lity of their incoherent and confused aggregate, that, on our awaking, few of the hovering forms of such as were latest reflected on the sensorium, can with any distinctness be traced. But in the example, among others, of long calms at sea, fancy has either to weave her web from materials before collected, or to supply others which may be stored in the worst-provided of the cells. The mind not having been otherwise than intellectually employed during the day, in the absence of all the external objects she would cheerfully have embraced, seeks a compensation at night, and, culling from her magazine the choicest of its treasures, forms images, which, although ideal, rival in congruity and perspicuousness those that are real. It was thus, that, during our wearisome detention in the Gulf-stream, I was favoured by dreams, the interesting particulars of which I could have accurately written down at breakfast-time, and several of which, if I had been born a Frenchman, in the true spirit of that nation, I might have introduced into a " Recueil choisi de pièces galantes."

The calms were succeeded by gentle breezes, which having freshened by degrees into a brisk and steady gale, we were at length wafted to the anxiously desired port. We made the high land of Neversink; passed Sandy Hook, at the entrance of the river of New York; anchored in the evening of the 10th of March, 1777, off Gravesend, in Long Island; and arrived at New York early the following morning, after a passage of precisely fourteen weeks, during which we had not seen any intermediate land. Several of our convoy had, as the safest expedient, wind and weather considered, been to the West Indies, and there refitted these we found lying in the harbour, as if to verify the old proverb, that "the farthest way about is the nearest way home.”

It is said that certain dogs, with the particular breed of which I am unacquainted, but which must have been found useful at sea, in cases where a bad reckoning has been kept, and chronometers not provided, scent the land at a great, nay, almost inconceivable distance. My companions and myself snuffed its balmy fragrance; and, longing to taste its sweets, obtained permission to visit the shore shortly after

the ship had anchored. But before I touch briefly on our ramble in Long Island, and on the entertainment we met with there, it will be right to say something of our "bill of fare" on board, during the latter part of our voyage. Our stock of tea and sugar being expended, our breakfast-substitute was gruel, with a slice of butter, the primitive rancidity of which was any thing but corrected by a change of climate, thrown into it to relieve its mawkish taste. Hosts of the insects called weevils had taken possession of the biscuit, and required some effort to dislodge. The cheese was not of the kind called Suffolk-bang, which keeps well, and is best cut with a hatchet, it having been sometime dis used in the navy; but of a skim-milk quality too feeble to resist putrefaction. The ship-beef may be passed over as too common to deserve a place in these annals; but the pork, unlike the heteroclite substance of Hostess Quickly, who was taxed by the fat knight with being "neither fish nor flesh," having been eured on the Irish coast, where the pigs are said to establish their fond domain, and to feed on whatever the waters, in their impetuous course, may chance to throw up, was as fishy to the taste as the flesh of a sea-gull. My guardship-debauch having given me a fixed aversion to spirits and water, vulgarly called grog, when the ship-beer was no longer abroach, I surrendered to my messmates my daily allowance of rum, and confined myself at my meals to the pure element, if pure that can be called, which gave out a squalid fetor that would have nauseated à chambermaid if she had had to empty it into her slop-pail, and was of as deep a tinge as if it had served to rince a hatter's cauldron. It was pleasant, however, when we were on a scanty allowance of this delectable fluid, to observe the seamen, oppressed with thirst, while the frigate was in the trolly-lollies, as they term it, that is, rolling to and fro in the Gulf-stream, form an evening party to beguile the marine-centinel planted over the water-butt at the fore part of the quarterdeck; taking advantage of the nonchalance of the officers on watch, during this interval of comparative repose, while some, collected on the gangway, drew his attention to a bewitching tale,

others on the main-deck below, provided with a gimlet and a spill, tapped the butt, and filled their cans.

