that I should escape, and it will only be necessary to state of my subsequent residence in the water, that I prayed humbly and heartily, and that three hours, after this, about dusk, when hope was nearly quitting me, I heard the hail of a boat, and was picked up by the good ship Nancy, bound for Buenos Ayres. Capt. Clark, who shewed me every kindness and attention that one Christian could do, to another. R.

PART II.

As I advanced in my voyage, I had daily more reason to be thankful for the great interest taken in me by Captain Clark, who condoled with me on the hard treatment I had met with in the world, of which he himself too was a singular instance, having been captured twice by Barbary Corsairs; once he escaped from their prisons by stratagem, and in the other case, he was liberated by a British frigate. Most truly is it the case, that they who have met with misfortune are ever the readiest to assist others in similar circumstances. But one thing I cannot forbear relating, inasmuch as it must be of great benefit to mankind, that it should be known. In consequence of his being a Freemason, Captain Clark was received in Africa with great distinction, and was assisted in his escape by some brethren. I have also, in many situations, since that period, derived effectual assistance in a similar way, when much in want of it, and no prospect of aid presented itself. On my arrival at Buenos Ayres I was forthwith despatched to the house of the British Consul, who took down my deposition on oath as to the circumstances of the piracy I had witnessed, and been indeed partially, concerned in, but with every particular I could set forth as to the persons concerned therein. He likewise sealed up and forwarded to London the broach I found. In the above statement, I was compelled to detail all I knew of my own history, and in some measure implicated my guardian, whom I suspected at bottom to be little better than he should be, and to have behaved fraudulently to myself especially. I however, did not completely escape all suspicion. I had by my own account acknowledged staying in the vessel after she had committed piracy, and when I might have made my escape; but the state in which I was found at sea, as testified on oath by the ship's crew of the Nancy plainly proved that I was no favorite of these vagabonds. But as all these things required to be fully cleared up it was determined that I should be sent to England, in a man of

war after she had been out on a cruise after this pirate. The Britomart was the vessel, and I was required to proceed likewise, but after a month's voyage, we returned without success, it being exceedingly improbable that the ship would have remained in those latitudes after the commission of such a crime; not that they deemed any witnesses to the fact to be in existence, but their vessel was liable to be overhauled and questioned, and perhaps some of the property recognised, or at least they had but a poor chance of disposing of their spoil in the vicinity of those places, where it had been plundered. The pirate had in all probability doubled Cape Horn, and gone to the Spanish Americas. As further attempts to capture her were considered useless at present, we sailed from Buenos Ayres, and touching at Rio Janeiro and Madeira, arrived off St. Helena. At Madeira search was made for some of the individuals belonging to the bark we plundered, but none were to be found; but the people and authorities of the Island, in whose recollections the circumstances were fully fixed, corroborated my statement of the affair, and the boatman too who took me off to the vessel, testified to their having nearly left me behind, and the accusation of desertion made against me by Groves; all of which tended to exculpate me from any very deep implication in his schemes. On our arrival at Portsmouth, I was again examined by a Magistrate, and my deposition compared with the former one, which, as both were true, tallied exactly. Suspicions were so strongly excited against my guardian, in this matter, that he was apprehended and his house searched; he had, I understand, received some news of what had occurred, and in his house no papers tending to criminate him were found. But something of great consequence to me ensued thereon; papers were discovered which he had wilfully secreted, which proved me to be possessor of two thousand and odd pounds, the interest of which he had drawn, and given me no account of. When I addressed him on this subject, he shamelessly gave me a long account of expenses incurred on my behalf, and declared that I still owed him a balance; finding, that I was no longer such a greenhorn as to submit to his chicanery, and that I threatened to put the matter into a lawyer's hands, he frankly offered me four hundred pounds, besides my own cash which I had inherited, and requested a receipt in full. I agreed directly and wished him well of his bargain. He expressed himself glad to get rid of me for good and all. I did the same with regard to himself, and thus we parted mutually satisfied, which is the first time we ever did so; and the last. Of him I heard nothing more for many years.

It was not considered necessary to detain me on the piracy case; my confession alone stood against me, and that allowed of

a very lenient construction; it was however, deemed necessary to hold me to bail to give my evidence in case any of the depredators should be apprehended; this I readily settled by deposi ting part of my ready cash, which I was somewhat at a loss, what to do with. I still had a considerable sum of money by me, and I was in London, and what was worse still knew nothing of the place, nor of the world either (having been all my life at sea) nor had I any person to whom I could apply for advice. After some wandering up and down the streets, and feeling the cravings of hunger, I thought it best to enter an eating house, where I sat down and ordered my dinner. Towards the conclusion of that ceremony, four well dressed gentlemanly persons came in, and seeing the room full, appeared disappointed at not finding accommodation, and looked wistfully at the half empty box in which no person but myself was seated. The waiter proposed if I would permit, that the gentlemen should take up their position in that place. Common civility would have prompted the offer, had I not been asked; and so they took their places. I did not know the ways of the world, and although I was rather astonished to hear them call for pork, pickled cabbage and porter, I supposed it might be fashionable to do so, as well as to interlard their conversation with oaths, which they did very plentifully. When they had finished their repast, they commenced talking about some great bargains they had purchased, at the auction of my Lord Somebody's effects, and proceeded to expatiate on them. All parties were more particularly loud in their praises of a gold watch and seals, bought by one of the gentlemen for a trifle, and one offered him forty and another fifty guineas for it. The watch was handed round and declared perfection as to make and manufacture, but the owner refused to part with it, though he asked me casually if I wanted such an article. I had none of my own and was not wanting in cash, and replied that I did not wish him to part with anything he valued so much, but that I did intend to buy one. The gentleman with all civility declared, that my politeness in offering him a seat had so obliged him, that he would willingly part with it to me, for what his opposite neighbour had offered him, namely thirty guineas. He who had offered forty, exclaimed against the preference given to a stranger and was highly offended. I again declined the bargain, and begged that the clamorous gentleman should take it. On this the owner peremptorily declined, and begged me to retain it, as the Lord Somebody, had more of the same kind, and. he doubted not his friend would be able to please himself at a similar price. I thanked the gentlemen, who all acquiesced in this, and pulling out my bank notes paid the cash. My friends eyed the handful of notes astonishedly, and seemed inclined to

