man that she had for a bar-keeper had cheated
her. I told her that I would do it with pleasure;
for, thanks be to God, my leg was
getting nearly well; and, on overhauling her
book, I found a great many frauds. And
when the man was asked about it, he said
that he would settle everything in the morning;
but that night he ran away, and took
nearly fifty dollars, that he had received from
different people, along with him; and we
never saw no more of him. Now my leg, as
I told you before, was nearly well; and she
asked me if I would be kind enough to look
after her bar; and, after a little consideration,
I consented. And I showed her what money
I had of my own before I had anything to do
with her money; and she agreed to give me
twenty dollars a month, and my board; and
I went and took charge of everything. But,
to make a long story short, before I had
been her bar-keeper two months, I became
her husband; for I married her the 5th
of April, 1822; and, thanks be to God, a
very good wife she proved to be. And I
began to look upon myself as settled; and
I wrote a letter to my son and to Mr.
Mellish; telling Mr. Mellish that, if he
thought my son deserved it, or stood in need
of it, to let him have the sixty pounds that
I put in his hands when I was paid off from
the " Policy."

I was beginning to do very well; but we
appoint, and the Almighty disappoints; for,
the sickly season setting in very severe, my
wife, my dearest Martha, caught the fever,
and died in three days after she was taken
bad; and I buried her on the 25th of July,
1822. I had not been long at home before I
was taken bad, and the doctor advised me to
go to the hospital, which I accordingly did;
but, before I went to the Hospital, I had my
house shut up, and I left what goods there
were in charge of my late wife's sister; and I
took about two hundred dollars, in notes,
along with me in the hospital. I stayed in
the hospital about six weeks, when it pleased
God to let me recover and get to my senses
again; for I had been out of my mind nearly
all the time that I had been there. And, when I
came to inquire after my late wife's sister,
I was obliged to hear that she died about four
days after I had gone into the hospital. But
I soon got better, and I came out of the
hospital on the 1st day of October; and I
felt myself very weak when I came out into
the fresh air. And when I got home to
where I had lived, I found an empty house;
for, after my sister-in-law died, everything
was taken out of the house, and was ordered
to be burnt. So here I was again, nearly as
bad as I was when I first came to New
Orleans; and I began to take a dislike to the
place, and I intended to leave it as soon as I
could; and the very next day I shipped
myself on board the " Friendship; " and we
sailed from New Orleans, the 10th day of
October, for Campeachy, to take in a cargo
of logwood, to take to London; and, thanks
be to God, I got quite well again. And we
soon got our cargo; and we sailed from
Campeachy the 2nd of November, and we
had a very good passage home, as far as the
English Channel, when the wind got round to
the eastward, which delayed us three or four
weeks. Our provisions got very short, and
especially our water; and, our ship being
very leaky, we were obliged to put into
Falmouth harbour, where we discharged all
her cargo; and the owners came down to
Falmouth, and, finding that the ship wanted
a great deal of repair, they paid the crew
their wages, and I was discharged on the 5th
day of January, 1823. Now, it being the dead
of the winter, and, knowing that there would
be very few ships, in London, to be got at
that time of the year, I shipped myself on
board of a brig, belonging to Bangor, in Wales,
called the " Jane Ellen; " and she was bound
up the Straits, to Smyrna, with a cargo of
pilchards. And we sailed from Falmouth the
12th of January; and, thanks be to God, we
had a very good passage out to Smyrna, and
we arrived there the 3rd day of March; and
we kept trading from one place to another
till the latter part of 1824; and nothing
particular happened during that time. And,
thanks be to God, I was in good health;
when, on the 10th of October, 1824—when we
were lying at Cephalonia—our captain got a
freight for London to take a cargo of currants
there; and, when we got our cargo in, we
sailed from Cephalonia, on the 24th of
October. And we had a very good passage
down as far as the rock of Gibraltar, where
we were obliged to lay wind-bound for several
days, for it blew a very heavy gale of wind;
but, thanks be to God, we held on, though a
great many ships parted from their anchors
and were driven on shore; but, on the 10th
of December it moderated, and we got underway,
and, thanks be God, we arrived safe
at the Downs on the 24th of December.

Our master being eager to get something
fresh on board for Christmas Day, for dinner,
he sent me on shore, in one of the Deal boats,
to get something; for the master himself
was very poorly, and he was not able to
go. And I had been mate of the brig for
about eighteen months,—for we lost our mate,
that came out from England with us, at
Smyrna, by sickness; so ashore I went. And
when I left the brig the weather looked very
fair, for the time of the year, and the wind
was about west by south; but we scarcely got
on shore when the wind shifted round to the
south-south-east, and it came on to blow
tremendous hard, and a heavy sea came tumbling
in upon the beach. And I wanted the watermen
to go off at once, but they refused to go
off till low water, which was about three
o'clock in the afternoon, and when I landed,
it was about eleven o'clock in the forenoon;
and the weather came on in thick snow
showers; and two of the Deal boats tried to