Instead of uncivilized Indians dwelling in their wigwams, and the wild scenery fancy had pictured, we found, on landing, buildings and cultivated grounds much resembling those of our own "błest isle." As we penetrated into the interior, the similitude was still more striking; for, with the exception of an occasional plantation of maize, and a few black faces that bespoke a slavish condition, all was characteristically British. The population was not purely so, as we found or inquiry; but the descendants of the early Dutch settlers, having sunk their national character into the aggregated mass, were only distinguishable from their neighbours by speaking among themselves the language of their progenitors. We bounded like kids over pleasantly diversified tracts of hill and dale; and after a ramble of two hours, returning toward the shore, demanded refreshments at a farm-house. The mistress, whom we were to consider as our landlady, it being then the custom, in the absence of taverns, to entertain strangers at the farm-houses, was not long in providing a breakfast of tea, coffee, buttered toast, bacon, and eggs. Our demands on her were so unceasing, and of such a magnitude, that she must have supposed our provisions on board to have been expended, and that we were laying in a store for a long cruize. While the goodnatured soul expressed her pleasure at being enabled to gratify our almost insatiable cravings, we threw a glance, from time to time, not without emotion, on her pretty, bashful daughters. Contrasting our present cheer, which the exercise we had taken in a salubrious air made still more inviting, with that on board, to which, after having passed the night in a foul and damp atmosphere, we listlessly seated ourselves-not to appease hunger-for to that we were strangers-but to support nature-I would ask whether those who suffer these privations, setting aside the perils to which they are exposed, and the toils they have to endure, do not earn more than the bread they eat?

The success of the British cruizers then on the station, which was announced to us by the daily arrival of their prizes in port, held out very flat

tering prospects, which were speedily realized. We sailed for Delaware Bay; and, during an absence of less than seven weeks, were present at the capture of nearly twenty American and French vessels. Such a state of maritime warfare was never before witnessed, and will never perhaps be seen again, nearly all the force and means of annoyance being on one side. The Congress had not as yet equipped any ships of war; and from the privateers we had so little to dread, that the captain of our frigate had, in the command of one of the smallest class, beaten off an entire flotilla of them some months before. We were, therefore, not under any apprehension of falling in with, and having to encounter, a superior foree, or what is jocularly called " a Scotch prize;" but had much to hope, and nothing to fear.

On the day following that of our departure, we captured a French brig from Martinique bound to Philadel phia: finding that there was but little chance of her reaching her destined port, she did not give us much trouble to chace, but very politely met us half-way. The circuitous route she had taken to shun our cruizers, joined to adverse winds, had reduced her crew, and several merchant-passengers, to straits forcibly illustrative of the miseries attendant on a navigation in troubled seas. For some time past their daily allowance of food had been confined to half a biscuit each, their other provisions having been utterly expended: it is true that molasses, which might have afforded some nutriment, constituted a part of her cargo; but how were they to allay the thirst it would have provoked, when the water on board was as scarce as the bread? It was an affecting spectacle to observe them, when they found that the cooks were preparing the dinner they were to share with the ship's company, while the countenance of each beamed with gladness, hastily devour the portion which, but for our rencounter, must have served them for the day.

Our next capture presented us with an agreeable case of somnambulism. At three in the morning, a blazing light, apparently close to us, was discerned through a dense fog: the helm was instantly put up, and in two minutes we were along-side of an American sloop from St Eustatia bound to

Philadelphia. No sooner had the crew been brought on board the frigate, than they assailed the cabin-boy, and would have handled him very roughly, if we had not interfered. Having, it may be conjectured, his mind strong ly impressed with his customary morning-task, he had risen in his sleep, had struck a light, and kindled the woodshavings he had laid overnight in the grate for cooking. But for this sudden illumination, our Yankee guests might have taken their breakfast in their own way on board the sloop, instead of being indebted to the tarnation tories, as they styled us, for one they could little relish.

The instruction given to the cruizers was either to burn, or scuttle and sink the smaller craft, after taking out, as prudence dictated, the most valuable parts of their cargoes. A sufficient number of hands could not be spared to send into port what would yield but little profit; at the same time, that, by this measure, the Americans, who were straining every nerve to procure West India and other produce, together with warlike implements and stores, would be cramped in their means of transport, it being well known that they had agents at New York for the purchase of prize-vessels. Having delivered ours of a few puncheons of rum, as we had caught her in a blaze, she was sentenced to be burnt.

Scarcely a morning passed but we were roused at day-break by the shrill pipes of the boatswain and his mates, to announce a sail a-head, on the weather-bow, on the lee-bow, &c.; and never did sportsman rejoice more than ourselves at having his game in view. The idlers, as they are called on shipboard, because they do not partake of the active duties of seamanship, how ever some among them may be occasionally occupied by more serious tasks, sprang forward to the forecastle, each provided with his telescope, to watch for the object which, now faintly discerned from the mast-head, would soon, if our superiority in sailing should permit, afford us a profitable solution of the problem of the convexity of the earth. It being our decided intention to recreate ourselves on our

