the very gravest consequences if I were candid with them.
But this, surely, must be so plain that it is idle to go on insisting on
it.

The fine weather, the golden issue that was to attend our successful
navigation, the satisfactory behaviour of the schooner, put us into a
high good-humour with one another; and when it came to my collecting all
the clothes in the after cabins and distributing them among the three
men, I thought Billy Pitt and Cromwell would have gone mad with delight.
To the best of my recollection the apparel that had been left us by the
American captain (who, as you know, had cleared the forecastle of the
clothes there) consisted of several coats of cut velvet, trimmed with
gold and silver lace, some frocks of white drab with large plate
buttons, brocade waistcoats of blue satin and green silk, crimson and
other coloured cloth breeches, along with some cloaks, three-corner
hats, black and white stockings, a number of ruffled shirts, and other
articles, of which I recollect the character, though my ignorance of the
costumes of that period prevents me from naming them.

Any one acquainted with the negro's delight in coloured clothes will
hardly need to be told of the extravagant joy raised in the black
breasts of Cromwell and Pitt by my distribution of this fine attire. The
lace, to be sure, was tarnished, and some of the colours faded, but all
the same the apparel furnished a brave show; and such was the avidity
with which the poor creatures snatched at the garments as I offered them
first to one and then another, that I believe they would have been
perfectly satisfied with the clothes alone as payment for their
services. I made this distribution on the quarter-deck, or little poop,
rather, that all might be present: Wilkinson was at the tiller, and
appeared highly delighted with the bundle allotted him, saying that he
might reckon upon a hearty welcome from his wife when she came to know
what was in his chest. The negroes were wild to clothe themselves at
once; I advised them to wait for the warm weather, but they were too
impatient to put on their fine feathers to heed my advice. They ran
below, and were gone half an hour, during which time I have no doubt
they put on all they had; and when at last they returned, their
appearance was so exquisitely absurd that I laughed till I came near to
suffocating. Each negro had tied a silver laced hat on to his woolly
head; one wore a pair of crimson, the oth