nce. The Rover was
visited by multitudes of people, who pronounced her the most lucky
vessel in the harbor. Many of them, I suppose, thought her to be a
phantom ship. For myself, I felt well satisfied, as I had over two
hundred dollars per month during the three months I sailed her, on a
capital of one hundred and twenty-five dollars.

The fame of the Rover was so great that she sold for $480. The purchaser
took her up the Sound to Long Island, and laid her on shore at high
water. He then loaded her with wood by driving alongside at low water.
But when the tide rose he found her sides broken in and her hold filled
with water. My hand trembles while I write of the untimely end of the
charming sloop Rover.

CHAPTER II.

Sloop New-York.

About the first of November, 1813, having added a little to my small
capital by my late adventure in the Rover, and feeling eager to add
more, again trusting to the smiles of fickle fortune, I purchased a
small sloop called the New-York, of 28 tons burden. Soon after I sold
one-fourth of her to Messrs. T. B. & A. Cook, merchants in Catskill, and
one-half of her to two merchants in the city of New-York. They
considered it a kind of lottery adventure. One of the new owners in
New-York had correspondents in Norfolk, Virginia, who informed us of the
high prices of Northern produce in that city, and the situation of the
English squadron in Lynhaven Bay, and advised us to procure a small
vessel of light draught of water, and that by sailing in over a shoal
called the Horse-shoe, in a dark night, we might avoid coming in contact
with the enemy's fleet.

The American coast was closely blockaded by the English vessels, but
heavy gales of wind frequently drove them off the coast for a short
time, which offered some chance of making passages by keeping near the
land.

The high prices of Northern produce in Southern markets held out great
inducements to shippers to engage in exporting it. Our correspondents
at Norfolk, stated potatoes to be worth one dollar and fifty cents per
bushel; onions, sixteen dollars per hundred ropes; salt, two dollars and
fifty cents per bushel, and cheese twenty-five dollars per cwt.

We loaded the sloop with four hundred bushels potatoes, two hundred
bushels salt, three thousand four hundred and fifty ropes onions, and
eight thousand six hundred pounds of cheese; all shipped on the joint
account of the owners.

I was to purchase and sell the cargo, and w