return to New York, we hailed each new success as contributing to the means; and it was well for us that these successes were multiplied. At that time the market was so glutted with prizes and their cargoes, that, on our afterward coming to a reckoning with the agent, our expectations were baulked of more than the one-half. To proceed now to a survey of the expenses that were likely to be incurred in these projected scenes of mirthful intercourse:-In Great Britain each mercantile commodity has its graduated value, from a farthing to a pound: at New York the estimate was made by the dollar and its greater divisions. Our boatswain had been on shore to purchase what he called the vigitables, meaning the necessaries of life. On his returning on board, he was chided for having stayed beyond his leave; and his excuse was somewhat whimsical. He had not dared, he said, to ask the hour, for and here he drew from his pocket a pair of scissars, and a claspknife, both of the coarsest Birminghain manufacture on his stepping into a store, it had cost him a quarter of a dollar to open his mouth, and half a dollar to shut it. At the tavern, a beefsteak, and a flock-bed laid on chairs, in an apartment where at least a dozen inmates snored in concert, were priced at a dollar each, or eight shillings New York currency ;* a bottle of port-wine, free of duty, was rated ten shillings; and every other requisite or luxury we could ask for was proportionately dear. A basin of pea-soup, purely farinaceous, cost a quarter of a dollar, and on one occasion might have cost the life of a meritorious land-officer, whose private affairs had brought him from his regiment to New York. It is well known that this culinary preparation, when not properly qualified, is apt to generate flatulencies; it may, therefore, be conjectured by some, that our hero, having come off his journey hungry and fatigued, and with his stomach inflated by wind, was, by the effect of this sudden additament, in danger of bursting explosively like an overcharged musket; but such was not the fact. A sea-officer, or, if the reader will needs have it so, a sea-brute, with

out feeling or discretion, suspecting his poverty, which would not allow him to keep pace with the current expenses, taxed him in the coffee-room, most perseveringly and provokingly, with making a paltry dinner; the debate at length ran so high, that it threatened to terminate in a duel, as was the case some years ago in Paris, on a similar occasion. A French officer, arriving on a congé from a distant province, entered the cafe militaire, and called for a bavaroise au lait,* of the value of six sous, at an hour when the badauds, or Paris cocknies, were mostly occupied in making a solid repast. Another officer, observing this, placed himself at his side, and, in terms too gross to bear translation, reproached him with the sorry dinner he was taking. His bitter taunts were no longer to be endured; the parties sallied forth, and the one who had received the provocation fell, booted and spurred, with the bavaroise on his stomach.

What shall I say of you, harmless natives of the island of Nantucket, whose mild and beneficent creed had instructed you to shun individual strife, and to shudder at the calamities of a warfare in which you were never actively engaged? Would that I could have softened efficaciously those which befel you, at a time when the only offering I could make you, was to console you, and to share your griefs! We were sailing up Delaware Bay, when a vessel was descried a-head, making towards us as if we had been "friends." When within reach of gun-shot, she obeyed the signal, and lowered her sails. She was boarded; but scarcely had the officer, with his boat's crew, taken possession, when the frigate struck on the Brandy-wine shoal. The utmost consternation prevailed on board; the water was started from the butts of the upper tier; other means were resorted to, to lighten her and lessen her draught, to the end that, by backing the sails, she might free the shoal; it was even proposed to throw over-board the guns. In this extremity, the boat's crew had been sent back to the frigate, where their presence was required, the officer remaining on board the prize, the Raven schooner of Nantucket. It should here be observed, that the inhabitants of

that island belonged exclusively to the society of Friends more commonly called Quakers. Jenkins, the master, raised the officer in his arms, and held him up as if he had been an infant:"Friend," said he, "I have only to throw thee overboard, and return to Philadelphia; but I will not take advantage of thy distress. I will go on board the frigate, and act the part of a friend, by using my best endeavours to free her of her peril." His offer was cheerfully accepted; and, by his help and intelligence, that was done which might not otherwise have been accomplished; the frigate once more floated in deep water.

