r Commanders
and the Governor and Corregidor of Guayaquil, sundry proceedings took
place that would not very well have squared with the public ideas of
what is due to the Fair Sex just treated of; but I declare that I had
neither Art nor Part in them, and that I am entirely Free from any
Responsibility that Censure might cast on the Authors of Cruel
Disturbances; for early in the Attack I was hit by a Musket-ball in the
chest, and borne senseless to our Boats. That I did my Duty bravely, my
Commander was good enough to say, and the whole Ship's Company to admit.
I was carried away to the _Marquis_, and for a long time lay between
Hawk and Buzzard; for a smart Fever came about the third day, like
Burgundy wine after Sherris, and I was for awhile quite off my head and
Raving about Old Times;--about Captain Night and the Blacks, and Maum
Buckey and her Negro Washerwomen, and my Campaign against the Maroons,
and some Other Things that had befallen me during those fifteen years
which I have chosen to leave a Blank in my life, and which I scorn to
deny did--some of them--lie heavy on my Conscience. All these were mixed
up with the old Gentleman at Gnawbit's, and my Lord Lovat with his head
off, and my Grandmother in Hanover Square; so that I doubt whether those
who tended me knew what to make of me. There was some difficulty too as
to medical attendance, for we had cashiered our Surgeon--that is to
say, he had run away at Grande in the Brazils, to marry a brown
Portugee woman; and the Doctor of Physic he was all for Herbal
Treatment, demanding Succory, Agrimony, Asarabacca, Knights-pound-wort,
Cuckoo-point, Hulver-bush, with Alehoof, and other things not to be
found in this part of the World. And Captain Blokes said that he knew
nothing half so good for a Gunshot Wound as cold Rum-and-Water; and
between the two I had like to have died, but all were very kind to me,
even to extracting the Ball with a Pair of Snuffers; and a great clumsy
thing the said missile was, being, I verily believe, part of a
Door-hinge which these clumsy Spanish Brutes had broken off short to
cram into their Guns; and yet it might have gone worse with me had it
been a smooth round cast Bullet, and drilled a clean Wound right through
my Body.

As I was coming round, even to the taking of some Sangaree and Chicken
Panada (for we were now very well provided with Live Stock), the
Captain said to me: "You ha'n't murdered a man, Brother, have you?"

I repli