then the fleet went to the Cove of Cork, and
from there we went a-cruising off the Land's
End, and from there we were ordered to
Spithead, where we arrived on the 2nd of
September; and one of our gunners' mates
being invalided, I was made gunners' mate in
his room; and here we got a new captain;
he was a very good man, and I got on very
well. Now, about this time, the Dutch disturbance
broke out, and we were sent into the
North Sea again, to cruise off the Texel, to
stop all Dutch ships that were coming home;
and we stopped a good many, and sent them to
Sheerness. We stopped here till the 5th of
February, 1833, when we were ordered to go
to Chatham to refit. And whilst at Chatham,
fitting out, I got married to an old widow
woman, who was nearly my own age, and a
very good wife I found she was; and I married
her on account that she had a heavy
family to bring up, and I thought I could do
no better with my money than to assist the
widow and the fatherless; and, thanks be to
God, I have never missed it.

Now, after our ship was fitted out, we were
ordered to go to Lisbon, where we arrived on
the 12th of June, and from there we were
ordered to go to Oporto to lay off the bar; and
our captain, God bless him, was kind enough
to make me quarter-master. And on the 13th
of September, I having the middle watch on
deck, that is, from twelve o'clock at night till
four o'clock next morning, our butcher—his
name was Henry Ellis—was very bad in the
sick bay; and the sick bay men came to me,
about two o'clock, telling me that Ellis, the
butcher, was very bad, and that he wanted to
see me; and after asking permission from the
officer of the watch, I went down to the sick
bay, and I found Ellis very bad, for the doctor
did not expect he would live till the morning.
And Ellis asked me to grant him one favour,
and he being in the state that he was in, I
could not well refuse him; and I told him
that anything that laid in my power I would
do for him, and he asked me to speak to the
captain, to have him buried on shore, for "I
know I can't live much longer." And then,
getting hold of my hand, he said to me, "Swear
that if it ever lay in your power, you will
protect my wife and children." I promised it
to him; for I being a married man at that
time, I had little thought that it would ever
be in my power to perform it, for my wife
lived at Chatham and his at Portsmouth, and
I only promised him to satisfy his mind; and,
poor soul, he died very shortly after I had
left him. And the next morning, the first
thing that I did was to acquaint the captain
of poor Ellis's last wish, and the captain very
kindly granted it; and we took him on shore
in the bar boat, and he was buried in the
English burial-ground at Oporto.

We stayed off Portugal till February,
when we were relieved by the "Belvidera"
frigate. And we went to Lisbon, and here
we laid till March, when orders came out
from England for our ship to proceed to
Plymouth, to refit our ship, to attend upon the
Queen, who was going that summer to the
Continent to see her friends. We arrived in
Plymouth by the latter part of April; and
after we had refitted our ship, we went round
to Portsmouth, to take the state barge on board,
in order to attend upon Queen Adelaide;
and from Portsmouth we went to the Nore,
where we laid till the Queen came down from
London in her yacht. And from there we
went to Helvoetsluys, on the coast of Holland;
and after landing the Queen, we went back to
Sheerness, where we took in stores for the
flag-ship at Lisbon. And on the 23rd day of
August we sailed from the Nore, and went
down to the Downs; and on the 26th day of
August, at three o'clock in the morning, we
got underweigh from the Downs, with the wind
about north-north-east. And a little after six
o'clock in the morning, being just below
Dover, we had the misfortune to run the
"Chameleon " revenue-cutter down; and out
of seventeen men and officers on board of her,
we could only save two men and two boys.
Though our ship was hove to instantly, and
our quarter boats down, we could not save
more; so there were thirteen poor souls
drowned. We staid by the spot some time
afterwards, but we could see no more of anything
belonging to her. And we proceeded
down to Plymouth, and there we had a court-
martial upon our captain and officers, and,
our captain was honourably acquitted; but
our third lieutenant was dismissed the service,
and all hands on board were very
sorry for it, for he was a very good man.
And after the court-martial was over we
sailed for Santander, on the coast of Spain,
where we arrived on the 1st of October; but
it being a very bad roadstead for ships to lay
in, in winter time, we went down to a place
called Passages, and there we got our ship in
and moored her. But we found that our ship
struck at low water, and we were obliged to
go from there to Santander again; and we
went into Santander harbour, and there we
lay snug enough. And our seamen and marines
went round to Passages, and they built a fortification
which they called Lord John Hay's
Fort in honour of our good captain. We laid
in Santander till the latter part of 1836, for
we sailed from Santander the 27th day of
December, to go home to England to be
paid off; and we arrived at Portsmouth the
4th day of January, 1837. And as our ship
was ordered to be sent round to Chatham to
be paid off, about twenty petty officers and
men volunteered to join the "North Star,"
twenty-eight, for she was commissioned for
our old captain, who was left out on the coast
of Spain as commodore; and I was one that
joined the "North Star," for I intended, if I
could, to stay along with my old captain. I
had not been on board of the "North Star"
above a month, when the "Princess Charlotte"
was commissioned at Portsmouth, and the