upon
the ballast of the vessel, at times ruminating upon the events of the
action, upon the death of our gallant commander, upon the loss of our
vessel, of so many of our comrades, and of our liberty. After some
time the surgeon, by the order of the French commander, came down to
dress my wounds. He treated me with the greatest barbarity. As he
twisted about my broken limb I could not help crying at the anguish
which he caused me. He compelled me to silence by blows and
maledictions, wishing I had broken my rascally neck rather than he
should have been put to the trouble of coming down to dress me.
However, dress me he did, out of fear of his captain, who, he knew
well, would send round to see if he had executed his orders, and then
he left me with a kick in the ribs by way of remembrance. Shortly
afterwards the vessels separated. Fourteen of us, who were the most
severely hurt, were left in the Revenge, which was manned by an
officer and twenty Frenchmen, with orders to take her into
Port-au-Paix. The rest of our men were put on board of the French
privateer, who sailed away in search of a more profitable adventure.

About an hour after they had made sail on the vessel, the officer who
had charge of her, looking down the hatchway, and perceiving my naked
and forlorn condition, threw me a pair of trousers, which had been
rejected by the French seamen as not worth having, and a check shirt,
in an equally ragged condition, I picked up in the hold; this, with a
piece of old rope to tie round my neck as a sling for my broken arm,
was my whole wardrobe. In the evening I gained the deck, that I might
be refreshed by the breeze, which cooled my feverish body and somewhat
restored me.

We remained in this condition for several days, tortured with pain,
but more tortured, perhaps, by the insolence and bragging of the
Frenchmen, who set no bounds to their triumph and self-applause. Among
those who had charge of the prize were two, one of whom had my watch
and the other my ring; the first would hold it to me grinning, and
asking if Monsieur would like to know what o'clock it was; and the
other would display the ring, and tell me that his sweetheart would
value it when she knew that it was taken from a conquered Englishman.
This was their practice every day, and I was compelled to receive
their gibes without venturing a retort.

On the eleventh day after our capture, when close to Port-au-Paix, and
expecting we should be at an