 20th of July. Now, when we got home
an order was issued from the Admiralty that
all men that had served eleven years, and all
foreigners, were to be discharged. Now, I
being entered as a foreigner on the ship's
books, I claimed my discharge; and I got my
discharge from the service on the 2nd of
August, 1814; and I went to Portsmouth
Dockyard to get my pay, and as soon as I
got it I went to the coach-office and booked
myself for London.

By six o'clock that evening I was on my
journey, and I arrived safe at the Elephant
and Castle by seven o'clock in the morning,
after being away from London a little better
than twelve years. I was well and hearty
after all my trials and crosses; and, as soon
as I got some breakfast, I went to Vine Yard,
to see Mr. Bland; but, when I got there,
Mr. Bland was not at home, but Mrs. Bland
was. I soon told her who I was, and asked
her where my boy was. She told me that the
boy was very well, and that he was at school;
but she soon sent for him. And I told her
not to tell him who I was, for I wanted to
surprise him myself. At last, when he came
into the room where I was, I could see a good
deal of his mother's face in him, and it was
not long before I had him in my arms, for I
could not keep myself from him; and the
poor boy, when he was told that I was his
father, fell a crying; but he still crept close
to me, and we soon all got reconciled together.
And, when Mr. Bland came in, we past
the day away in talking over past affairs;
and the next day me and Mr. Bland settled
our accounts together, and I went to Mr.
Scovell. I found that I still had better than
a hundred pounds in his hands; and, after
all that was settled, I thanked Mr. Scovell
for the kindness that he had shown me, and I
asked his advice what I had best do.

He told me that I had best not enter into
any sort of business at present, till I saw how
things would turn out, for the Peace had
made a great stagnation in trade; but, if I
liked, I might go to work at any of his
wharfs, and he would allow me twenty-five
shillings a week to go as boatswain at Topping
Wharf, in Tooley Street, and I agreed with
him.

I began to make myself quite comfortable,
when an accident happened. On the 15th day
of September, when we were in the act of
lowering a cask of sugar into a brig's hold,
one of the handles of the crane came off, and
struck me with such a force that it knocked
me down for dead. And, as soon as Mr.
Scovell was acquainted with it, I was sent to
Guy's Hospital, and there I remained for five
months; and at last I recovered, and came
out of the Hospital the last day of February,
1815; but I was a long time before I had
strength enough to go to work; and Mr.
Scovell was kind enough to allow me twelve
shillings a week, after I came out of the
hospital, for keeping watch, at night, at the
wharf; and here I continued.

In the middle of May I fell in with an old
shipmate of mine that had been a master's mate
along with me in the " Spitfire," and he was
master of a new bark called the " X. Y. Z.,"
and he was bound to Riga, and he wanted a
second mate; and when I told him my
circumstances he persuaded me to go along with
him. So I went. We had a very fine
passage across the North Sea, and we arrived
at Riga the 10th of July; and, as soon as our
cargo was discharged, we commenced taking
in our cargo for London.

On the 5th of September, it being Sunday
morning, the breeze having nearly died away
to a calm, the captain ordered me to call the
mate; for he said that he had smelled fire. We
all smelled it too. I advised the captain that
the best thing we could do was to get the
boats out before we opened any of our
hatches. Accordingly we turned the hands
up, and got the boats out, and put oars and
sails in them, and then we took one hatch off;
but no sooner had we done this, but a good
deal of smoke came up the hatchway. We
roused some of the bales of flax on deck, for
we were laden with flax, hemp, and tallow;
and we mustered all buckets, and began to
heave water down the place where the smoke
came from. And our mate thinking that if
the after hatchway was open, he would be
able to heave some water down there; but
no sooner were the after hatches taken off,
but the flames struck up the after part, and
in a very few minutes our main rigging was
in a blaze. And now all chance of saving the
ship was over, for the fire spread rapidly.
The middle part of the ship being on fire, those
that were aft could not get forward, and
those that were forward could not get aft; so
we found it a great blessing that we got our
boats out. So all hands got into the boats,
and we had a chance to save some of our
clothes, and some provision and water, which
we put into the long boat. Now there were
fifteen of us, men and boys altogether, and we
divided ourselves in the three boats— that is
the long boat, pinnace, and jolly-boat; and
we lay by the ship till she was burnt to the
water's edge.

When the accident happened to us, we
could see an island in the East Sea that
belongs to the Danes, for which we pulled,
taking the boats in too. But the people on
the island seeing the fire at sea, the governor
of the island sent two boats to our assistance,