Friend Jenkins was a man of an uncommonly large stature, and athletic make; but mild and gentle in his deportment. The feats of strength he displayed on board the frigate, entitled him to a place in the foremost rank of those whose surprising muscular powers have acquired them celebrity. Coffin, the mate, possessed a vigorous mind, and, of the two, was the most interesting. Without money in his pocket, he had landed at Boston, in his early youth, and, penetrating into the interior, had spent several years among the Indian tribes of both Americas, studying their manners, and conforming himself to their usages. He had visited the greater portion of these tribes; and his details respecting them, and what he had seen besides, were a constant fund of entertainment to us, while he was pining inwardly with grief. It is related of the original Harlequin of the French scene, that, having become hypochondriacal, he consulted a physician, not of his acquaintance, who recommended to him to repair to the theatre, and see Carolan. "I am," said he," the Carolan by whom all Paris is amused, and who am myself consuming with melancholy." Thus it was with friend Coffin, who still wore an air of tranquil content, while he stifled his sorrows in the efforts he made to contribute to our amusement. Estranged from the comforts and conveniences of a civilized state, by the erratic life he had led among savage hordes, custom had made him as hardy as a Bedouin-Arab; his bed was a sack filled with straw, in which, laid on the planks, he buried himself to the chin.

The small island of Nantucket, lying in the vicinity of Rhode Island, is too barren to grow corn; its peaceful and industrious inhabitants are there fore obliged to procure elsewhere the prime necessary of life, by bartering against it the produce of their coasts. The schooner had taken to Philadelphia a cargo of dried fish, and was returning with a lading of flour. So little did friend Jenkins, in his simplicity, suspect that we should detain him, on learning his errand, and the necessities of his fellow-islanders, by which it had been prompted, that he had persuaded himself he had merely to relate the artless tale, to be allowed to proceed. He did not dilate on the particular service he had rendered us, however he might be sensible that, but for him, our best accommodation might have been sought within the narrow limits of our boats. "The flour," he said, " can be conveniently stowed in the frigate; let it be taken out, and permit me and my crew to return to Nantucket, with a paper addressed to the vessels of your nation we may chance to fall in with on our way. The schooner is old and crazy; she will not tempt them, and will fetch but little at New York; while the advantage, for which we shall be ever thankful, will to us be great." A humane feeling, not to speak of gratitude for a benefit received, might have yielded to this suggestion; a portion, at least, of the cargo might have been generously added to the boon; and the schooner might have been reckoned among the worthless craft directed to be scuttled or burnt; but the barbarous usage of war ordered it otherwise. She had sailed from an island, the inhabitants of which professed, it is true, to be in amity with all mankind, but whose position brought them into a more strict relation with those who were hostile to us; she had carried a supply to an enemy's port, and was to be delivered over to the court of ViceAdmiralty on our arrival at New York. Our stay there was short; but, on our return from the next cruize, we anxiously hastened on shore, to inquire after our "friends," and the captive crew. Men of Nantucket! honest Quakers! it was in vain that you assembled daily on the beach, to watch the approach of your companions, with the promised succour. And you, wives, children, and relatives of the long ex

pected "friends!" it was in vain that you mingled with the throng, while as yet a gleam of illusive hope burst on you, and you did not forebode the extent of the calamity that was to befal you. Never were you to witness the return of the well beloved, and to press them to your bosoms!—all— yes, all!-were swept off by the contagious fever which then raged in the jail of New York.

Among our prizes was a brig-of-war, the Raleigh, which had been just fitted for sea, and, as her officers informed us, bore the first commission issued by Congress. She was to make a trial of her strength in a cruize off the island of Martinique; and we captured her within the Bay of Chesapeak, precisely five hours after she had sailed from Baltimore, in Maryland, on which aɛcount our sailors christened her," the five hours' frolic." This was not the only fatality that hung over her, as the sequel will show. The captain and the two lieutenants, having very obsequiously surrendered their swords on the quarter-deck; the former, a fine young man, was conducted at midnight to the great cabin, to become the inmate of our commander. Several of his brother officers, provided they became acquainted with this, must have taken high umbrage, and have condemned it as an act of over civility to a rebel, who, according to them, was entitled to no other than the harshest treatment, and whose partizans would, in their rooted opinion, never have an opportunity to retaliate. They were tender towards the traders, but relentless to those of any note in the armed vessels that fell into their hands.

Who are you, sir?" said, much about the same time, in a stern tone of voice, an officer of this persuasion who commanded a consort ship. "The captain."-" Put a broom in his hand; he will make an excellent sweeper.""And you, sir?" to a spruce gentleman, who, fearful of being plundered, had clad himself in his best suit.— "A merchant passenger."-" Hand him over to the cook, to scour the coppers." And this was still the usage; and thus the interrogatories were addressed to the selected few.

"How do you do, Mr —? I'm glad to see you," was the salutation of old Stephen Turmidge, one of our quarter-masters, to an inferior officer of the brig. "It is now some years