sit down again, but after a whisper among themselves, departed. Half an hour after this, the keeper of the house stepped up and asked me if I knew the men, who had dined in the same box. On my replying in the negative, he informed me they were great and notorious sharpers, who took persons in. The result was evident. My thirty guinea watch proved to be Jew's gold, and not worth fifteen shillings, and I hope I may be forgiven my suspicion, but I am strangely mistaken, if my host himself was much better than his guests, or he might have told me their nature before. This specimen of London, however, was sufficient for me, and I rejoiced that I had not been a loser to a greater amount. I considered how I should act, and resolved accordingly. My friend, my only real friend who died, the second Mate of the vessel, left a widow, whom I had formerly known in his life time, she was a simple, good honest creature and friendly too; to her I resolved to apply. She resided in Clerkenwell, to which place I hired a coach and proceeded. She received me with much good-will, and with her daughter, a pretty girl of nineteen, did all in her power to make me comfortable. As she maintained herself principally by letting lodgings, I was a welcome guest, and a happy one. By her advice, 1 redrew the money I had deposited as bail, which was a thousand pounds, and put it out to interest, getting another person to stand my security by giving him a collateral bond. It is not to be wondered at that situated as I was, I now for the first time felt myself perfectly at home, and that I wished to take unto myself a partner for life, and that when so nice a girl as my hostess's daughter was my constant companion, I should become attached. I was the worst hand in the world at courtship, and must be a much worse one at detailing its history, which is again altogether foreign to mine, and I shall therefore pass it over by saying, that when two honest hearts agree the process is short, and so it was with us, and we were married.

I now for some years lived a quiet and very happy life, respected abroad and loved at home; my wife was every thing I wished her, and she brought me a family. With a family, however, came expenses, and they were rather more than my income would easily admit of; and besides this, I was anxious that my children should enjoy that, of which I had not the benefit, and ever felt the want of; I mean a sound and useful education. Being familiar therefore, with maritime pursuits, I entered into some speculations in the coal and coasting trade, which though not involving a great amount of capital produced quick and certain returns. In this business Heaven prospered my efforts, and I was in the receipt of a sum of money amply suf ficient for all my wants and wishes. Though owning several

vessels in partnership, I seldom had occasion to attend personally to my concerns as far as shipping itself was concerned; my office for freight and passage was my daily employment, and in it I obtained a good name for punctuality, despatch and general respectability.

Nothing, however, in this world is unmixed with pain, and thus it fell out in this situation of mine, though having almost everything I could in reason wish for, I got into an affair which for some time caused me great annoyance. There are some persons, who can never be content with managing their own concerns, but must be perpetually prying into those of their neighbours. Next door to me lived a person of this sort, who was for ever pestering me with his interrogation and advice. The reader sees that I had reason to keep concealed some of my past history, which though not absolutely criminal, was faulty, and could not be well made known. When my inquisitive neighbour who was a baronet called Sir Simon -, perceived my hesitation to confide my affairs to his discretion, he forthwith pursued the enquiry until he had made himself master of the whole. For a long time he did not cease to persecute me with hints of what he knew, but he forbore to render it as public, as his tongue and that of his tattling wife could do; but an unfortunate dispute respecting a party ball, blew the slumbering embers into fire, and he one day, when a friend proposed me for a parish office, asked if we were to have pirates and smugglers as authorities over us. There were not wanting damned good natured friends to bring this to my ears, and as I disregarded the calumny for a long while, I found my friends begin to grow cold and some to drop off altogether. Measures must be taken to counteract this, or I, a prosperous man and one of good repute, should never have been able to hold my head high again. I therefore brought an action for slander against the Baronet, to which he put in a justification, and so the point must be decided if I was really a pirate and smuggler or not.

The day of trial came on at Guildhall; we had each of us good Counsel, and our neighbours flocked to the tribunal to hear the case, on which so much, that I held valuable, depended. My counsel eloquently addressed the Jury on the hardship of my case; that I was called upon to prove a negative; that I laboured under a great difficulty in not having been regularly put upon my trial and acquitted, as I doubtless should have been, inasmuch as the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty had not only not brought me before a Court, but actually bound me over to give evidence should the real pirates be ever apprehended. He then went over the statement of the case in general, how I had been compelled to remain with, but never acted as, a pi