BY
SANCTIONED BY THE AUTHOR FOR CONTINENTALCIRCULATION.
LEIPZIG
BERNH. TAUCHNITZ JUN.
1846.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVII.
We cruise off Hispaniola—Capture a French Ship—Continue ourCruise—Make a Nocturnal Attack upon a Rich Planter’s Dwelling—Arerepulsed with Loss.
To Mistress ——.
Respected Madam,
In compliance with your request I shall now transcribe fromthe journal of my younger days some portions of my adventurouslife. When I wrote, I painted the feelings of my heart withoutreserve, and I shall not alter one word, as I know you wish tolearn what my feelings were then, and not what my thoughts maybe now. They say that in every man’s life, however obscure hisposition may be, there would be a moral found, were it trulytold. I think, Madam, when you have perused what I am aboutto write, you will agree with me, that, from my history, bothold and young may gather profit, and, I trust, if ever it shouldbe made public, that, by divine permission, such may be theresult. Without further preface, I shall commence with a narrativeof my cruise off Hispaniola, in the Revenge privateer.
The Revenge mounted fourteen guns, and was commandedby Captain Weatherall, a very noted privateer’s-man. Onemorning at daybreak we discovered a vessel from the masthead,and immediately made all sail in chase, crowding every stitch of[Pg 2]canvas. As we neared, we made her out to be a large ship,deeply laden, and we imagined that she would be an easy prize,but as we saw her hull more out of the water she proved to be wellarmed, having a full tier of guns fore and aft. As it afterwardsproved, she was a vessel of 600 tons burden, and mountedtwenty-four guns, having sailed from St. Domingo, and beingbound to France.
She had been chartered by a French gentleman (and a mostgallant fellow we found him), who had acquired a large fortunein the West-Indies, and was then going home, hav