e sprung up from the S.W., and in the night a transport
with two hundred Hessian troops on board went down on our weather beam.
The shrieks of the poor fellows were distinctly heard. As it was
impossible to render them any assistance, every soul on board her
perished. In the morning the convoy were much dispersed; the gale
continuing, they were ordered to leave the fleet for their destinations.
After the gale abated the signal was made for our captain. An hour
afterwards he came back looking as black as a thundercloud. As soon as he
reached the quarter-deck he stamped with rage, and when it had nearly
subsided he informed the officers that we were to proceed to the West
Indies without delay. This was an unexpected shock to many of the officers
as well as himself, as they had left some of their clothes behind;
however, there was no remedy for this mishap. As for myself, I anticipated
a merry meeting with the many copper-coloured dignity ladies I formerly
knew, provided the land-crabs had not feasted on their delicate persons.

In the afternoon we gave a long, lingering look at the fleet, and parted
company with two other seventy-fours who were in the same scrape. Our
noble captain did not get rid of his angry looks for some days, and
actually wept at what he termed the treacherous conduct of the Admiralty.
We understood afterwards that he was under an engagement of marriage to
the sister of a nobleman, which was to have taken place in three months.
Nothing worth notice occurred during the passage, except the visit from
Neptune and his wife, and the shaving and ducking all his new
acquaintances, who were rather numerous. We saw several tropical birds,
which the sailors call boatswains, in consequence of their having one long
feather for a tail, which they term a marlin-spike--an iron instrument
sharp at one end and knobbed at the other, used in splicing ropes, etc.

The captain of marines also shot an albatross or man-of-war bird, so
called from its manner of skimming through the air after other birds,
which the seamen compare to sailing. It measured seven feet from pinion to
pinion. On the fifth week of our separation from the fleet we made the
Island of San Domingo, and on the day after anchored with the squadron in
Cape St. Nicholas mole. We found here the _Sampson_, of sixty-four guns,
the _Magicienne_ and the _Thorn_, and some transports. This mole, or
harbour, is formed by the high land of the island on the right han