and on what occasion. All this information
I was able to give him, as well as the ratings of the parties; for on
more than one occasion the privateer's-men had come to him representing
themselves as petty officers when they were only common seamen on board,
and had in consequence received from him a larger advance than they were
entitled to. As soon as his accounts were pretty well made up, he asked
me whether I intended to go to England, as if so he would send me home
with all the papers and documents to the owner at Liverpool, who would
require my assistance to arrange the accounts; and, as I had had quite
enough of privateering for a time, I consented to go. About two months
after leaving the hospital, during which I had passed a very pleasant
life, and quite recovered from my wounds and injuries, I sailed for
Liverpool in the Sally and Kitty West-Indiaman, commanded by Captain
Clarke, a very violent man.

We had not sailed twelve hours before we fell in with a gale, which
lasted several days, and we kept under close-reef-topsails and
storm-staysails. The gale lasting a week raised a mountainous swell,
but it was very long and regular. On the seventh day the wind abated,
but the swell continued, and at evening there was very little wind, when
a circumstance occurred which had nearly cost me my life, as you will
acknowledge, Madam, when I relate the story to you. During the
dog-watch, between six and eight, some hands being employed in the
foretop, the other watch below at supper, and the captain and all the
officers in the cabin, I being at the helm heard a voice, apparently
rising out of the sea, calling me by name. Surprised, I ran to the side
of the ship, and saw a youth named Richard Pallant in the water going
astern. He had fallen out of the forechains, and, knowing that I was at
the helm, had shouted to me for help. I immediately called all hands,
crying, "A man overboard." The captain hastened on deck with all the
others, and ordered the helm a-lee. The ship went about, and then fell
round off, driving fast before the swell, till at last we brought her
to.

The captain, although a resolute man, was much confused and perplexed at
the boy's danger--for his friends were people of property at Ipswich,
and had confided the boy to his particular care. He ran backwards and
forwards, crying out that the boy must perish, as the swell was so high
that he dared not send a boat, for the boat could not live i